How do I convert energy consumption ratings into cost?

WLITC

Okay, I'm planning to buy a tumble dryer, according to the specs on the currys website, the Energy Consumption rating is 2.2 kwh. How do I work out roughly how much that would cost to run, say per hour?

Heinz

AFAIK, that 'rating' means it would consume 2.2kW of electricity in an hour. It's just a question of multiplying the price your supplier charges for a kWh of electricity by 2.2 to work out how much it would cost to run the dryer for an hour.

My supplier (Equipower) charges 7.4p per kWh so a rough calculation would mean that it'd cost you 16.28p to run for an hour (my previous supplier (BG) has just put the price of electricity up again - so they would've charged me 29p).

Cardew

Heinz wrote:

My supplier (Equipower) charges 7.4p per kWh so a rough calculation would mean that it'd cost you 16.28p to run for an hour (my previous supplier (BG) has just put the price of electricity up again - so they would've charged me 29p).

How did you calculate BG would charge you 29p?

On BG's latest standard tariff(for DD or quarterly) a unit(kWh) on tier 2 costs between 8.409p for East Midlands and 10.242p for SWALES. So 2.2kWh will cost between 18.5p and 22.5p.

According to Equipower's website their lowest tariff is 7.40p per kWh for Eastern District(in SWales it is 9.7p) So as you quoted the Eastern District price of 7.4p, the BG price in Eastern would be 8.817p.

So whilst your 16.28p is correct the BG price would be 19.49p and NOT the 29p you gave.

I appreciate that people want to knock BG at every opportunity but it would be helpful, for others reading this site, if the savings were not exaggerated.

JohalaReewi

I think the consumption should be 2.2kW (not kWh) which would make sense (looks like the Curry's website has a few typos), so to get kWh (ie units) just multiply the kW figure by the number of hours you are going to use it for, to find how many units of electricity this will consume. You can then work out the cost.

eg. 2.2kW run for 3 hours = 6.6kWh at (say) 10p per unit = 66p

However, this will be the worst case because 2.2kW will be the energy consumed running at max heat. Tumble dryers have a cool down cycle which will use less, and many have different heat settings so a lower heat means less energy consumed - but a longer drying time so the kWh may be very similar.

Cardew

JohalaReewi wrote:

I think the consumption should be 2.2kW (not kWh) which would make sense (looks like the Curry's website has a few typos), so to get kWh (ie units) just multiply the kW figure by the number of hours you are going to use it for, to find how many units of electricity this will consume. You can then work out the cost.

eg. 2.2kW run for 3 hours = 6.6kWh at (say) 10p per unit = 66p

However, this will be the worst case because 2.2kW will be the energy consumed running at max heat. Tumble dryers have a cool down cycle which will use less, and many have different heat settings so a lower heat means less energy consumed - but a longer drying time so the kWh may be very similar.

You could be correct that the dryer is rated at 2.2 kW. Although the OP did state kWh and used the term"consumption".

The manual for my dryer gives several "consumption rates" for typical loads.e.g.

cottons/coloured 6kg, iron dry from a 1,400rpm spin washing machine, takes 80 minutes and consumes 2.3kWh.

In all it gives 10 typical loads and the consumption varies between 1.3 kWh and 4.2 kWh.

Heinz

Cardew wrote:

How did you calculate BG would charge you 29p?

On BG's latest standard tariff(for DD or quarterly) a unit(kWh) on tier 2 costs between 8.409p for East Midlands and 10.242p for SWALES. So 2.2kWh will cost between 18.5p and 22.5p.

According to Equipower's website their lowest tariff is 7.40p per kWh for Eastern District(in SWales it is 9.7p) So as you quoted the Eastern District price of 7.4p, the BG price in Eastern would be 8.817p.

So whilst your 16.28p is correct the BG price would be 19.49p and NOT the 29p you gave.

I appreciate that people want to knock BG at every opportunity but it would be helpful, for others reading this site, if the savings were not exaggerated.

True, electricity prices vary according to area.

Since they put their prices up again on 1/7/06, BG's electricity prices in my region have been an incredible 78% more expensive than Equipower for the first 225kWh of use per quarter but only 4.5% more expensive than Equipower for more use than that (their prices have been 13.188p/kWh for the first 225 kWh per quarter and 7.732p/kWh for any further use).

Hence, 13.188p x 2.2 = 29p [78% more than Equipower's highest price].

It would, of course, be less (17.01p - only 4.5% more than Equipower's lowest price) if you had already used the expensive 225kWh.

Cardew

Heinz wrote:

True, electricity prices vary according to area.

Since they put their prices up again on 1/7/06, BG's electricity prices in my region have been an incredible 78% more expensive than Equipower for the first 225kWh of use per quarter but only 4.5% more expensive than Equipower for more use than that (their prices have been 13.188p/kWh for the first 225 kWh per quarter and 7.732p/kWh for any further use).

Hence, 13.188p x 2.2 = 29p [78% more than Equipower's highest price].

It would, of course, be less (17.01p - only 4.5% more than Equipower's lowest price) if you had already used the expensive 225kWh.

As you well know the cost of the first 225 tier 1 units in a 3 month period is not relevant to the OP's question. Neither is the "incredible 78%"

So your statement

so they would've charged me 29p

is totally misleading.

Such mis-information and manipulation of statistics is a practice typical of the very worst advertising agencies and out of place on this forum which sets out to give people accurate money saving information.

Equipower supply electricity cheaper than BG(unless you opted for BG's fixed to 2010 tariff) - no argument. If you have changed to them, well done? - pat yourself on the back! It seems to me that there are many posts in that vein - "I changed to xxxx company - aren't I clever"

However some of the people who read these threads would read your original post and take that nonsense of 29p at face value.

Heinz

OK. So it's the beginning of the quarter and, as a BG electricity customer, I have just had the dryer switched on for an hour.

How much did the electricity cost me?

Sorry folks, I don't understand why cardew is trying to pick a fight but I think my comparison/question is reasonable.

Nevertheless, I am not prepared to play that game and so am updating this post rather than posting again. Doing so will allow this thread to slip into oblivion rather than bringing it back to the first page again.

All the best to you all. I've formed my own opinions/made my own decisions regarding suppliers and urge all others to do the same.

Cardew

Heinz wrote:

OK. So it's the beginning of the quarter and, as a BG electricity customer, I have just had the dryer switched on for an hour.

How much did the electricity cost me?

Clutching at straws aren't we?

Although the 'hot air' analogy is appropriate!!