Electricity cost calculator
What does boiling the kettle, a wash or an evening of gaming cost? Pick an appliance, check the price per kWh and see the cost per use, day, month and year.
Ofgem's price cap unit rate, 1 October 2026 – 31 December 2026, the Direct Debit average. The daily standing charge comes on top. Change it if you know your own price.
209 uses a year · 1.0 kWh per use.
How to read the numbers
Watts on the label
The power in watts (W) is on the rating plate or in the manual. 1,000 W for an hour is 1 kWh. A 2,000 W kettle that boils for four minutes uses 2,000 × 4 ÷ 60 ÷ 1,000 = 0.13 kWh. Washing machines, dryers and dishwashers heat in cycles, so their EU energy label gives kWh per cycle instead: use that number as it is.
Standby adds up
A TV, a router or a games console on standby can draw 1–10 W around the clock. Five watts all year is 44 kWh. Choose “Your own”, type the watts and 24 hours, and set the uses to one a day to see what it costs.
Why the price changes by the hour
Where electricity is sold by the hour, the spot price follows supply and demand on the power exchange: often lowest at night and on windy or sunny middays, highest in the early evening. Moving the dishwasher from 18:00 to the cheapest hour can halve what a wash costs.
What the price includes
In Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium the calculator starts from today's average spot price with the state's charges and VAT, but without your grid company's tariff and your supplier's mark-up. Elsewhere it uses Eurostat's household average, which includes everything but is half a year old; in Great Britain Ofgem's price cap. For the most exact answer, type the all-in price from your own bill.
Questions about electricity costs
- How do I work out what an appliance costs to run?
- Multiply the power in kilowatts by the hours it runs to get kWh, then multiply by your price per kWh. 2,000 W for 15 minutes is 2 × 0.25 = 0.5 kWh; at 30 cents per kWh that is 15 cents.
- How much electricity does standby use?
- Usually between half a watt and ten watts per device. Ten devices at 3 W each draw 30 W day and night, about 260 kWh a year. A power strip with a switch takes it away.
- Why is my bill higher than the calculator says?
- In the countries with a daily spot price the calculator leaves out your grid company's tariff, your supplier's mark-up and fixed monthly fees, because they differ from company to company. Type the all-in price from your bill to include them.
- When is electricity cheapest?
- Where the price changes by the hour, usually at night and on windy or sunny middays, and dearest between about 17:00 and 20:00. The country pages show today's prices hour by hour.
Related pages
Sources
- Source: Eurostat (nrg_pc_204).
- Bundesnetzagentur | SMARD.de, CC BY 4.0.
- Source: Energinet (www.energidataservice.dk), CC BY 4.0.
- Exchange rates: European Central Bank (ECB), euro reference rates – free to use.
- Ofgem, energy price cap. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.