The true cost of running electrical devices - a useful guide?

[cakeorwine]

I did a thread a while ago on electrical devices - even more relevant now with the coming increase in energy costs.

This might be useful for people to get an idea of what it costs to run devices.

These calculations are based on a unit of electricity being 45p / KWH which is what it could be in October (it's currently about 27p / KWH)

A 1 watt device run for 1000 hours uses 1 unit of energy.

There are 8760 hours in a year - so that 8.76 units of energy = £3.90

For context, my Alexa is about 3 watts and it's on all the time - so it would cost 3 * £3.90 = about £12 a year to run.

A TV is between 50 - 100 watts.

So if a 100 watt TV was run for 10 hours, that's 1 unit (100 10) - so about 45p per 10 hours or 4.5p per hour*

A hairdryer is about 1500 watts (on high speed, high heat). So in 1 hour, it's used 1.5 units or 67p. - so about 1p a minute

A PlayStation 5 on active gaming is about 200 watts - so in 5 hours, it's used about 1 unit - so 8p per hour

An electric shower - about 10 kilowatts, so in 1 hour (full speed, full heat) - it's used £4.50 - so about 7p a minute

Just a few examples - but you can see how devices use energy

Standby mode is very good now - about 1 watt - so a device on standby will use about £4 per year. Obviously lots of devices on standby do add up.

I am sure people can post other examples. It's just useful to know where your energy goes.

geo minim energy monitor
cost us £20 about 1 year ago.

Now £40 on ama zon and temporarily out of stock last time i looked

Sorry for doing a boring post, but what an excellent thread.

Thank you @lightand

@Cuck00soup a friend had her immersion on 24/7 til recently ( no timer switch) I asked her why she needed it. She uses dishwasher. Doesn’t really need hot water for hands. Warm ( left over from tank) or even cold water works with soap.

Shes turned it off. She is saving £5-7 a day! She’s switched the kids to showers as much as possible and now only uses it when they need a bath.

@BertieBotts thank you for the baby dam suggestion. Unfortunately he now likes to stretch out the full length of bath and swim.

TV being on can do it

A TV can be 50 - 100 watts. Maybe more

So 10 hours of TV could be 1 KWH

Add computers and it adds up

A little bump given today's news

This thread has been really useful, and made me think that our TiVo box (virgin) runs all the time. I don't put it on standby at night as sometimes it records things. I know how to put it on regular standby (and will do so know) but does anyone know if it has an eco standby as mentioned up thread?

Maybe this will be one of the upsides of this horrible period - we will educate a generation of energy specialists

This thread is very useful, I am going to review my cooking as we do a lot of cooking and baking, I don't want to stop it as it saves money in terms of food compared with buying ready-made things - but I am going to trial having a baking day and then freezing so the oven only gets heated once and the freezer is on anyway.

Our set top box has an eco standby - it has certainly made a difference - from 12 watts to 1 watt

@carefullycourageous I can confirm brownies and lemon drizzle cake freeze well. I can also confirm you can eat them from nearly frozen 😳

Thanks @cakeorwine (and love your user name!). I'll do some googling to see how to do this on mine

So I've worked it out and set my TiVo box on the most eco mode. It seems all that happens in consequence is that suggestions (which I never look at) won't be recorded. I think this would be the default option tbh!

no judgement from me

are all the above prices about to be doubled?

I based them on 45p per KWH for electricity
It's now going to be 51 per KWH

So a 1000 watt device will use about 50 p per hour.
A 100 watt device will use 5 p per hour
A 10 watt device will use 0.5p per houe

I use an Electric Arc Furnace for my metalwork hobby in the outhouse at home. It runs to 137 Mwh. What will be the hourly running cost under the new tariff do you think? I melt old car engines down and make sculptures of people entwined etc.

You need to know the power rating of it.

137 MWH is not a power rating. It's usage

Think of it as speed and distance.

A high power device is a high speed device
But it may not be used for long, so you don't travel far.

You need to know how many units you use for a typical job.

it’s like the one in the picture below, but 4 x the size.

www.hanmetallurgy.com/product/electric-arc-furnace-for-sale/

Surely something like that must be run off business rates as it must have a very high current - not something you would find in a typical house!!

I have a big house and a lot of outbuildings. I do this as a hobby. Well, one of them. My other hobby is designing and assembling miniature wind farms in my garden.