most expensive electrical items in a average house ?

bigjluk

any info well appreciated ,also how do light charges compare to appliances

Cardew

All the more expensive appliances involve heating - dishwasher, dryer, cooker, immersion heaters etc.

Lighting very much depends on the type of bulb.

If we take the nominal price of electricity as being 10p for a kWh(unit):

The most expensive bulb you are likely to find in a house is 100Watts and will cost 1 pence an hour to run.

Energy saving bulbs of 11W and 15W will run for 9 hours and 7 hours for one penny.

rabialiones

what about an electric kettle?
our bill this time was 170
usually its between 40-60
i know prices have gone up but not double
i checked meter while switching appliances on and it started whizzing round , when electric kettle was switched on.
could there be a fault in kettle, or is this normal
btw its same kettle we have been using for ages

Cardew

Electric kettles, for the short time they are on, have very heavy consumption. Most are 3kW so cost about 0.5p a minute to run.

So you can boil a lot of water for 1 pence.

It is not possible to get a fault on a kettle that will cause it to use more electricity(other than it won't switch off) If it used more electricity it would blow the fuse.

This applies to any appliance. Energy(electricity) cannot be destroyed and it produces heat.

Francesanne

Have been told that tumble dryers are very expensive to run. I dry everything on a clothes line weather permitting. I'm on Economy 7 and use my washing machine only at night when it's cheaper. When using an electric kettle make sure you don't overfill it.

moonrakerz

Francesanne wrote: »

Have been told that tumble dryers are very expensive to run.

I am somewhat surprised by the bad publicity that tumble driers get, almost as bad as TVs left on standby ! A lot of it does appear to be based on apocryphal heresay (as above) rather than on any objective study.

Due to building work in my back garden we have not been able to dry any clothes outside this year. Some light weight stuff is dried on a clothes horse in doors, but I would estimate that 75% of our laundry is tumbled.
I read my meter the other day (following eon price rise), my average daily consumption for the last two months was 12.5kWh per day. My water heating is gas (and C/H) but everything else is electric.

The tumble drier (a new Bosch condenser) doesn't appear to be having much effect on my bills considering all the other appliances that are in use.

Magentasue

Costing a kwh of electricity at 12.5p, my tumble drier costs 22p an hour to run. For that I can wash five loads. In the winter I tumble dry a lot. If I'm working full-time, I probably tumble dry 90% of our laundry. If I'm home more, I try to use less. There are six of us wearing adult sized clothes and, although I haven't timed it (probably will this winter) I think the tumble drier is on for at least eight hours a week in the winter.

So £1.76 a week for 26 weeks = about £46 a year..

We are using 13-14 kwh a day without using the tumble drier so, in the winter, it will probably account for at least another couple of units a day.

For me, it's worth it but for people on a tight budget, especially if they are a typical two adult/two child household or smaller or if someone is at home to manage airing the laundry, a tumble drier is, IMO, an expensive luxury.

ABN

fridge. they use a lot as they are on 24/7/365. other appliances are just used as and when.

jscalow

ABN wrote: »

fridge. they use a lot as they are on 24/7/365. other appliances are just used as and when.

I am fortunate and able to keep my fridge and freezer outside in a utility room- cool in the summer (if we ever get one ) and very cold at winter time when I very rarely hear it running.
However, I compensate for any saving made with my tumble dryer as I don't have the option to dry outside. My electrical bills have always been very reasonable and was normally estimated and paid by dd, however i have just had it read and received an additional bill for £160- now I am paranoid about using appliances. Very glad to see individual prices posted on this forum for how much each item costs to run for an hour- Thank you all.

footnote- after reading this thread I have just changed my tariff thru U switch and hope to save £143 per year based on my last 12 months energy use.

Cardew

ABN wrote: »

fridge. they use a lot as they are on 24/7/365. other appliances are just used as and when.

They all have thermostats so for the great majority of the time they are using no electricity.

Typical running costs for a modern larder fridge is around £20 a year and £40 for a fridge/freezer.

1carminestocky

Electric ovens are fairly large leccy guzzlers although I accept that as they are thermostatically controlled the whole 2-3kwh of power is not being used all the time. Problem with leccy ovens is, unlike kettles or even tumble dryers, they tend to be on for a long period of time.