Appliances
Appliance running costs
Introduction
Here's a number of appliances, with estimates of how much power they guzzle - or sometimes don't!
Where does it go? Is that what you wonder when you open the power bill? We've estimated typical running costs for a range of heating, kitchen, lighting and general household appliances so you can work out how to make the most effective savings in your home.
Where does it go?
We all know the obvious power hogs like plug-in electric heaters, but what about the less obvious ones? Do mobile phone or ipod chargers really save you much if you unplug them?
Our tables show typical running costs for a range of appliances - bathroom, kitchen and laundry; heating, cooling and lights; and general household appliances - so you can see where the dollars go. There are also ways you can make changes to knock back the bill:
Plasma TVs
Maybe you like to have a TV music channel playing in the background when you’re home. If it’s a plasma TV, it could be costing you more than five times as much as playing a CD on the stereo. Plasma TVs are an example of products that cost more to run than the technology they replaced. Other products, like the newest fridges, cost less.
Here’s a surprise: A 42” plasma screen, watched an average of five hours a day, could cost $181/year - $70 more per year than a new medium-sized fridge running all day. Playing games on a Playstation3 through the plasma five hours a day adds another $79 - total cost $260! Nintendo Wii on a 32” LCD, by comparison, costs $60.
Appliances on standby
There are appliances you aren’t supposed to turn off – like the DVD recorder or VCR. If you switch them off at the wall, your timer settings are lost and it can be a hassle to re-set them. Fortunately DVD recorders use next to nothing on standby.
Set-top boxes or decoders are nowhere near as efficient. Sky says you shouldn’t turn off your set-top box as it needs to be updated regularly. We wish Sky could design a low-power standby mode like Energy Star TVs. A set-top box can cost $43/year to run, while an energy-efficient TV on standby costs less than $2.
Chargers
We’re often told to unplug those mobile phone and ipod chargers. But the new-generation chargers use so little it’s barely worth the bother. It’s less than a cent a week – though for safety reasons you should unplug.
Tip: Feel the charger or appliance after it’s been plugged in a while. If it’s warm, you’ll save money if you unplug it.
Hot water
Hot water is a big power consumer. A 10-minute shower costs around half the price of a deep soak in the bath. A five-minute shower is even better. But you should have a water-efficient shower head, or it won’t be as cheap.
If you hand-wash dishes then rinse them in hot water, we estimate it’s costing 28c (a 15-litre sink filled twice). To wash and rinse the number of dishes you can load into a modern dishwasher, we think at least two lots of wash and rinse water are needed. A good dishwasher can do the job for half the cost – as long as you don’t run it half full.
Tip: avoid the half-load setting – it usually costs almost as much as a full load.
Most of us already cold-wash clothes, but we’ve done the sums to show how much it costs using warm water. In a large top loader, the hot water could cost more than that new super-concentrate detergent. If you use a dryer, add another 75 to 90c every time.
Bathroom, kitchen, laundry
Typical running costs for common appliances found in the bathroom, kitchen and laundry. See also our other running costs tables for heating, cooling and lighting, and general household appliances.
A = based on warm-up plus two cups of coffee. Some machines remain on standby for up to 24 hours.
Guide to the tables
Cost is calculated for typical uses at an average cost of 22c/unit of electricity and hot water at 20c/unit.
Heating, cooling, lighting
Typical running costs for heating and cooling appliances, and lights. See also our other running costs tables for bathroom, kitchen and laundry, and general household appliances.
Guide to the tables
Cost is calculated for typical uses at an average cost of 22c/unit of electricity, with night-store heating at 13c/unit.
Other household appliances
Typical running costs for general household appliances. See also our other running costs tables for heating, cooling and lighting, and bathroom, kitchen and laundry.
Guide to the table
Cost is calculated for typical uses, at an average cost of 22c/unit of electricity.