Price of 1kw of electricity?

LiveSimply

I have an electric fire with two settings - 1kw and 2kw. How do I work out the cost to run the fire for one hour? Is 2kw literally double the code of 1kw? I have no idea where to start googling, and can’t get my head around any of the results. 

dil1976

You electric bill is based on your consumption of kWh (kilo watt hours) you use. So basically how may kilo Watts you use every hour so to run your 1 kilo watt appliance for an hour would be how ever much you are charged for per kWh.

spot1034

Yes, 2kW hours (using both bars of your fire for an hour) will literally cost twice what one bar for an hour would cost. 

littleboo

1 Unit of electricity, is 1Kw for 1 hour. Or 500W for 2 hrs, 2Kw for 1/2 hour etc. So yes, the 2Kw setting will cost twice as much and the actual cost will depend on what you pay per Unit. A Unit rate of 29p means on the 1Kw setting, it will cost 29p per hour, or 58p/hr on the 2Kw setting

Gerry1

An electric fire is about the most expensive form of room heating you can have, as is any other space heater that uses daytime electricity.

Check with your supplier (add 5% VAT if looking at the itemised bill) but roughly 30p/hour for 1kW and 60p/hour for 2kW on the standard variable tariff.

Scot_39

As above - you are billed for total energy use - a combination of the power of the device used and time used for, where in simplest form for electricals 

Energy used = Power of Device x Time Used

And for "simplicity" in UK these are based on units of kWh, easily deroived from power kW (1000W) and time in hours

So Energy in kWh = kW power rating of device x time used in hours

So again 1 kWh can be as above 1kW for 1hr, 0.5kW for 2 hours, or 2kW for 1/2 hour or 3kW for 1/3 hr - being some of the common typical ratings available on plug in electric heaters.

And it is the energy balance - total heat energy in vs heat losses out - that raises the average temperature in the room and then hopefully maintains it.

So you could use 2kW setting - and it would get the room to desired temperature in half the time - and then if power sufficient - switch off based on thermostat settting - or you could use the 1kW setting - and wait twice as long.

Then expect some degree of cycling on / off to maintain that heat against losses.

 

The cost - well thats dependent on supplier to some extent and region - but the current average DD  / prepay unit rate on an Ofgem capped variable tariff is c 27p / kWh (if on a direct domestic supply) - or c29p if pay on receipt of bill.

So a 1 kW bar - on solidly for 1 hour - costs c27-29p +/- couple of pence regional variations.

Which doesn't sound a lot in isolation - but if fire was on say from 8am to 11pm - thats then 15 hours - or nearly £5 - more when include the average SC of c60p.

Is that sort of fire your only source of heat available ?

Do you have gas - or say night storage heaters - available but afraid to use ?

(many have one or the other - but don't use as overall they are all to easy to set-up to consume too much energy for those on a tight budget despite potential lower unit costs - which simply equates to used an often much higher average temperature across the whole house across the whole day - than say heating the one room to the minimum comfortable during daytime only)

Do you know for instance what sort of electricity tariff you are on ?

And how you pay (paying on receipt of paper bill has attracted upto nearly 10% premium over recent quarters) ?

Their is no shame in asking for help - with bills at their current levels.  The cap is currently 20% lower than last winters EPG cap rates - but still well up on 2 years ago - and as a low user - losing last winters £400 EBSS - adds significantly to my net costs this year.

So if concerned for winter costs - have you checked with suppliers - and/or someone like council or citizen advice if any additional help available to you ?

Reed_Richards

Gerry1 said:

... roughly 30p/hour for 1kW and 60p/hour for 2kW ...

Affirmative.

ArbitraryRandom

The completely unscientific way I like to think about it is food dye in a glass of water - to start with the colour/heat might be concentrated in one area, or you might use something to mix it up faster (like using a fan heater over a panel heater), but one drop of dye will (eventually) tint all of the water a fixed amount. There's no way one drop of dye in that volume of water can tint it more, so if you want the water more pigmented/room hotter then you need to add more drops. 

And if there's a small hole in the glass, with water dripping into the top to replace it, then the dye will be diluted; eventually all that dye will be lost leaving you with just water again - or you can top up the dye to keep the colour, either on a schedule, or using some automatic measuring system.  

Gas is like buying a cheaper and a little worse quality dye - so you maybe need to use two or three drops for the same colour, but it was a quarter of the price so most of the time you still save money.

markin

The actual cost will depend on how well the room keeps in the heat, if you can hear the thermostat click on/off you can count how many minutes it's on for, it could be 59min in hr 1, 30min in hr 2, and 20min in hr 3-7.