Yet another article in the Daily Express with incorrect running costs - a fridge does not cost £3.40 a day to run

[cakeorwine]

This is the article from the Daily Express

Dishwashers

According to the experts, the majority usage on your energy bills will come from the wet household appliances, such as dishwashers and washing machines. They shared: “The average dishwasher cycle lasts around an hour and a half, but some lower quality ones can run from two to four hours. Running a dishwasher is one of the most expensive household appliances, using around 3.3 kWh of energy.
“It's possible to estimate how much energy each appliance uses by multiplying its power rating in kW by the number of minutes/hours it’s left on. Wattage information should be on the label or in any manual that comes with your appliance.
“For example, a dishwasher may have a power rating of 2200W (there are 1000W in a kW). If you run it for 90 minutes it uses 3.3 kWh, costing around £1.12 for a 90 minute cycle. Here are the workings of the equation: 2.2 x 90/60 = 3.3kWh.”

Fridges

On average, fridges and freezers will account for around 13 percent of your household’s energy bill, according to Energy Saving Trust. The average fridge/freezer will stay on 24/7, with a Wattage of 400, using around 9.6 kWh of energy per day.

Ovens:

"The average wattage of an oven is around 3kW, meaning it uses around 1kwh if run for around 20 minutes, which is about 34p."

Washing machines

Washing machines and dishwashers account for around 14 percent of a typical energy bill. On average, a typical washing machine will run from around 45 to 90 minutes.

A washing machine will have a similar power rating to a dishwasher, with an average rating of 2200W. Typically, though, the running cycle for a washing machine would be shorter, therefore costing less per cycle.

On an average 2200W washing machine, the appliance will use about 2.2kWh of energy if running for an hour, which will cost around 75p, says the pros. Again, households should avoid half-loads and opt for a grade A energy-efficiency

...........................................................................................................

So what are the issues?

They tried. They really tried. They looked at the wattage of a fridge / freezer - about 400 watts and then said, hey, it's on 24 /7 so that's going to be 0.4 kWh every hour, so 24 * 0.4 a day = 9.6 kWh - so £3.26

Mathematically correct - but scientifically inaccurate as the fridge / freezer is not constantly running at that wattage.

Also - that would be about 3600 kWh a year of electricity a year just for a fridge / freezer. Which is strange as the average electricity use is 2900 kWH for all devices.

And also a surprise as the article also says "On average, fridges and freezers will account for around 13 percent of your household’s energy bill, according to Energy Saving Trust"

The other devices are not running at that wattage constantly. It fluctuates a lot - especially with the fridge / freezer. A fridge uses between 400 - 600 kWh a year (about 1 - 2kWh a day) A freezer uses about 200 - 300 kWh a year (about 0.8 kWh a day)

This kind of article is dangerous - especially the fridge advice - as it will worry people and get them to turn their fridge off for a time. Which is dangerous for food safety.

I think that media that publishes false information like this should face a punishment.

Been looking at that too….

Because we monitor most things these days, we’ve saved quite a bit on monthly usage, about 30% without having any lifestyle change whatsoever.

What we are concerned about, about replacing the FF, is that it’s rated usage isn’t consistent with its actual usage, a bit like miles to the gallon with cars, ie. Possible but not likely! So would a new one actually save us, to the extent it would be cost effective within 3 years or so. Ie. Do we trust the label. Kinda want to go into john lewis and plug one into one of our monitoring devices and see why it does lol.

So would a new one actually save us, to the extent it would be cost effective within 3 years or so

I suppose it depends on what you think a new one would use - and you can see the increasing price of energy.

I have a smart meter and my electricity running costs are less than £1 a day. It's my gas central heating that is bumping it up.

Changing my fridge freezer knocked about £120 a year off my bills - my old one was using 1.6 kwh a day (despite the label saying it should use less); the replacement was about £220 and uses about .6kwh a day.

Ok, totally unscientific but here goes. I don't have a smart meter so I'm just going on the meter readings, which are in whole figures, I don't have a meter that shows fractions of a kw.
Bearing in mind I've got 2 large fridge freezers and a 5 foot upright freezer, which I left on when we went away plus the wifi router and the bedside radio alarm, the total usage of electricity was 5kw for 2 days. 2.5 per day, so ignoring the router and alarm it's roughly .8kw per fridge freezer and the freezer.
2.5 kw per day=912.5 kw per year
X 34.22 pence per kw at the price cap =£312.26 per year.
£312 ÷52=£6 per week for 3 fridges and freezers, so £2 per week per item.
This doesn't include vat ( £15.61 per year) 30p per week or the standing charge.
My fridge freezers aren't new and I've no idea how old the freezer is as we bought it second hand.

@cakeorwine can you check my figures please, as they bear no relation to the Express's figures! Thanks.

I also think it's important to challenge things when they are wrong. They should retract the article and write it properly. Even if it is the Express, it's no excuse for inaccuracies.

I read that as your new fridge freezer was using 6 kw per day, rather than .6. I thought blimey, either my maths is shit or your freezer is faulty! As you were.

can you check my figures please, as they bear no relation to the Express's figures! Thanks

I don't think any figures bear any relation to the Express's figures.

Even if cakeorwine is simply a basement dweller with a big calculator, they still can prove that the DE is talking rot.

I have no reason to think that mind.

It is shockingly awful reporting though.

OP really doesn’t need any credentials; it pretty darned obvious. £3.40 a day grosses up to £100 per month. I pay less than that, and, as well as running a fridge, I have an electric cooker, , I boil regular kettles, I have an electric bathroom heater, a washing machine, lights, many other minor appliances and watch loads of TV!

Last week the Daily Mail published an article (based on a report by the BBC) about the overseas aid budget going up from .5% to 5.5%. That would be ten times the actual figure. This was written by an assistant or deputy political editor, quite a senior post, not some apprentice or work experience youngster. Clearly someone cannot cope with decimal points.
Then on the recent budget day, it had an article telling us that the pensions increase is 11%, when it is actually 10.1%. The two 1s and a decimal point must have been too much for the same deputy or assistant political editor and one other also credited on the article. I wonder what conversation took place between the pair of them that led to that conclusion.

The Express is an excuse for inaccuracies

Babe a PR obviously sent them those stats from a company who did the research. The overworked journalist writing 10+ stories in a day just slammed it on the site.

Journalists are paid fuck all and expected to write X stories a day but don't get a second to breathe let alone do their own research.

They should be wary of the consequences of publishing misinformation.

There is no excuse for printing information that could lead to people turning off their fridges because they are worried about the costs.

They did the same with misinformation about standby costs They were out by a factor of 1000!

Mistakes have real life consequences.

"They should be wary of the consequences of publishing misinformation."

Do you think they haven't published misinformation before?

Doesn't mean people shouldn't challenge it!

I am sure they have.

Who knows what people believe because they read it in an article and an expert quoted some stats?

Looks to me as though they know through experience that they have no need to be wary.

At least it will just annoy someone who has to make the correction.

It’s great that everyone in here is so mathematically able and media savvy.

you do realise a lot of people aren’t, a lot of people believe what they read and this shite will literally kill someone? See upthread about campolybacter increase, people scared to make hot drinks, no lights (massive trip hazard particularly for older people). Do you not think there’s a responsibility on the more able of us to call this out when it’s printed as fact?

Thanks for challenging this @cakeorwine .

it certainly got me thinking.

For the poster asking about the maths and trusting @cakeorwine I do trust her but you can look up the sources yourself as well
The 2900 kWh average use is from Ofgem, can’t find on their website but on British Gas and other sources.

The DE reference that fridge/freezer use 13% to Energy Saving Trust is correct.

So 13% of 2900 is 377 kWh a year or 1.03 kWh a day.

"Do you not think there’s a responsibility on the more able of us to call this out when it’s printed as fact?"

Cakeorwine has done that, quite well.

We've had enough of experts (c. M.Gove) Brexit means Brexit and high-powered vacuum cleaners. Are you telling me the Excess has got it wrong? 😂

I am almost tempted to write to another newspaper who could write their own article on articles written by other newspapers that give incorrect information about energy saving.

Maybe I could write an article for the Express and see if they publish it without thinking about it or realising it's about them

FOOD POISONING SHOCK as media gives BRITONS incorrect advice on saving energy.

@cakeorwine I am almost tempted to write to another newspaper who could write their own article on articles written by other newspapers that give incorrect information about energy saving.

Only Private Eye would consider publishing it in their Street of Shame section. The mainstream newspapers seem to have a "gentlemens agreement" not to attack each other or their owners.

eg. Whenever newspapers moan about rich owners owning businesses through complex offshore structures so they are not subject to UK tax, or those non-doms who have the status for very thin reasons, they never mention Daily Mail chairman and controlling shareholder Viscount Rothermere (Jonathan Harmsworth) who is a textbook example. He has non-dom status because his dad "lived in Paris for a while"!