🔌 Appliance Energy Cost Calculator
Find out what an appliance actually costs to run. Enter its wattage, how long it is on, and the price per kWh from your own energy bill — no tariff is assumed or looked up, because electricity prices differ from household to household.
An estimate of appliance running cost from the figures you enter. It is not your electricity bill and it is not financial advice.
Your electricity price
This calculator never guesses a rate. Take the price per kWh from a recent bill or your supplier's app and type it in.
Your appliances
Add up to 10. The wattage is usually on a label on the back or underneath, or in the manual. Choose whichever usage pattern matches how you actually use it.
Your tariff, appliance names and usage stay in this browser. Nothing is sent to a server, saved to your device or added to the web address.
The formula, and what it leaves out
- The whole calculator rests on one line:
kWh = watts ÷ 1000 × hours. A 1000 W appliance running for one hour uses exactly 1 kWh. - Cost is then
kWh × your price per kWh. At £0.25 per kWh, that 1 kWh costs £0.25. - Both usage modes are converted to hours per week first, so they stay consistent: hours per day is multiplied by 7, and uses per week is multiplied by minutes per use ÷ 60.
- Annual figures are
weekly × 52. Daily isweekly ÷ 7and monthly isannual ÷ 12, so a "2 hours a day" appliance and a "14 hours a week" appliance produce exactly the same annual total. - What it excludes: the standing charge, which you pay whether or not anything is switched on, plus any tiered or time-of-use tariff.
- It also assumes the appliance draws its full rated wattage the entire time it is on. Anything with a thermostat or a heating element — fridges, freezers, washing machines, ovens — cycles on and off, so its real consumption is usually lower than the rated figure suggests.
Spin for an energy-saving task
The calculator gives you the numbers. This wheel is just a prompt for one small thing to try — it does not promise any saving, and whether it helps depends entirely on your home and how you already use it.
🔌 Result
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A worked example
A 2500 W tumble dryer used 4 times a week for 60 minutes at £0.25 per kWh.
One cycle uses 2500 ÷ 1000 × 1 hour = 2.5 kWh, costing £0.625 per use. Four uses a week is 10 kWh, or £2.50 a week — about £130 a year across 52 weeks.
Fill in the optional "if you used it less" field with 2 uses a week and the estimate halves to about £65 a year. That difference is real arithmetic on your own numbers, but it is still an estimate: it assumes full rated power throughout every cycle, and it excludes the standing charge that appears on your bill regardless.
Frequently asked questions
Why does it not know the current electricity price?
Because there is no single correct answer to hardcode. Rates vary by supplier, tariff, region and date, and a stale built-in figure would quietly produce wrong results for everybody. Typing the rate from your own bill takes a few seconds and makes every result yours.
Where do I find the wattage of an appliance?
Usually on a rating label on the back or underneath, or in the manual. It is written as W or kW — if it says kW, multiply by 1000, so 2.5 kW is 2500 W.
Will this match my electricity bill?
No, and it does not claim to. It estimates the running cost of the appliances you listed. Your bill also includes a daily standing charge, everything else in the house, and any tariff structure that charges different rates at different times.
Why is my fridge cheaper in reality than this suggests?
Because a fridge does not draw its rated wattage continuously — the compressor cycles on and off to hold a temperature. The same applies to freezers, ovens, washing machines and electric heating. For those, treat this figure as an upper bound rather than a prediction.
Does the currency selector convert between currencies?
No. It only changes which symbol is displayed. There is no exchange rate involved, and no rate is fetched — the number you typed is the number used.
Does the wheel guarantee I will save money?
No. The wheel offers general prompts, nothing more. Whether any of them reduces your bill depends on your home, your habits and your tariff, and the page never claims otherwise.
How the wheel works
How does the wheel pick a result?
The wheel selects a result at random before the animation starts, then calculates the exact rotation needed to land that result under the pointer. The displayed result always matches where the wheel visually stops.
Is every option equally likely?
Yes. Every option has an equal chance of being selected, using your browser's built-in random number generator with no weighting or bias.
Can I edit the options?
Yes. Add, remove, or edit any option using the text area on the right. Changes take effect on your next spin and stay only for your current browser session.