Electricity cost to run Lakeland Yoghurt Maker

shila_2

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone could help...

A couple of months ago I bought this yoghurt maker from Lakeland, which promised to cost "pennies" to run and make fabulous yoghurt.
The yoghurt is pretty good and I love the idea of having almost 0% fat yoghurt without any preservatives, etc. The only thin is that it needs to be on for 8 hours (often twice a wk).

Now, the problem is: does it really cost "pennies" to run?
We are currently paying 23.513p x kWh ( I know, it's probably not the cheapest, I'm working on sorting this out).
The y. maker runs at 9w.

Can anyone please help me with the calculation on how much this is per hour?

Thanks a lot in advance

Shila

stewie_griffin

As its 9W then it'll need to be on for 111 hours before it uses 1 unit (kWh) of electricity.

If you use it twice a week, every week, then it'll use 1 unit every 7 weeks.

tim9966

Less than 1p per hour.

If I've worked it our correctly you would use just over 3p a week having it on for 8 hours twice a week.

penrhyn

You clearly bought the wrong machine, should have gone for the Easiyo!!

shila_2

Thanks a lot for the prompt replay, you've been very helpful...
Penrhyn: I have been thinking which one to get for a while, and I was considering Easiyo as one of the options. Then I found out that Easiyo needs powder "refills" to make yogurt, and those are quite expensive, I seem to remember... Can you tell me about ur experience?
Thanks again to all

Cardew

tim9966 wrote: »

Less than 1p per hour.

If I've worked it our correctly you would use just over 3p a week having it on for 8 hours twice a week.

At 9w it will run for over 100 hours for 1 unit(kWh) so about 0.1p an hour - for electricity at a sensible price.

ariba10

shila wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the prompt replay, you've been very helpful...
Penrhyn: I have been thinking which one to get for a while, and I was considering Easiyo as one of the options. Then I found out that Easiyo needs powder "refills" to make yogurt, and those are quite expensive, I seem to remember... Can you tell me about ur experience?
Thanks again to all

We use ours with skimmed milk and a starter made from frozen live yogurt bought from a supermarket.

penrhyn

ariba10 wrote: »

We use ours with skimmed milk and a starter made from frozen live yogurt bought from a supermarket.

Exactly what our family does. Although the EasyYo packets are very nice for a change and one packet makes a load of yoghurt.
http://www.qvcuk.com/ukqic/qvcapp.aspx/app.nav/params.dept.ukAWEESC/walk.yah.UKHG-U293

http://www.easiyo.com/ukoutlets.php

A.Penny.Saved

I use a Moulinex yoghurt maker for my yoghurt and it takes about 4 hours.
My only real complaint with this yoghurt maker is that it does tend to heat up a bit too hot if left on for too long. The surface temperature can get too warm for bacteria, although the temperature of the actual yoghurt itself will be lower.

The pots are fairly small so that is partly why it's quicker. Boiling the milk, which I now use powered skimmed milk, does help speed up the process because it helps break down the milk proteins. I was using supermarket bio yoghurt as the starter at one time and then I got some bacteria capsules (Culturella) and began using them after reconstituting them. These bacteria are supposed to be a very beneficial strain of bacteria which has been extensively studied worldwide with 250 Clinical trials and the results are meant to be very beneficial. Getting it reconstituted took some doing as it's freeze dried but once done it has been going for many months from one capsule.

You can use a bit of the yoghurt as a starter, you don't really need to buy any more. That's the thing about bacteria, they reproduce. I think the stories about starters are a lie because they know that they need to keep selling starter and could not do that once people had purchased it once unless they tell a story about it requiring replacing. Bacteria didn't get where it is by becoming weak and ineffective over time.

I personally wouldn't waste money on any yoghurt maker that requires starter packs to be purchased. Being dependant on a company with regular purchases of products is not the way to go IMO.

A tip: try and take the yoghurt with an insoluble fibre source because insoluble fibre is broken down by the bacteria and provides the beneficial effects, including immune system stimulation and production of important fatty acids.

tahrey

If it's a 9 watt yoghurt maker ... then it uses as much as a 9 watt energy saver light bulb

Or in other words, one-hundredth of a typical 900w toaster or a more efficient type of "700w" microwave (that will actually -consume- 900w), or a three-hundredth of a 2700w kettle.

So if you run your micro for six minutes - or fill the kettle about 1/2 full (which will take 2~2.5 minutes to boil with a typical 2.5-3kw one) that's ten hours or more of yoghurt maker use :-)

IE So little, you barely even have to worry about it. Though if you were to leave it on all year (24/7), it'd have used about £18 in the end.

(Leccy at 12p/unit is very nearly £1 per watt per year for a device that's left on continuously... so about £2/w/y for horrible 23p/unit prepay meter power).

I'm more scrubby than that. I just pick up the final-clearance packs from the oops shelf, particularly if it's a large plain natural yoghurt one. Keeps a surprisingly long time and is dirt cheap.

Ben84

23.5p a kWh is very high. However, is this the price for every kWh you use, or just the first few hundred per quarter of a two tier tariff?

It's not likely to change the conclusion that a 9W appliance is very cheap to use, but if it's first tier unit prices and you exceed them every quarter (most people do), then I would always consider the cost to use an appliances at the second tier pricing as that's the actual cost being added to your electric bill. For something like an electric heater, this difference is significant and could make quite a difference to how much you're willing to use it.