How to work out how much an appliance costs to run

As we prepare for a tough winter for millions of households that faced much higher energy bills last year than they are today, many will be looking for ways to save.

Bills will rise for many this month, even with the Energy Price Guarantee setting the price of electricity at 34p per kWh.

Many know that taking long showers and using a clothes dryer regularly can increase monthly costs – but what about other appliances and appliances?

If you can calculate how much energy a device uses per hour, you can basically decide where you can cut costs.

We’ve taken a handful of home appliances and show you how to calculate how much it costs per hour to run.

How to calculate how much energy your appliance consumes?

Each appliance has a power rating, usually expressed in watts (W) or kilowatts (kW) – 1000W = 1kW – ​​which indicates how much electricity is needed to operate. The amount of electricity it uses depends on how long it’s been turned on.

The way to work it out is to take the power of your device. In this case, we used the average power, but it depends on the exact size and model of the device.

Multiply the wattage of the device by the number of hours you use it per day and divide this number by 1000 to get the daily kilowatt-hour.

Electricity is sold per kWh, which is often shown on your bill as ‘units’.

You can calculate how much an appliance costs to run by multiplying the wattage of the appliance by the number of hours you use it per day and then by the cost of electricity.

We’ve gathered some numbers for you to show you how much your devices cost when you use them.

How much do cooking appliances cost per use?

Airfryers have become incredibly popular thanks to their speed, slow cookers are the choice for some, while many like to zap certain foods in the microwave for speed and convenience.

If you use a 1500W hot air fryer on average for an hour a day, it will consume about 1.5 kilowatts of electricity when in use.

You can then check how much you are paying for your electricity per kilowatt hour to get a figure – currently electricity is limited to 34p/kWh (but some with fixed deals may pay less than that). That would mean an hour of deep frying would cost about 51 pence.

For a slow cooker, they can have a power of only 200 W. If you use that for five hours, it would cost 34p, or about 7p per hour.

Five minutes of use of a typical 800W microwave will only consume a few pence of energy.

Meanwhile, the average convection oven uses 2.1 kWh of electricity per hour, which equates to about 71p per hour.

The average cost of gas per kWh in the UK is 10.3 pence cheaper than electricity. The average energy consumption of a gas hob is 1.95 kW per hour – so for half an hour of use you are talking around 10p.

Apart from the hob and oven, the kettle is probably the most used appliance in the kitchen.

Using a 3000W kettle for an hour a day means it uses 3kW of electricity and will cost you £1.02 for an hour of use.

However, most people don’t boil a kettle for an hour at a time. The average kettle takes five minutes to boil, meaning it would cost you 8.5 pence to boil the kettle for a cup of tea.

A slice of toast with your tea will add a few cents more to your breakfast.

The average wattage of a toaster is 1000W, according to the Center for Renewable Energy, meaning five minutes of use will cost about 3p.

The wattage is often displayed for equipment, but if in doubt, check the user manual.

How much do household appliances cost per use?

A washing machine is an indispensable appliance that most of us use several times a week, but how much does it cost?

The average washing machine uses 2100 W according to the CSE – so for a two hour wash cycle this will cost you £1.42 or 71 pence per hour.

A two hour cycle on a 2500W tumble dryer will cost you around £1.70 or 85p per hour.

If you do two cycles a week, that’s £3.40 a week, £13.60 a month and £163.20 a year.

An iron can use up to 1500 W, meaning an hour of ironing would cost you 51 cents. Meanwhile, a vacuum cleaner consumes an average of 900 W, which means an hour of use would cost you 31 pence.

How much does it cost to work from home?

Household appliances tend to consume much more energy because they are larger and used for longer periods of time.

The good news is that our tech and entertainment devices use much less energy, which is good news for people who work from home.

A desktop computer uses about 100 W, or 0.1 kW, and costs about 3.4 pence to run for an hour. That means if your computer is on for 8 hours a day, it will cost 27.2 pence to run a day.

A laptop consumes even less energy – about 50W or 0.05kW according to the CSE, meaning it takes 2p per hour to run.

A broadband router uses about 10 W, which means it costs about 1 pence per hour and 24 p per day.

Similarly, using a 5W charger will cost you 1 cent per hour and will cost you less than 1 cent per day, but the cost can add up in households that use a lot of tablets and phones. Try to charge your devices only when necessary.

The differences are often small at this level and leaving a router on all day won’t save you much compared to the hassle of turning it on and off every day.

Sometimes some products can consume more energy at startup, so turning them off and on every day can be counterproductive.