Ask your AI energy helper how it estimated the appliance's running cost

Before replacing an appliance to lower the electricity bill, I would ask the AI helper to show how it decided that appliance was expensive to run. A tidy annual cost can hide a guess about every hour of use. The University of Alaska Fairbanks' existing extension guide makes a useful distinction: the wattage on an appliance's nameplate is its maximum power draw. Actual draw depends on the setting. Its cost calculation uses average wattage, hours of use and the local electricity rate—not just the number on the label. The guide also notes that some devices draw power when switched off. I'd ask the assistant to mark each input as measured, supplied by me or assumed. If it only has the nameplate, leave the result labelled as an estimate based on that maximum, rather than present it as what my appliance actually consumed. Keep cents and dollars explicit in the rate, too. That would help me decide whether to investigate the appliance before spending money replacing it. A generic usage guess is a weak reason to throw out something that still works. This is a proposed way to check an AI answer, drawn from a guide reviewed in March 2023; it is not a test of an assistant or a claim about today's electricity prices.