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.

Seen on another thread:

"I read somewhere that it costs about 80p JUST to switch a tumble dryer on, and that's even before it has been running for a minute, let alone an hour or more"

I know tumble dryers aren't super cheap to run, but...
Stuff like this seems to be rife.

Do you work Op? Out of pure nosiness because I’m intrigued how you can balance this research, all the mumsnet threads you start and commit to, a family and work!!

So slight update:

Apparently they would like a source for the information.

I can of course find some source - but if anyone wants to research / help compose a reply that basically points out that devices such as fridges do not run on full power constantly, and neither do devices like washing machines, dishwashers, gas and electric cookers and you can't just do power rating multiplied by time to get the kWH, then that would be great.

I am surprised that needs a source - I would have hoped it's common sense - but they would like a source. Maybe they should ask the Express for a source for their data.

Do you have a source for this claim?

What claim? I was asking a question out of pure nosiness!

First time I've ever seen "goadiness" spelled "nosiness".

We have common sense. All the credentials you need to realise this article is bullshit.

Are the newspapers asking for this? Like are they actually asking you to o their job😂
Invoice them!
"I will be happy to help. However, I am sure you understand with my credentials and experience my time is valued at £60 an hour. I expect this research to take 2 hours, plus one hour of compiling information into a document which would be easy to understand by laymen.
Total would therefore, come up to £180.

Please, let me know if you wish to procede"
😂

Independent Press Standards Organisation.

Seems they have published a new article now.

Old article

1. Fridge and freezers - £3.26 per day

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.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many options in terms of energy saving, as the nature of a fridge and freezer means they have to stay on all day. However, households can invest in a more energy-efficient one. The experts said: “Every household item will have a grading based on how energy-efficient they are, so look for the ones with Grade A - this will save you money in the long run.”

New article:

On average, fridges and freezers account for around 13 percent of household’s energy bills, according to Energy Saving Trust. This is because they are powered 24/7 and have to keep food fresh all the time.
The experts said there are not many options in terms of energy saving because the nature of a fridge and freezer means they have to stay on all day.

I am sure people can spot the difference.

They still have inaccurate information on energy cycles for the other appliances and they still have the old article online.

If they wanted to printout basics, they could have just look at AO website which shows annual usage😂

Just invoice them.
Can these things be reported to some overseeing authority? I am sure there is something. Frankly, it's misinformation like any other and there should be some kind of fine. If they printed any other, in a way dangerous, info like this, there eould be uproar

I've just realised they weren't COMPLETELY wrong. But it should have read

The average commercial walk in fridge/freezer will stay on 24/7, with a Wattage of 400, using around 9.6 kWh of energy per day.

😂

😂😂

Great thread OP and spot on.

The trouble is, even sales staff have no idea either. I almost got into an argument with a Siemens sales "expert" when buying a new fridge freezer recently. I bit my lip but he wanted to sell me an A rated model, which used 100kWh per year but cost £1500. I liked a similar model which was D rated but used 215kWh per year. It was £750 in a sale.

"But the A rated model will save you a fortune". He claimed.

"No it won't, it'll take me about 9 years to pay back and it'll be virtually dead by then". I said.

Don't get me wrong, the more expensive model was nice but saving less than £50/year wasn't a selling point.

Why are you reading the Daily Express?? Did you expect it to be factual?

If you read the thread, you will gain the facts to answer that question.

Should have just asked him to show his working out to justify his claim

I should've.

But seriously, who on earth would think £3.40 is remotely feasible. It's worrying that journos in charge of publishing news can't work it out.

£3.40/day is over £1200/year. That's more than my EV costs to run 🤦

I don't know what is going on at the Express.

They have versions of the same article 3 times in the online edition last week. 3 different 'journalists' have got the same basic story from an "expert" at an appliance company. They have all had a go at writing it. 2 of them have got it wrong (£3.26 a day for the fridge) and 1 ignored that.

I know that online newspapers need copy - but surely you don't publish the same article 3 times with 3 different headlines. Doesn't anyone check?

(and yes, once there is a correction published, I have to tell IPSOS about the other two as well)

It's about the same as the typical household energy use for everything. Not just fridges, but dishwashers, washing machines, tumble dryers, ovens, lights, showers, TVs, IT equipment, mobile phones, power tools, wifi, burglar alarms etc etc etc.

Even our 25 YO fridge freezer, which uses 2 kWh per day according to when I measured it using an energy monitor, doesn't cost that amount to run, nor do we pay £3 odd a day for electricity, despite all our cooking, showering and dishwashering being electrically powered.

It's almost like the person who wrote these 'articles' has never even thought about their own electricity bill.

Oh dear

It's now in Hello magazine as well ( I just did some Googling)

This is what happens. The Express is part of the same company. It goes in there and then goes out to their syndicates without thinking.

It's all designed to be opaque though isn't it? In the supermarket a bag of five bananas are priced per bag and per banana. Upackaged bananas have a per kg price. We're not supposed to be able to work it out.

We tested our washing machine and found the 30 degree cotton cycle used less kWh per cycle than any of the longer eco cycle's. I assume their eco credentials come from water rather then electricity usage. It's all a total nonsense. YANBU OP.

YANBU. There was a elderly lady on the news recently who was using her phone torch to get around in the evening as she was too worried about putting on lights. ☹️ Absolutely no mention of how little it actually costs to have on a couple of lights/table lamps/and the tv too every day. It’s all massively irresponsible of the media. It’s very sad and worrying to think of people sat around candlelight at night, when it’s both potentially dangerous and probably costing them more to do that than to put on a light or two.

Are you employed by the Daily Express?

In the " how much does it cost to run" thread I measured our fridge freezer in the garage at the height is summer, 30 C in there and the large ( about as big as you can get before you get a double door American style one) fridge freezer used less than 1 kWh in 24 hours, about 30p. I was pleasantly surprised.

Tried the same experiment 2 days ago, just above freezing outside, 8 C in the garage.

It used under half a kWh, about 16p.

I have rounded those numbers up slightly, I am not petty enough to include fractions of a penny. Not yet.

It's chock full of wine, frozen home made bread ( I bake 6 loaves at a time to save putting the oven on) and junk for when we fancy a fakeaway night.

I think we can live with 16p a day.

I do feel a bit annoyed having to find a source so IPSOS understand that a 400 watt fridge does not run at 400 watts all the time.

Manufacturers publish annual running costs that will demonstrate that appliances don't run at full pelt all the time they're switched on. There's probably a standard test method seeing as it's linked to the energy efficiency rating.

Plus are they unfamiliar with the concept of a thermostat?

The thing about " news" papers, they have long lost their ability to provide news, there are far better relatively unbiased places on the internet for news, or biased if that's what you want, and a printed version is always way behind.

The Express seems to thrive on hyperbole, alliterative hell in a hand basket hyperbole.

If there is a few days cold weather cominging it's " MASSIVE 18FT SNOW DRIFTS WILL KILL US ALL" headlines, which is then forgotton about a few hours later.

It must be a bit crap if you went into journalism thinking you were going to make a difference, win a Pulitzer, uncover the new Watergate.

And you end up copying and pasting stuff you are sent as you don't have the time or the desire to check if it's true and scanning internet forums like mum's net for content to copy and pretend you have a story.