What It Costs

Refunds and withdrawal

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last updated 2026-08-10.

The short version

You have 14 days from buying Pro to change your mind and get your money back. Press Withdraw from contract on your account page. We confirm by email straight away and the refund goes back to the payment method you used, within 14 days of that email.

You do not need a reason, and we do not ask you to give one up.

Your right of withdrawal

If you are a consumer in the EU, you have a statutory right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The period ends 14 days after the day the contract was concluded — that is, 14 days after you bought Pro.

Terms of use

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last updated 2026-08-10.

These terms cover costrunning.com (“the site”). Using the site means you accept them. If you buy Pro, the Pro section below is part of your contract.

Who you are dealing with

Operated by: maicrosites.com
Established in: Slovakia, European Union
Email: info@costrunning.com
Site: costrunning.com

1. What the site is

What It Costs is a set of calculators and reference pages. Everything that calculates runs in your browser and is free to use, with no account.

Air Fryer Running Cost

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The same dinner, four ways, at $0.17 per kWh.

Method	Power	Time	Energy	Cost
Microwave, reheat	1,100 W	4 min	0.07 kWh	$0.01
Air fryer, single basket	1,500 W	20 min	0.50 kWh	$0.09
Air fryer, dual basket	2,400 W	20 min	0.80 kWh	$0.14
Electric oven, preheat + cook	2,400 W	40 min	1.60 kWh	$0.27
Electric hob, one large ring	2,000 W	20 min	0.67 kWh	$0.11

Five air-fryer meals a week instead of five oven meals saves about $47 a year. Worth having, and worth keeping in proportion: that is roughly the price of the air fryer, once.

Air Purifier Running Cost

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The electricity, and then the number people forget until the filter light comes on.

Setting	Watts	A month, on 24/7	A year
Night / sleep	10 W	$1.24	$14.89
Low	18 W	$2.24	$26.81
Auto, average	30 W	$3.73	$44.68
Medium	40 W	$4.97	$59.57
High	55 W	$6.83	$81.91
Large unit, maximum	100 W	$12.42	$148.92

Against any row in that table, a $70 HEPA filter changed once a year is the larger expense — and unlike the electricity, skipping it does not save money, it just stops the machine working.

Appliance Replacement Payback

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Old appliance, new appliance, the price gap and your own electricity price — worked into the year the replacement pays for itself.

Device Charging Cost

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The whole range, at $0.17 per kWh, with charging losses already in the numbers.

Device	Battery	One charge	Charged daily for a year
Wireless earbuds and case	2 Wh	$0.0004	$0.16
Smartwatch	3 Wh	$0.0006	$0.22
Phone, 5,000 mAh	19 Wh	$0.0037	$1.36
Tablet	35 Wh	$0.0068	$2.48
Laptop	60 Wh	$0.0119	$4.34
Power bank, 20,000 mAh	74 Wh	$0.0145	$5.27
E-scooter	365 Wh	$0.0714	$26.06
E-bike	500 Wh	$0.0978	$35.68

Every phone, tablet, watch and pair of earbuds in a household of four, charged every single day for a year, comes to under $20. The e-bike at the bottom costs more than all of them together — and it is still cheaper than one tank of petrol.

Electric Shower Running Cost

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Shower length against rating, at $0.17 per kWh. Read down your unit’s column.

Shower length	8.5 kW	9.5 kW	10.5 kW
4 minutes	$0.10	$0.11	$0.12
6 minutes	$0.14	$0.16	$0.18
8 minutes	$0.19	$0.22	$0.24
10 minutes	$0.24	$0.27	$0.30
15 minutes	$0.36	$0.40	$0.45
A year, one 8-min shower a day	$70	$79	$87
A year, family of four	$282	$315	$348

The bottom row is the reason this calculator exists. Nothing else in a house turns two minutes of habit into three hundred dollars a year quite so directly.

EV Charging Log

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every charge in one table — energy added and the rate you paid — totalled across home and public charging, with cost per mile.

Fan Running Cost

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every fan in the house, and what a night of each one costs at $0.17 per kWh.

Fan	Watts	Eight hours	A summer of nightly use
Desk fan	20 W	$0.03	$2.45
Ceiling fan, low	25 W	$0.03	$3.06
Pedestal fan	60 W	$0.08	$7.34
Tower fan	65 W	$0.09	$7.96
Ceiling fan, high	90 W	$0.12	$11.02
Box fan, high	100 W	$0.14	$12.24
Window air conditioner	900 W	$1.22	$110

The last row is the point of the table. Everything above it is rounding error on an electricity bill; the machine at the bottom is the one worth thinking about.

Free and Pro

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Everything that calculates here is free and always will be — no account, no sign-up, no limits on how often you use it. That is not a trial. Search engines send people here to get an answer, and an answer behind a wall is not an answer.

Pro is for what happens around the answer. It remembers your setups on every device you sign in on, turns any result into a page you can send someone, lets you put a tool on your own site, emails you when a date you care about is coming, and takes the ads off every site we run — with one account and one price.

Household Appliance Audit

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every appliance in one table — watts, hours and days each — totalled into a yearly cost you can check against the actual bill.

Meter Reading Schedule

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A reading date every month, set once, with an email reminder — so estimated bills stop being a thing that happens to you.

Standby Audit Sheet

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Every device that is never really off, in one table with its standby draw — totalled into the yearly cost of doing nothing.

Tariff Comparison Sheet

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Unit rate, standing charge and your own yearly usage per tariff, totalled — the comparison the headline rate cannot give you.

Underfloor Heating Running Cost

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Area against hours, at 150 W per m² and $0.17 per kWh. The bottom two rows are the warning.

Heated area	Power	4 hours a day	8 hours a day	Six-month season, 6 h/day
3 m² — small ensuite	450 W	$0.31	$0.61	$84
6 m² — bathroom	900 W	$0.61	$1.22	$167
10 m² — kitchen	1,500 W	$1.02	$2.04	$279
20 m² — living room	3,000 W	$2.04	$4.08	$558
40 m² — open plan floor	6,000 W	$4.08	$8.16	$1,116

The first two rows are a comfort feature. The last one is a heating system, and if a house is going to be heated that way it deserves a proper comparison against a heat pump before the floor goes down — because once it is tiled over, the decision is made for twenty years.

About

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What It Costs is a small independent site that answers one question about thirty-one different machines: how much does this add to the electricity bill? Not roughly, not on average, and not in somebody else’s currency — with the wattage of your appliance and the price on your own bill.

Why it exists

Search for what a tumble dryer costs to run and you get three kinds of page. Energy suppliers and comparison sites publish a blog post with one number, for one country, calculated at a price that was accurate the month it was written and exists mainly to sell you a tariff. General calculator sites have the arithmetic but no appliance presets, no currencies and no idea whether your machine is measured per hour or per cycle. And forums, where people work it out for each other.

Air Conditioner Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Air conditioning is the appliance most likely to be blamed for a summer bill, and usually the blame is correct. This is what a day’s cooling costs at three prices that bracket most of the English-speaking world.

Unit	Draw	6 hours a day	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Small window, 5,000 BTU	500 W	3.0 kWh	$0.51	£0.75	€1.05
Window, 12,000 BTU	1,100 W	6.6 kWh	$1.12	£1.65	€2.31
Portable, 10,000 BTU SACC	1,100 W	6.6 kWh	$1.12	£1.65	€2.31
Mini split, 12,000 BTU	850 W	5.1 kWh	$0.87	£1.28	€1.79
Central system, 3 ton	3,500 W	21 kWh	$3.57	£5.25	€7.35

The mini split row is the interesting one: same cooling as the window unit for about a quarter less electricity, because an inverter compressor modulates instead of cycling. Over a decade of summers that difference is most of the price of the unit.

Amps to Watts Calculator

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What each circuit can actually carry, on both common supply voltages.

Circuit	Maximum	Continuous (80%)	Typical use
15 A at 120 V	1,800 W	1,440 W	general outlets, North America
20 A at 120 V	2,400 W	1,920 W	kitchen outlets
30 A at 240 V	7,200 W	5,760 W	dryer, water heater
50 A at 240 V	12,000 W	9,600 W	range, EV charger
13 A at 230 V	2,990 W	2,392 W	UK plug, per socket
16 A at 230 V	3,680 W	2,944 W	European circuit
32 A at 230 V	7,360 W	5,888 W	EV charger, shower

The two 120 V rows at the top are the whole reason a North American heater stops at 1,500 W. It is not caution about heat — it is arithmetic about current.

Appliance Wattage Table

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Typical figures, with the range you will actually meet. Use the plate on your own machine when you have one — these are for when you do not.

Heating, cooling and air

Appliance	Typical	Usual range
Electric space heater	1,500 W	750–2,000 W
Oil-filled radiator	1,500 W	800–2,500 W
Fan heater	2,000 W	1,000–3,000 W
Window air conditioner	900 W	500–1,500 W
Portable air conditioner	1,100 W	800–1,500 W
Central air conditioning	3,500 W	2,000–5,000 W
Mini split, while cooling	850 W	400–1,800 W
Heat pump, while heating	1,200 W	800–2,500 W
Dehumidifier	300 W	200–700 W
Humidifier	40 W	20–300 W
Pedestal or ceiling fan	60 W	20–100 W
Extractor fan	25 W	10–50 W

Kitchen

Appliance	Typical	Usual range
Fridge freezer, while running	150 W	100–250 W
Chest freezer, while running	120 W	80–200 W
Electric oven	2,400 W	2,000–3,000 W
Induction hob, one ring	2,000 W	1,400–3,700 W
Microwave	1,100 W	700–1,500 W
Air fryer	1,500 W	1,000–2,000 W
Electric kettle	2,500 W	2,000–3,000 W
Toaster	1,000 W	800–1,500 W
Coffee machine, brewing	1,000 W	600–1,500 W
Extractor hood	150 W	60–250 W

Laundry (per cycle, not per hour)

Machine	Typical	Usual range
Washing machine, 30 °C	0.7 kWh	0.4–1.4 kWh
Washing machine, 60 °C	1.4 kWh	1.0–2.2 kWh
Tumble dryer, vented	3.3 kWh	2.5–4.5 kWh
Tumble dryer, condenser	2.5 kWh	2.0–3.5 kWh
Tumble dryer, heat pump	1.1 kWh	0.8–1.6 kWh
Dishwasher, normal	1.0 kWh	0.7–1.5 kWh
Dishwasher, eco	0.7 kWh	0.5–1.0 kWh

Tech and entertainment

Device	Typical	Usual range
Television, 43-inch LED	60 W	40–90 W
Television, 55-inch LED	90 W	50–150 W
Television, 65-inch	120 W	80–200 W
Soundbar	35 W	15–60 W
Games console, playing	180 W	50–220 W
Games console, rest mode	12 W	8–15 W
Gaming PC, under load	450 W	300–800 W
Desktop PC, idle	80 W	50–120 W
Laptop	50 W	30–90 W
Monitor, 27-inch	40 W	25–80 W
Router	10 W	5–20 W
Set-top box or DVR	20 W	10–30 W
Phone charger, charging	15 W	5–45 W
Phone charger, idle	0.3 W	0.1–0.5 W

Big loads

Appliance	Typical	Usual range
Electric water heater element	4,000 W	3,000–5,500 W
Electric shower	9,000 W	7,500–10,500 W
Hot tub heater	3,000 W	1,500–6,000 W
Pool pump, single speed	1,100 W	700–2,000 W
EV charger, home AC	7,000 W	3,700–11,000 W
Tumble dryer element	2,500 W	2,000–3,000 W

When the plate is gone

Three fallbacks, in order of accuracy:

Contact

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Corrections, questions and requests for a calculator we do not have yet — all welcome at the same address:

info@costrunning.com

The most useful mail we get is a measurement. If you have put a plug-in energy monitor on something and the figure disagrees with ours, say which appliance, what you measured and over how long. Typical wattages are averages across a lot of machines, and real ones are how they get better.

Dehumidifier Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dehumidifiers are bought to solve a problem and then left running, which makes the annual figure the one that matters.

Use	Hours a day	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Occasional, drying laundry	2	219	$37	£55	€77
Damp room, on a humidistat	6	657	$112	£164	€230
Damp basement, most of the day	12	1,314	$223	£329	€460
Continuous, wet basement	24	2,628	$447	£657	€920

At 300 W. The bottom row is what a genuinely wet basement costs to keep dry with electricity alone, and it is the point at which drainage, guttering or tanking stops being an expense and starts being a saving.

Dishwasher Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Six cycles a week for a year, which is a family running one most days.

Programme	kWh a cycle	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Eco	0.7	218	$37	£55	€76
Normal	1.0	312	$53	£78	€109
Intensive / pots	1.5	468	$80	£117	€164
Quick 30-minute	0.9	281	$48	£70	€98

The quick cycle is the one that surprises people: it is shorter but hotter, so it is not the cheapest option. Eco is slow and cool, and slow and cool is what saves electricity.

Electric Oven Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The same food, four different appliances. This is what one portion of roast vegetables costs to cook.

How	Draw	Time	kWh	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Full-size oven, preheated	~2,000 W avg	40 min + 15 preheat	1.8	$0.31	£0.45	€0.63
Fan oven	~1,700 W avg	35 min + 10 preheat	1.3	$0.22	£0.33	€0.46
Air fryer	1,500 W	20 min	0.5	$0.09	£0.13	€0.18
Microwave (reheating)	1,100 W	8 min	0.15	$0.03	£0.04	€0.05

The gap between the first and third rows is a factor of three and a half — bigger than any tariff change you could negotiate. Which is the general lesson of this whole site: the appliance you pick matters more than the price you pay per unit.

Electric Water Heater Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hot water for a family of four, a year at a time.

System	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Old cylinder, poor insulation	5,000	$850	£1,250	€1,750
Modern insulated cylinder	4,000	$680	£1,000	€1,400
Cylinder + jacket + 60 °C setting	3,500	$595	£875	€1,225
Heat pump water heater	1,400	$238	£350	€490
Solar thermal + electric backup	1,800	$306	£450	€630

The gap between the first and fourth rows is bigger than most households’ entire lighting, entertainment and computing use combined. If one appliance in the house is worth replacing on running cost alone, it is usually this one.

Electricity Tariffs Explained

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every calculation on this site needs one number from your bill, and bills are designed to make it hard to find. Here is what each part means and which one to use.

Unit rate — the number you want

The unit rate is what you pay per kilowatt-hour consumed. It is the only figure that belongs in a running-cost calculation, because it is the only part that changes with how much you use.

EV Charging Cost Calculator

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The comparison that matters is cost per mile, because that is the one that lines up with a tank of petrol. At 3.5 miles per kWh and a 10% charging loss:

Where and when you charge	Price per kWh	Cost per mile	10,000 miles a year
US home, standard rate	$0.17	5.3¢	$535
US home, off-peak EV rate	$0.08	2.5¢	$251
UK home, standard rate	£0.25	7.9p	£786
UK home, overnight EV rate	£0.07	2.2p	£220
Germany, household rate	€0.35	11.0¢	€1,100
Public rapid charger	$0.45	14.1¢	$1,414

The two UK rows are the same car in the same driveway; the only difference is which hours it charges in. That is why the tariff field on this page is the most valuable input on the site.

Fridge Freezer Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Refrigeration is the appliance nobody ever switches on, which is why it is worth checking once. Annual figures:

Appliance	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Modern A-rated fridge freezer	200	$34	£50	€70
Typical fridge freezer	350	$60	£88	€123
15-year-old fridge freezer	600	$102	£150	€210
Chest freezer, modern	250	$43	£63	€88
Second fridge in the garage	500	$85	£125	€175

The last row is the one worth acting on. A spare fridge kept in an unheated garage for drinks is frequently the third or fourth largest consumer in a house, and it is the easiest thing on this page to switch off.

Gaming PC Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Four hours of play a day, every day, for a year — plus what the same machine does the rest of the time.

Setup	Draw	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Laptop, gaming	120 W	175	$30	£44	€61
Console	180 W	263	$45	£66	€92
Mid-range desktop	350 W	511	$87	£128	€179
High-end desktop	600 W	876	$149	£219	€307
Add: monitor	45 W	66	$11	£16	€23
Add: left idle 20 h a day	80 W	584	$99	£146	€204

Look at the last row against the third. A mid-range PC left running all day when nobody is using it costs more than the gaming does — and sleep mode makes that row disappear.

Heat Pump Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The comparison that decides most heating decisions, for the same warmth delivered into the same room over the same eight hours.

Heating the room with	Electricity used	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Resistance heater, COP 1	28.8 kWh	$4.90	£7.20	€10.08
Heat pump at COP 2 (cold day)	14.4 kWh	$2.45	£3.60	€5.04
Heat pump at COP 3 (typical)	9.6 kWh	$1.63	£2.40	€3.36
Heat pump at COP 3.5 (mild)	8.2 kWh	$1.40	£2.06	€2.88

Every row delivers the same 28.8 kWh of heat. The only thing that changes down the column is how much electricity it took to get it there — which is the whole argument for heat pumps in one table, including the honest bottom line that on the coldest days the gap narrows.

Heat Pump vs Electric Heater

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This is the largest single running-cost difference in a house, and it rests on one idea that sounds like a trick.

100% efficient is the worst you can do

An electric resistance heater — ceramic, oil-filled, fan, panel, baseboard, immersion element — converts electricity to heat at exactly 100%. Every watt in becomes a watt of warmth. There is nothing wasted and no room for improvement, which is why one 1,500 W heater costs precisely the same to run as any other.

Home vs Public EV Charging

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Charging an electric car has the widest price range of anything on this site. The same kilowatt-hour can cost four times more depending on where the cable is plugged in.

The comparison, per mile

At 3.5 miles per kWh, which is typical for a mid-size EV in mild weather, with a 10% charging loss on AC:

Where	Price per kWh	Cost per mile	10,000 miles
Home, overnight EV tariff (UK)	£0.07	2.2p	£220
Home, off-peak (US)	$0.08	2.5¢	$251
Home, standard rate (US)	$0.17	5.3¢	$535
Home, standard rate (UK)	£0.25	7.9p	£786
Home, household rate (Germany)	€0.35	11.0¢	€1,100
Public AC destination charger	$0.30	9.4¢	$943
Public rapid / DC fast charger	$0.45	14.1¢	$1,414

For comparison, a petrol car at 30 mpg with fuel at $3.50 a gallon is 11.7 cents a mile; at 40 mpg with fuel at £1.45 a litre, about 16.5p.

Hot Tub Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The same tub, four different situations. Heater at 3,000 W:

Situation	Heater hours a day	kWh a month	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Summer, good cover	2	183	$31	£46	€64
Summer, tired cover	4	365	$62	£91	€128
Winter, good cover	5	457	$78	£114	€160
Winter, tired cover	9	822	$140	£205	€288
Add: air blower, 30 min a day	—	23	$4	£6	€8

Rows one and four are the same tub in the same garden. The difference between them — over $100 a month at the worst of it — is a cover and some insulation, which is why that is where the money should go before the thermostat.

How to Read Your Electricity Meter

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every figure on this site is an estimate until you check it against the thing that actually counts your electricity. Doing that takes ten minutes and needs no equipment.

Reading the meter

Digital display. Read the digits left to right, ignoring anything after a decimal point or in a red box. Some meters cycle through several displays — the one you want is labelled kWh, sometimes with a rate number (rate 1 is usually day, rate 2 night).

How to Work Out a Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The arithmetic takes ten seconds. Getting the inputs right is where the work is.

The formula

watts × hours ÷ 1,000 × price per kWh = cost

A 1,500 W heater, four hours, at $0.17 per kWh: 1,500 × 4 = 6,000 watt-hours = 6 kWh × 0.17 = $1.02. That is the whole method, and everything else on this site is that line with better inputs.

Where the two numbers live

Watts are on the rating plate: the back of a television, the base of a kettle, inside the washing machine door, on the power supply brick. If it lists volts and amps instead, multiply them. If the plate has gone, the wattage table has typical figures with the usual range.

How We Calculate

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every calculator on this site is two steps: turn the appliance into kilowatt-hours, then turn kilowatt-hours into money at your price. What differs between tools is only how the first step is measured.

The formulas

Steady draw: watts × hours ÷ 1,000 = kWh. Then × your price per kWh.
Days a week: the daily figure × days ÷ 7, so a machine used at weekends is not counted as daily.
A month is 30.44 days — a twelfth of a year, not 30. Twelve monthly figures therefore equal the yearly figure exactly, and the page never shows two numbers that disagree.
Per cycle: kWh per cycle × cycles a week × 52 = kWh a year. Used for washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers, whose draw jumps between 100 W and 2,500 W during a programme — and for anything charged from a battery, where a “cycle” is one charge.
Per use, in minutes: watts × minutes ÷ 60 ÷ 1,000 = kWh per use. Showers, air fryers, kettles and hair dryers run for minutes, so “hours a day” is the wrong question — the honest answer would be 0.13 and nobody thinks that way.
By heated area: area in m² × watts per m² = the load. Electric underfloor heating is sold as output per square metre, and what a person knows is the size of the room, not the draw of the loop under it.
Charging losses: battery figures include about 15% on top of the capacity in the cell, because that is what is lost as heat between the socket and the battery. It is the warmth you can feel in the plug, and leaving it out understates every charging figure.
EV charging: energy into the battery = capacity × (target % − current %). Energy off the meter = that ÷ charging efficiency. Cost per mile = meter energy ÷ miles per kWh × price.
Amps: watts ÷ volts. The same appliance draws half the amps at 240 V that it does at 120 V, while using exactly the same energy.

The one number we never supply

The price per kWh is always yours to type. Every tool pre-fills an approximate household average for the country you pick so the form is not empty, but nothing on this site depends on those figures being current. They differ by supplier, tariff, region and time of day, and a published average is out of date within months. The number on your bill is the only correct one.

Pool Pump Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Same pool, same water turnover, four different ways of moving it. Per six-month season:

Pump and setting	Draw	Hours a day	kWh a season	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Single speed, 12 h	1,100 W	12	2,376	$404	£594	€832
Single speed, 8 h	1,100 W	8	1,584	$269	£396	€554
Variable, high speed 4 h + low 8 h	mixed	12	748	$127	£187	€262
Variable, low speed 12 h	~150 W	12	324	$55	£81	€113

The bottom row moves the same water as the top one over a day. That is the cube law doing the work, and it is the reason variable-speed pumps are now mandatory for new installations in several places.

Privacy Policy

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Who is responsible for your data

Operated by: maicrosites.com
Established in: Slovakia, European Union
Email: info@costrunning.com
Site: costrunning.com

There is no data protection officer. The site is run by one person and meets none of the conditions in Article 37 GDPR that would require one, so the address above reaches the person who actually decides what happens to your data — not a queue.

What we process

The calculators run entirely in your browser — the wattages, hours and electricity prices you type are never sent anywhere.

Space Heater Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The only variable that matters is hours. Here is what a 1,500 W heater costs across the ways people actually use one.

How it is used	Hours a day	kWh a day	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
An hour to take the chill off	1	1.5	$0.26	£0.38	€0.53
An evening in one room	4	6.0	$1.02	£1.50	€2.10
Working from home, all day	8	12.0	$2.04	£3.00	€4.20
Overnight in a bedroom	8	12.0	$2.04	£3.00	€4.20
Continuously in a cold room	24	36.0	$6.12	£9.00	€12.60

Multiply the day column by ninety for a winter. The bottom row is where people discover that a heater left running in a poorly insulated room can cost more over one season than insulating the room would have.

Standby Power Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One watt left on permanently is 8.76 kWh a year. Here is what that means device by device.

Device on standby	Draw	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Modern TV, true standby	0.5 W	4	$0.75	£1.10	€1.53
Phone charger, nothing attached	0.3 W	3	$0.45	£0.66	€0.92
Soundbar	4 W	35	$6	£9	€12
Console in rest mode	12 W	105	$18	£26	€37
Set-top box or DVR	20 W	175	$30	£44	€61
Old AV receiver	15 W	131	$22	£33	€46
A typical household total	45 W	394	$67	£99	€138

Two rows at the top, five at the bottom. That is the entire practical lesson: ignore the chargers, deal with the boxes.

The Biggest Electricity Users in a Home

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ask someone which appliance uses the most electricity and they will usually name something with a screen. The real ranking is almost entirely about heat and hours.

The ranking, by annual kilowatt-hours

For an all-electric household of three or four. Homes with gas heating and hot water simply delete the top rows.

Rank	Where it goes	kWh a year	At $0.17
1	Space heating	3,000–12,000	$510–2,040
2	Water heating	3,000–5,000	$510–850
3	Air conditioning	1,000–3,000	$170–510
4	EV charging, 10,000 miles	2,900	$493
5	Hot tub, if there is one	2,000–4,000	$340–680
6	Tumble dryer, 4 loads a week	230–690	$39–117
7	Fridge and freezer	350–600	$60–102
8	Standby, whole household	260–525	$44–89
9	Cooking	300–600	$51–102
10	Gaming PC, 4 h a day	500–900	$85–153
11	Lighting, all LED	200–400	$34–68
12	Washing machine	100–200	$17–34
13	Television and entertainment	150–300	$26–51
14	Dishwasher	200–320	$34–54

Two patterns explain the whole table

Heat dominates. Everything in the top five either makes heat or moves it. Turning electricity into warmth needs orders of magnitude more energy than turning it into light, sound or computation. That is why one heater outranks every screen in the house combined.

The Cheapest Time to Run Appliances

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The honest answer comes in two halves, and which half applies to you depends entirely on your tariff.

On a flat tariff: it makes no difference

If your bill has one unit rate, a kilowatt-hour costs the same at 3 am and 6 pm. Running the dishwasher overnight saves nothing at all. The widely repeated advice to use appliances at night is inherited from countries and decades where nearly everybody was on a two-rate meter.

Tumble Dryer Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Three machines, the same dry clothes, three very different bills. This is four loads a week for a year.

Dryer type	kWh a cycle	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Vented	3.3	686	$117	£172	€240
Condenser	2.5	520	$88	£130	€182
Heat pump	1.1	229	$39	£57	€80
Washing line	0	0	$0	£0	€0

The gap between the first and third rows is the case for a heat pump dryer, and it is bigger in Europe than in North America purely because of the price of electricity. The last row is the one nobody markets.

TV Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Five hours a day, every day, for a year — the whole living room rather than just the screen.

Device	Draw	Hours a day	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
43-inch LED	60 W	5	110	$19	£27	€38
55-inch LED	90 W	5	164	$28	£41	€57
65-inch LED / OLED	120 W	5	219	$37	£55	€77
Soundbar	35 W	5	64	$11	£16	€22
Set-top box, always on	20 W	24	175	$30	£44	€61
Console in rest mode	12 W	24	105	$18	£26	€37

Compare the last two rows with the second. The things nobody switches off cost as much as the thing everybody watches — which is the argument for the standby calculator rather than for a smaller television.

Washing Machine Running Cost

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One dial explains almost the whole table. Five loads a week for a year:

Programme	kWh a cycle	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
Cold / 20 °C	0.4	104	$18	£26	€36
30 °C cotton	0.7	182	$31	£46	€64
40 °C cotton	1.1	286	$49	£72	€100
60 °C cotton	1.4	364	$62	£91	€127
90 °C boil wash	2.2	572	$97	£143	€200

Compare the top and bottom rows: the same clothes, the same machine, five times the bill. And then compare the whole table with a single tumble dryer row — drying costs more than washing, whatever temperature you choose.

Watts to kWh Calculator

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One kilowatt-hour, described six ways. It is the same amount of energy every time.

Appliance	Draw	Time to use 1 kWh
LED bulb	9 W	111 hours
Router	10 W	100 hours
Television	90 W	11 hours
Fridge, while running	150 W	6.7 hours
Gaming PC	450 W	2.2 hours
Space heater	1,500 W	40 minutes
Kettle	2,500 W	24 minutes
Electric shower	9,000 W	6.7 minutes

Read the top and bottom rows together: an LED bulb would have to burn for four and a half days to use what an electric shower gets through in under seven minutes. That ratio, rather than any tariff, is why some appliances matter on a bill and others never will.

What Standby Power Really Costs

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Standby is the most talked-about and least measured item on any electricity bill. Both halves of that are worth fixing.

The number that makes it make sense

One watt left on permanently is 8.76 kWh a year. At $0.17 that is $1.49; at £0.25, £2.19; at €0.35, €3.07 — every year, for as long as the device exists.

So the question for any device is not “does it use power on standby” but “how many watts”. One watt is a rounding error. Twenty watts is a fridge.