Appliance Running Costs: Working Out What Anything Costs to Run

Every appliance running cost in the UK comes back to one multiplication. Take the power rating in watts, multiply it by the unit rate in pence per kilowatt hour, and divide by 1,000. That gives pence per hour. A 2,500 W tumble dryer at a 26.35p unit rate works out at about 66p an hour; a 150 W fridge at the same rate works out at 4p an hour¹.

The unit rate is the variable that changes everything else. Ofgem sets the price cap on unit rates and standing charges, and units are calculated in kilowatt hours³. StepChange puts it plainly: units are calculated as pence per kiloWatt hour⁴. Because the cap is reset periodically, the same appliance costs different amounts in different quarters, and the published figures below carry the date they were calculated.

The figures that follow come from a mix of official bodies, consumer organisations and energy suppliers. Where they disagree, both numbers are given. Where a figure is a maker's own claim about its own product, it is labelled as such. Nothing here is a recommendation of any appliance, tariff or supplier.

The formula: watts × unit rate × hours = running cost

The arithmetic is simple enough to do on a phone. National Energy Action sets it out as: appliance running cost (p/hr) = power rating (W) x electricity unit rate (p/kWh) ÷ 1000⁷. Everything else on this page is that formula applied to real appliances at real rates.

Two inputs matter. The first is the power rating, printed on the appliance plate or in its manual. Electrical Safety First lists typical ratings: a kettle at up to 3,000 W, typically 2,200 to 3,000 W; an air fryer at up to 2,600 W, with single-drawer versions around 1,500 W and twin-drawer versions closer to 2,600 W⁸. The second is the unit rate, which comes from the bill, not from memory.

A worked example from Smart Energy GB shows the method with a 2.5 kWh power rating, one hour of use and a £0.2635 energy price cap rate, giving 64p per hour for an electric heater². The same page uses a 0.2 to 0.3 kWh power rating over 10 hours at the same rate². Note the units: a 2,500 W appliance is a 2.5 kW appliance, and the formula divides by 1,000 to make that conversion.

The Centre for Sustainable Energy publishes a table of appliances at their average power ratings with cost per hour and cost per 10 minutes. A fridge at 150 W costs 4p an hour; a kettle at 3,000 W costs 13p per 10 minutes; an electric shower at 9,000 W costs £2.34 an hour, or 39p per 10 minutes; a tumble dryer at 2,500 W costs 65p an hour, or 11p per 10 minutes; an oven at 2,100 W costs 55p an hour¹.

Worked examples: kettle, air fryer, oven and shower costs per use

Per-use costs are more useful than hourly ones for appliances used in short bursts. The Centre for Sustainable Energy's figures give a kettle at 13p per 10 minutes and an electric shower at 39p per 10 minutes at July 2026 rates¹. A separate calculation for a 7.5 kW electric shower puts a ten-minute shower at 31p⁹. The two figures differ because of the power rating and the unit rate used; both are published, and the two figures are not directly comparable.

For cooking, the range is wider. Smart Energy GB gives an air fryer at 36p to 44p an hour, based on a 1.4 to 1.7 kWh power rating at a £0.2635 rate². Uswitch's air fryer guide gives a compact air fryer at 21p to 52p an hour and £41.78 to £104.44 a year based on 200 hours of cooking, and a large air fryer at 47p to 73p an hour and £94 to £146.22 a year on the same basis⁵. A one-hour air fryer run at a 1.4 kW rating is put at 35p in a separate calculation⁹.

Ovens cost more per hour. The Centre for Sustainable Energy gives 55p an hour for a 2,100 W oven¹, ivie gives around 57p an hour for an average modern electric oven¹⁰, and Uswitch gives 52p to £1.31 an hour for an electric oven drawing 2 to 5 kWh, or £104.44 to £261.10 a year at 200 hours of cooking⁵. StepChange gives an electric oven at 1.56 kWh per use⁴.

An official case study from the Optimised Retrofit Programme in Wales records one tenant's day of washing, dishwasher use and 30 minutes of oven use at £2.24 with a hybrid system switched off¹¹. That is a whole-day figure rather than a per-appliance one, but it shows how quickly cooking and wet appliances accumulate.

Tumble dryers: the most expensive appliance in the home

The tumble dryer is the appliance most likely to dominate a household's electricity bill. Smart Energy GB gives a one-hour cycle at 46p to £1.29, based on a 1.8 to 5 kWh energy use per hour at a £0.2635 rate². National Energy Action puts a vented or condenser tumble dryer cycle at £1.21 to £1.56¹². The two ranges overlap but do not match, and the upper ends differ.

Annual figures show the same pattern. Which? testing gives an average annual running cost of £139 for a condenser tumble dryer, with the cheapest at £114 and the most expensive at £181¹³. A heat pump tumble dryer averages £54 a year on the same testing¹³. ivie gives £138 as the average annual cost of a traditional condensing tumble dryer, and notes that some models reach £316 a year¹⁰. Confused.com puts a tumble dryer at £12.82 a month on a standard variable rate tariff¹⁴.

The gap between condenser and heat pump models is the single largest appliance-level difference on this page: £139 against £54 a year in the same testing programme¹³. That is a difference of £85 a year, and it is a difference in the appliance, not in how it is used.

Running a tumble dryer on a lower heat setting could save energy compared to a high-heat setting¹². Energy Saving Trust states that relying exclusively on a tumble dryer for all clothes drying wastes £50 a year in Great Britain¹⁶. Confused.com puts the saving from stopping altogether at £50 to £60 a year¹⁴. Washer-dryers are pricier still: Welsh Government guidance citing Which? testing says washer-dryers cost over £200 a year on average, and that condenser tumble dryers and American-style fridge freezers each add an average of over £125 a year¹⁷.

Kettles, ovens and air fryers: which way of cooking and boiling is cheapest

Per hour, the air fryer is the cheapest of the three cooking methods covered here, and the oven the most expensive. Smart Energy GB gives the air fryer at 36p to 44p an hour²; Uswitch gives a compact air fryer at 21p to 52p and a large one at 47p to 73p⁵; the oven runs at 52p to £1.31 an hour⁵. The overlap between a large air fryer and a low-power oven is real, so the appliance size matters as much as the appliance type.

Annual figures from Which? testing put average air fryer running costs at £33, based on cooking a meal twice a week, against £59 for a freestanding electric cooker used three times a week and £67 for an electric range cooker on the same basis¹³. Electric range cookers span £39 to £99 a year, and the highest air fryer running cost among the models tested was £53¹³.

Cooking time is the other half of the comparison. Uswitch reports that air fryer recipes typically reduce cooking times by 20% compared with oven recipes⁵. Energy Saving Trust gives a specific example: cooking a 600g chicken breast costs £0.14 in an air fryer¹⁶.

Kettles are cheap per use but used constantly. Which? puts average annual kettle running costs at £39, assuming a litre of water boiled twice a day and the minimum fill line three times a day¹³. Confused.com gives a kettle at around 24 kWh a month for 15 minutes of daily use, or £6.85 a month on a standard variable rate tariff¹⁴. Boiling more water than needed for one cup wastes around £10 a year in Great Britain and £12 in Northern Ireland¹⁶. Confused.com puts the saving from boiling only what is needed at around £10 a year, or £11 in Northern Ireland¹⁴.

The EDF Customer Support Fund lists air fryers and slow cookers among the smaller appliances it will fund, describing them as cheaper to run than conventional ovens¹⁸. That is a scheme rule rather than a general finding, but it reflects the same cost pattern.

LED bulbs: up to 90% less energy and up to 20 years of light

Lighting is the cheapest large saving in most homes because the replacement is a one-off purchase with a long life. Uswitch reports that LED bulbs use up to 90% less energy than other bulbs and can last up to 50,000 hours, which it describes as over five and a half years if left on continuously¹⁹. Energy Saving Trust gives LED bulbs at around 80% less energy than halogen lights²⁰. Electrical Safety First gives energy-saving bulbs at around 80% less energy and up to 10 times the life of regular bulbs, saving up to £60 over the lifetime of the bulb²¹.

The annual saving figures vary by source and by nation. Energy Saving Trust puts replacing all halogen bulbs with LED at £45 a year in Great Britain and £55 in Northern Ireland²⁰. The same organisation gives £45 in GB and £55 in NI for energy efficient LED lights generally²². British Gas Energy Trust says replacing bulbs with LEDs could save up to £40 a year²³. Smart Energy GB gives £40 for replacing all the bulbs in the home²⁴. East Herts Council cites £100 a year on average, with a 75% lower carbon footprint²⁵.

The range across published sources is £40 to £100 a year, and the difference reflects different assumptions about how many bulbs are replaced, how long they are used and what unit rate is applied. The Northern Ireland figure is consistently £10 higher than the Great Britain figure in the sources that give both²⁰.

Standby costs and small habits that add up to real savings

Standby is a small per-appliance cost that becomes a real annual figure across a home. The Centre for Sustainable Energy reports that leaving TVs, broadband routers, set-top boxes, games consoles and other appliances on standby costs the average household £45 a year, and that some appliances cost up to £10 to keep on all year while others cost just a few pence²⁶. Energy Saving Trust gives around £45 a year in Great Britain and £55 in Northern Ireland from switching appliances off standby⁶. British Gas Energy Trust gives up to £45 a year²³, and Smart Energy GB gives around £35²⁴.

The £35 figure and the £45 figure are both published and the two estimates differ. The £45 figure appears in more sources and is the one repeated across Great Britain and Northern Ireland with a nation-specific split²⁶.

Other habits with published figures include setting an electric shower at the lowest comfortable temperature and checking for an eco setting²⁷, and running a tumble dryer on a lower heat setting¹². The Centre for Sustainable Energy's energy saving myths page is the place to check claims that do not come with a figure attached²⁶.

The price cap, VAT and why your unit rate changes the maths

The unit rate used in every calculation above comes from the price cap, which Ofgem sets and which changes each quarter³. Because the cap moves, the same appliance costs different amounts in different periods, and published figures carry the date they were calculated.

Smart Energy GB's appliance calculator used a £0.26 per kWh July 2025 price cap electricity rate for its footnote calculations², and a £0.2635 rate in its worked examples². The Consumer Council's appliance cost checker uses the current regulated Power NI unit rate of 34.150p, and notes that costs may increase or decrease as that rate changes²⁸. That is the Northern Ireland position: a separate regulated rate, not the Ofgem cap.

Quarter-on-quarter changes are small but real. Smart Energy GB's example appliance set, covering a kettle, TV, air fryer, laptop, games console, electric oven, electric shower, LED lighting and an energy panel heater, was £37 a month at April 2026 rates, down £5 on the January to March 2026 cap and down £3 on the October to December 2025 cap²⁷. A separate calculation of the same set gives £39 a month, down £5 on the previous cap and £2 on the one before¹². The two monthly figures, £37 and £39, are both published and the two estimates differ.

The wider context is that electricity prices are 38% higher than in mid-2021, according to Commons Library research²⁹. The Climate Change Committee's 2017 analysis found that energy efficiency savings, largely from improved standards for appliances like refrigerators and boilers, had saved households about £490 since 2004³⁰.

Using an appliance cost checker to estimate your own usage

Published tables give averages. A household's own figures depend on its appliances, its usage and its unit rate, and a cost checker substitutes the household's inputs for the average ones.

The Consumer Council's Appliance Cost Checker Tool gives estimates of how much electrical appliances cost to run per day, per week and per year, with daily as the default setting²⁸. It uses the current regulated Power NI unit rate of 34.150p, so its outputs are Northern Ireland figures, and it notes that costs may increase or decrease as that rate changes²⁸. The data behind it is supplied by the Centre for Sustainable Energy²⁸.

Smart Energy GB's appliance energy calculator produces a monthly cost for a set of appliances based on the current energy price cap². Its example set came out at £43 a month in one calculation³² and £39 a month in another¹². The Centre for Sustainable Energy publishes its own appliance table with cost per hour and cost per 10 minutes at average power ratings¹.

A smart meter's in-home display shows consumption in near real time, which lets a household check a published figure against its own meter²⁴. The display is the practical link between the formula and the bill: switch an appliance on, watch the rate change, and the arithmetic on this page becomes a measurement rather than an estimate.

For households wanting to go further, the Welsh Government's Optimised Retrofit Programme case study records a tenant's daily appliance costs in a real home¹¹, and the UK government publishes a separate exemption scheme for appliances burning unauthorised fuel, with a fee of £1,610 excluding VAT for the first appliance in a range and £470 excluding VAT for each additional appliance³¹. That scheme is not about running costs, but it shows the scale of the fees attached to certain appliance approvals.