An appliance control system is provided with a plurality of electrical appliances, and an appliance control apparatus. The appliance control apparatus is provided with a control unit that transmits, when receiving a power-saving instruction that indicates the total amount of power to be saved, a control signal including standardized control content that indicates the individual amount of power consumption to be saved by the individual electrical appliances, to at least one of the plurality of electrical appliances determined on the basis of the total amount of power to be saved. Each of the electrical appliances is provided with a function unit that has a plurality of operating states with different power consumption; a control instruction storage unit that has stored therein a plurality of control instructions for changing the operating state; an individual storage unit that has stored therein individual control information that indicate the corresponding relationship between the individual amount of power consumption to be saved and the control instructions; and a operation control unit. The operation control unit is configured so as to select, upon receiving the control signal, a control instruction corresponding to the individual amount of power consumption to be saved indicated by the standardized control content included in the control signal, by referring to the individual control information, and give the control instruction to the function unit. The function unit is configured so as to execute a power-saving control that will change the operating state according to the control instruction given thereto.