Once you start getting serious about your DIY, a circular saw is an absolute no-brainer. You can use it for almost any cutting job from nice straight edges to slicing logs. It’s certainly a lot easier and more accurate than doing it by hand. These tools run at seriously fast RPMs, so what is the power consumption like?
Below we will discuss and test circular saw wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is a Circular Saw?
The average circular saw uses between 1000 and 1500 watts.
The exact number depends on the size and model of your circular saw. For example, a 6.4 inch saw uses 1200W or less, while a larger 7+ inch tool draws upto 1500W.
Generally, the difference in power consumption is simply down to the size of your equipment. Circular saws running larger blades have more powerful AC motors. Overall, most of these tools are very similar.
How to Find Out Your Circular Saw Wattage
There are 3 ways you can work out the wattage of a circular saw.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the circular saw’s specification. The watts (W) is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can simply plug it into your circular saw to get instant information.
I used one to test a circular saw which gave a live reading of 1330W when cutting at high speed.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your circular saw you can use this to find the maximum watt rating. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Circular Saw Wattage Examples
Let’s take a look at specific examples of how many watts a circular saw draws. Below is a collection of modern circular saws with their listed power ratings.
| Circular Saw Model | Power Rating (Watts) |
| Mac Allister 6.4” / 165mm Corded Circular saw | 1200 |
| Makita 6.4” / 165mm Corded Circular saw | 1050 |
| DeWalt 7.2” / 184mm Corded Circular saw | 1350 |
| Erbauer 6.4” / 165mm Corded Circular saw | 1400 |
| Bosch Mains 6.3” / 160mm Corded Circular saw | 1200 |
| Olympia 6.3” / 160mm Corded Circular saw | 1200 |
| EVOLUTION R165CCSL 6.4” / 165MM | 1200 |
| Mac Allister 7.5” / 190mm Corded Circular saw | 1500 |
As you can see, the power ratings vary between different circular saws. So you should take the time to check your own appliance.
How Much Electricity Does a Circular Saw Use?
You can use circular saw wattage to work out how much electricity it uses. Plus this can be useful in understanding how much it costs to run your circular saw.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour (Wh) is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, a circular saw drawing 1200W would use 1200Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 1200W circular saw running for 1 hour uses 1.2kWh.
In reality, you use a circular saw for seconds or minutes at a time. Let’s say you have your 1200W equipment actively working for 10 minutes a week. This would mean a circular saw uses about 200Wh or 0.2kWh electricity a week. That’s 0.86kWh a month and 10.4kWh a year.
That’s a rough electricity cost of $0.13 a month or $1.56 a year to actively use your saw for 10 minutes a week.
In reality, a professional or commercial environment might use the tools more while a home DIY user will run for much less time.
Using a Circular Saw Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your circular saw in an off-grid situation like a power outage, remote location, car, truck or similar, the information above is important. You can accurately choose the correct power equipment and work out how long it will run.
You can either use a power inverter, portable power station, or generator to generate AC electricity.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your circular saw. This ensures it will be able to deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient. To most circular saws, you will need a minimum 1500W of power capacity. Personally, I’d probably go for 2000W so the equipment is not overworked and runs any saw.
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the circular saw for the required amount of time. As we already know, it will use about 200Wh electricity for 10 minutes usage. This is the equivalent to 16.6Ah on a 12V battery.
You could also run the circular saw via an inverter connected to a car/vehicle starter battery. Make sure to keep the engine running so you don’t end up with a flat battery.
How Many Watts Does a Circular Saw Use Summary
I hope you now understand how many watts a circular saw uses.
What you’ll now know is that these power tools can guzzle a lot of power. The good news is that you only use them for a few seconds at a time. This means you won’t feel much strain on your overall electricity usage. As long as you have a big enough inverter or power station, you can easily do DIY projects off-grid. This is ideal if you are working on a project without access to the utility grid.
