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washing machine running costs?

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hi all

i trying to find out costs involved with a washing machine. what are the 'avg' running costs, when using the machine for say a typical cycle, avg size wash?

cheers
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  • trafalgar_2
    trafalgar_2 Posts: 22,309 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    This should help,scroll down
  • Stuart_P
    Stuart_P Posts: 814 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker Photogenic
    trafalgar wrote:
    This should help,scroll down

    thanks for that.

    i'm reading those figures as power usage per hour in either watts or kilowatts depending on appliance. am i reading correctly?
  • George_Bray
    George_Bray Posts: 734 Forumite
    I've just thought of a way potentially to reduce my washing machine costs in terms of (a) metered water and moreover (b) the electric heat needed to get the water up to 40 or 60C.

    I may install a new pipe from the bath waste down to the washing machine hot water inlet, almost directly below, as it happens, with simple valves to control which route the water takes, so I don't need to redirect the water all the time. I can then make use of 'used' bath water, straight after having a hot bath. The water is still hot and relatively clean.

    Regards
    George
  • gromituk
    gromituk Posts: 3,087 Forumite
    Stuart_P wrote:
    am i reading correctly?

    Hmm - that site is crap, isn't it? "A washing machine consumes 3kW". No, the maximum consumption of a washing machine may be 3kW (mostly the element), but it consumes this for a much shorter time than the entire wash cycle.

    You should switch off as many of the appliances in the house as possible, then do a meter reading before and after a wash cycle. That will give you the best indication. Consumption will be affected most by the temperature of the wash. It's rarely necessary to wash things hotter than 40 degrees C.
    Time is an illusion - lunch time doubly so.
  • Stuart_P
    Stuart_P Posts: 814 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker Photogenic
    gromituk wrote:
    Hmm - that site is crap, isn't it? "A washing machine consumes 3kW". No, the maximum consumption of a washing machine may be 3kW (mostly the element), but it consumes this for a much shorter time than the entire wash cycle.

    You should switch off as many of the appliances in the house as possible, then do a meter reading before and after a wash cycle. That will give you the best indication. Consumption will be affected most by the temperature of the wash. It's rarely necessary to wash things hotter than 40 degrees C.

    yeah it is crap & a bit confusing. i have not got a machine yet. this post is to help me cost up for a potential future purchase

    stuart
  • Stuart_P
    Stuart_P Posts: 814 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker Photogenic
    anyone shed any more estimated costs please??
  • George_Bray
    George_Bray Posts: 734 Forumite
    Stuart_P wrote:
    anyone shed any more estimated costs please??

    I'm about to wash some sheets and other whites on high temp and will endeavor to connect a device I have (bought from Lidl) which measures KWh going through the device and will even report cost if you feed it with a pence per hour figure, being the cost of your electricity.

    If only I'd thought of this earlier, when I washed other stuff at 40C.

    So the device should report the precise amount of electricity used for each actual wash cycle.

    Regards
    George
  • Stuart_P
    Stuart_P Posts: 814 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker Photogenic
    cheers george! that will be extremely helpful

    stuart
  • gromituk
    gromituk Posts: 3,087 Forumite
    George, let us know the energy rating of your washing machine too.
    Time is an illusion - lunch time doubly so.
  • George_Bray
    George_Bray Posts: 734 Forumite
    Right, my "whites wash" has just finished. The cycle took longer than I'd expected at around 1.75 hours (i.e. one and three quarters). That's with a highest temp main wash, no pre-wash, spin, no blow dry.

    The total energy used was exactly 1.70 kWh. My Equipower electricity was charged at 7.47p per kWh in Feb 2006, although it might have gone up again with all the recent price hikes. Adding 5% VAT gives 7.84p per kWh. So 1.7 x 7.84p = 13.3p for my washing cycle.

    Wow! That seems cheap and the news gets better, I guess, because my washing machine must be relatively inefficient in terms of energy usage, being a mid-80s model from Zanussi. In overall terms it's been great value, though, because it's never needed a service and is still going strong. So total running cost allowing for the cost of depreciation/machine replacement (i.e lack of)/service and repairs (none whatsoever) has been VERY low.

    Back to energy usage...this machine doesn't have a modern A-E type energy rating but I saw it was using 2.3 - 2.5Kw during most of the main wash, presumably to keep the water temperature almost at boiling. It had used 1.00 kWh by the 33 minute stage. Energy consumed during the rinse and spin parts of the cycle was much less, so it used only another 0.7 kWh during the final 1.25 hrs.

    A 40C wash on 'half load' with a modern machine would presumably be MUCH cheaper even than my modest 13.3p

    Hope this helps

    Regards
    George

    PS
    The Equipower charge (Feb 2006) of 7.47p per kWh might appear higher than some tariffs. But Equipower don't have ANY standing charge so it's a bargain for low usage.
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