The “how much does this cost to run” thread?

[AtomicBlondeRose]

Based on posts about people thinking of using candles instead of electric lights - which is both dangerous and not likely to save any money, I’d like to set this thread up as a place where people can ask how much items in their house cost to run, to let posters make informed decisions about whether or not to keep using them after energy price rises.

If you want to ask, useful information to have is: the energy usage of the item - eg a heater might say on it that it’s 1000w. If you don’t know that the name/model number as accurately as possible. Also to give you a useful estimate it would be good to know your current gas/electricity price tariff price per unit. However it’s easy enough to work out at current and predicted price cap levels.

I can’t promise to answer everything so please can I call upon other numerate MNers to help out? I think this could be a real lifesaver.

OK - This may have been asked already.... but...

What is the relative difference if any of, tumble drying then not ironing, versus drying outside or on a rack and then needing to iron?? Not ironing is not an option!

Also, stupid question, but just checking, I have lots of dimmers and touch lamps. I am assuming as I never use the maximum settings, I am already saving on wattage used.

Oh dear, OH just checked our dehumidifier and its 580w, this is a huge difference to what I quoted yesterday!!!

I'm sure dry naturally and iron is better as long as it's not making your house damp.

The rated power of the iron might be 1500W but they don't quite stay on continously as the thermostat clicks on and off so maybe 1000 W per hour of ironing.

Tumble dryer is likely to be 2-4kWh per load dried.
Unless you are very inefficient it won't take 2-4 hours to iron one load.

I dont iron anything (mostly) but the odd occasion I do, I iron it while wet, you would have to have the windows open to avoid damp I think

Then hang it up to dry for the rest of the drying, the heat from the iron dries it out a bit

True but that is not the usual way of ironing.
I think we are all learning how many different ways of doing things there are on these threads.

No I know, I discovered it on holiday when I needed to wash a shirt and still wear it that night, I thought if I iron it then its halfway dry, plus ironed and then hung it up for the rest of the day and it was ok

A good little short cut, not sure how it works for a full load but as I say, I probably iron something about once a week or every couple of weeks. A good shake out and hang up nicely and it doesnt really need ironing

Found out my dehumidifier is 180w, can someone help what the hour cost will be please (price cap)

@SamBeckettslastleap 180w is .18Kwh so 10p/hr on the new tariff.

Thank you, that seems to be a good option then to dry clothes and stop the damp when I heat the house less.

I've got a comparison request as I'm in the market to replace two fridge freezers.

My options are:

• like for like replacement
• one full size freezer and one full size fridge
• or an American f/f.

For energy consumption purposes, what's the best configuration? I know each appliance will vary but, as a combination, in general, what should I avoid/choose?

John Lewis is good at giving annual kwh for appliances - so you can total up the various configurations and see how they compare - from a energy consumption pov.

I think it will also be a case of capacity. Like standalone fridge and standalone freezer might have bigger capacity than a smaller american type.

Found example freezer and fridge
145 fridge + 329 freezer so 474kwh year

My american one runs on 387kwh a year.

2x fridge freezer would probably do 250 each annualy so 500kwh annual?

I recently bought a plug in monitor that tells you the wattage, consumption and cost (if you input unit price).of an individual appliance.

I input 0.52 as unit price (October cap) and have discovered:

Ninja air fryer on air fryer 190 degrees uses approx 1p per minute.

LG washing machine 10.5kg drum today cost 15p for a quick wash 40 degrees, 1400 spin and 6p for a quick wash 30 degree 1200 spin.

This was based on October price cap not current.

I bloody love this thread,

but it really picks up on a mild bugbear of mine. I have a few friends who do those tedious social media boasting posts, showing some basic maths, with a ‘repost if you learned this in school and NEVER used it again‘ kind of headline. Like they are intelligent, degree educated but seem to love all the OMG maths is soooo tedious…proud to never have done any kind of calculation by choice since GCSE maths by choice. (Capable, but think it is a Badge of honour not to bother)

i’m an engineer, and have to sit on my hands. I occasionally comment alone the lines of Speak for Yourself.

But this just shows. Maths saves money. and lives.

lego what monitor did you buy?

three I do agree but I think school maths should be routed in real life. Far too much is abstract. Show working out areas as working out how to carpet a room/buy curtains, teach percentages in relation to apr and mortgages etc.

Power Meter Energy Monitor Plug, Besvic Large LCD Display Electricity Power Consumption Meter with 7 Monitoring Modes, Overload Warning Wattage Volt Amp KWH Meter Analyzer Socket amzn.eu/d/0A2fOaP

Thanks @ShesNotTheMessiah and @Bubblebubblebah - hadn't spotted JL had provided an estimated annual running cost fig. I think I need a spreadsheet before I choose.

@SamBeckettslastleap i agree it is very probably at least as much a failure of the teaching system to make maths relevant.

@SamBeckettslastleap whether you're better off heating water in a kettle for dishes probably depends on what else you need hot water for and when, and if you're heating a whole tank of water or just what you use (e.g. with a combi boiler).

If you heat a whole tank of water it won't stay hot forever, even if you have good insulation. Better to use a kettle to give you the necessary amount of hot water for dishes than heat a whole tank and then have it sitting all day or all night cooling down and having to be reheated later. However if you were doing the dishes at the same time of day as using hot water for bathing then it probably doesn't make much difference.

That seems pretty good. Ours is down to 10kwh a day, from around 14, after I turned off the middle of the day cycle (control panel allows 3 periods a day) and cut down the length of the cycles. We used to have it on a few hours, 3 times a day and it was more 14kwh a day.
DH moans that sometimes the water isn't that hot (tank not combi boiler) but he likes to wash up with scalding water.

I'll be tweaking it down a little more and edging teens towards having more showers rather than baths - though they're very good at sharing bath water if they have a bath! If anyone has a bath, the water is generally reused, even if I just jump in and shave my legs in it.

We have the hot water on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.

3 showers happening a day.

Currently using around 300kwh per month to cover that.

I'm currently weighing up how we can save on our heating bill. Last year when the cost per KWh was 4p we were spending £80-100 per month on gas. At the same rate of use we'd be looking at closer to £400.

We have a 35kw boiler so at 15p per unit that is over £5 per hour to run.

I'm looking at infrared and halogen heaters that range from 500w to 1.5w for each of the 3 bedrooms but then electricity is going up to 52p per unit.

I might be wrong but surely that would only apply if the boiler was on full demand. i.e. you have the heating up to 30 and the bath running on hot. Must of the time demand, and therefore cost, would be far less.

In case helpful as a general guide I have just measured gas used from our combi boiler for a 15 minute shower (no water flow limiters on the shower).
It was almost exactly 5kwh of gas which at Oct prices is 63.5p and at predicted Jan prices is a whopping 99p for a 15 min gas powered shower.

Place marking.