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Your Rice Cooker Might Be Secretly Wasting Electricity – Here’s What You Need to Know

Rice cookers are one of the most beloved kitchen appliances for good reason: they’re convenient, consistent, and practically foolproof. Just add rice, water, press a button, and walk away. But here’s something most people don’t realize:

Your rice cooker might be secretly wasting electricity – even when it’s not cooking.

If you’ve been leaving your rice cooker plugged in 24/7 or using the “keep warm” setting for hours at a time, you could be adding unnecessary dollars to your electric bill—and possibly shortening the life of your appliance. Let’s break down what’s really going on and how to fix it.

The Hidden Energy Drain

Many rice cookers have a “keep warm” function that automatically kicks in after cooking finishes. While this is convenient if you’re not eating right away, the feature uses a constant flow of electricity to maintain temperature. Left on for hours, it can:

• Consume more energy than cooking itself
• Dry out your rice and affect texture
• Create a fire risk in cheap or older models
• Waste electricity even when not in use (if plugged in)

Did You Know?

Even in standby mode, some rice cookers continue to draw power just by being plugged in. This is called “phantom load” or “vampire energy”, and it quietly adds up over time—especially if you leave multiple small appliances plugged in around the kitchen.

Real-World Energy Cost Example

Let’s say your rice cooker uses 30 watts while in “keep warm” mode. If you leave it on for 8 hours a day:

• That’s 240 watt-hours (0.24 kWh) per day
• Or about 7.2 kWh per month
• At an average rate of $0.15/kWh, that’s over $13 a year—just for keeping rice warm!

Now multiply that by other appliances doing the same thing, and the energy waste starts to look more serious.