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.

Thanks @Baystard I think that is what we will do, we have an old gas boiler and cistern (is that even the word, water in roof and tank in airing cupboard) so will heat for bathing and then use what is less to wash up.

I did feel all motivated to find ways of cutting electricity, and gas, just feel a bit overwhelmed and sad now.

I don’t think we’ve covered it on this thread, but is this really right about central heating? I’ve read on a few different sites that your boiler rating eg 25kw is the kwh rate? And so far as I know my boilers either on or off, it’s the radiators that are adjusted (as well as main temp at boiler).

So does this mean that running gas ch continually for one hour = 25kwh which at probable Jan rates is 20p/kwh = £5 an hour??

The eco programme is 3hr 30 mins and cheaper to run than the auto programme which runs for 2hrs 45 mins

Previous message was for Woodhill

@HairyKitty from what I've gleaned from this thread you can work it out on there but have to work it out on last year's usage. So look at how much you used last January and then work out how much it would cost now.
However we had a mild winter... I can't start to think what it will be like if it is cold.

@Jellybean23

Thanks 😊

Good idea! Our fridge freezer apparently uses 449 KWh per year (Samsung American style). At 52p per kwh that's about £235 a year I think at current prices.

Ovens, is it better to cook longer at lower temp or shorter at higher?

Can we talk dishwashers please?
I've just looked up mine (Miele Active SC) but can't find the energy details. I think it's a C rating. It was on 3 times today and I did get thinking about this! Usually it's on twice a day but today my teen decided to bake some cookies then the youngest made macaroni cheese for lunch so it was filled up again!

I've just come back from a weekend away, the only things left on at the plug were my fridge freezer and my boiler.
I still got through 1.6kwh a day. That's nearly £400 a year on the tariff I've just fixed on - before standing charges...

Hmm so I can back track to work out the total annual cost for my heating on January rates (£2400). But what I don’t know is how many hours heating this is for, so I can’t work out how much it is costing per hour. I would love to know as it will help as in incentive to manage with less.

What kind of fridge freezer have you got? The American style can be very high (although still lower than what we have atm).

It's this one.
I bought in 2020 when it was A+ energy rated, although it looks like it's now an F?

Theoretically it should only use 274kwh a year. Maybe i need to fiddle with the settings...
.

274 kWh should "only" be 142 pa at Oct rates. Your boiler wouldn't really be doing anything while you're off so that seems strange.

I've just fixed at 66.92p/kwh, so that should make £184 a year or thereabout if the fridge is running properly, and anything extra can only be the boiler.

I have got this right, haven't I? 1.6 kwh a day x 365 = 584kwh @66.92p = £391 a year?

I'm going to switch the fridge off tomorrow along with everything else except the boiler for an hour and see what happens on my smart meter, I think.

^ and try it the opposite way round for an hour too - so fridge on/boiler off.

Your fridge freezer should only be using 0.75 per kwh day so it will be interesting to see what it actually does use.

We had one from MIL when we didn’t have a dryer. Personally I thought it was a bit crap had to leave it on for hours to get anything dry and continually rotating things around. We gave it away when we could

Your boiler doesn't run at 24 kW continuously for the central heating,the max power is for instant hot water.
30-40 kWh of gas per day in winter would be more typical.

If you have sky does it need stayimg on overnight so it csn do updates.if off at the plug will this cause faults in the long run.
I no the Wi-Fi needs to be on all the time for this reason.but sky?

That's off off not just switched from green to red which we already do.

Will anyone be turning Alexa and other smartspeakers off as well?

There should be some eco moad when it eats like 1w a night according to internet. Otherwise it seems 3w an hour so something like 333 hours/13 and something days to eat whole kwh of it's always on standby. If you use it for about 5 hours a day it would take 17.5 days to eat a kwh.
I think. Look into the eco mode

We have two fridge freezers (the second is in the utility room). When my sons leave I will definitely revert just to the one in the kitchen as it is waste of money.
Thnings that are hard to reprogramme like wifi/routers, Sky, electric clock I would not turn off at the plug. We all remember the year someone very nice we know who is so careful with money she will walk over a mile to save 30p parking was looking after the house and switched every single thing off at plugs and we came back from holiday with some very cross children who were not happy about all kinds of programmes set to record on Sky whilst away (that was a long time ago before SkyGo although even today I think people do Sky downloads) and a few other things that had to be redone -clocks reset etc.

For office workers going into the office 5 days a week and then only have the heating on in the day in winter on days you are not in the office will probably save quite a bit.

Not many offices could cope with all office workers being in 5 days a week. I know mine couldn't pre-Covid and has reduced space even further now.