How Much Energy Do My Appliances Use? Infographic & Calculator (2025)

Use our Appliance Energy Calculator to estimate your business electricity usage and costs. Just tell us which appliances are used in your business premises and how long they’re used for, and provide you with an instant estimate of how much electricity your business uses and how much it should be paying for it.

How does our appliance energy calculator work?

Using our appliance energy calculator is quick, free, and easy. Simply follow these steps:

1. Select an appliance from the drop-down list
2. Enter how many are in your business premises and how many hours per day they are in use
3. Set the watts of your appliance(s) if you know (otherwise the average is provided)
4. Add any other appliances found on your business premises and repeat step 3
5. Set your business electricity rate, which you can find on a recent bill (otherwise the average is provided)
6. Select which days your business typically operates on
7. Click ‘calculate’ to see an estimate of how much electricity your appliances use and how much they cost to run

Why use our appliance energy calculator?

Our appliance energy calculator is ideal for businesses that want to gain a better understanding of their electricity usage and expenditure. Instead of estimating based on your monthly bills or average usage figures, it allows you to calculate consumption based on real-time activity inside your workplace. Whether you’re running a small office, a retail store, a large industrial kitchen, or any other commercial operation, knowing how much each appliance contributes to your overall electricity bill can help you identify where you can make sustainable changes to you and your employees’ habits. You can use our calculator to:

• Identify high-usage appliances
• Spot opportunities to switch to more efficient models
• Track the cost of running appliances both during and outside of working hours
• Estimate future electricity usage before expanding or relocating your business

How much electricity do common appliances use on average?

All electrical appliances cost money to run, but some are much more energy-intensive than others, so it’s important to know how much energy each consumes so that you can adopt more sustainable practices in the workplace. Let’s take a closer look at the typical electricity consumption for appliances commonly found in businesses across the country:

LED Lights

Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs are much more efficient than traditional light bulbs, generally using up to 80% less electricity than their alternatives. The average LED light bulb uses 10 watts of power, so will cost less than 1p to run per hour. However, you’ll likely have more than one LED light bulb in your business premises. Consider an office with 100 LED lights all running for 10 hours per day – this would cost around £76.50 a month to keep lit.

Halogen Lights

While the sale of halogen light bulbs has been banned in the UK for a few years now, many businesses with older premises will still use them to light their workplaces. These are much less efficient LED lights, and although their wattage can vary dramatically, they average at around 50 watts. This would cost around 1p per bulb, per hour, to run, which can quickly add up considering the size of the average business.

Desktop Computers

Desktop computers are much more energy-intensive than lights, but their actual wattage can vary greatly depending on their model and what they’re being used for. In general, a desktop computer being used for basic tasks will use 140 watts of power on average, which would cost around 28p per day based on 8 hours of usage. However, an office full of them doing more intensive tasks will cost considerably more.

Laptops

Laptops are typically more energy-efficient than desktop computers, using just 50 watts of electricity on average. This means it should cost around just 10p per day to run a laptop, assuming an 8-hour workday.

Printers

The wattage of a printer varies greatly depending on its type, model, and usage. While inkjet printers typically use between 30 and 50 watts of electricity when printing, laser printers are much less efficient, using 400 watts when in use, on average. This would cost around 10p per day in an office where printing is widespread. It’s also worth remembering that printers use power when on standby too, although at a much lower rate than when in use.

Fridges

Fridges and freezers use significant amounts of electricity, especially considering they’re typically left on all day and night. The average fridge uses around 150 watts, which could cost up to 92p daily to keep on for 24 hours a day. However, restaurants and certain shops will have industrial fridges, which are much larger than average and can use up to 400 watts of electricity, raising the energy costs significantly.

Kettles

Kettles use surprisingly large amounts of energy to boil water, with the average kettle using up to 3,000 watts of electricity. The good thing, however, is that they’re quick, so it’s unlikely that you’re using kettles constantly throughout the day. But if you’ve got 30 employees and they all make at least one cuppa a day, you’re looking at daily costs of 40p and upwards.

Microwaves

Microwaves are another electronic device that prioritises speed, with the average microwave using around 1,000 watts of power. However, most businesses will use microwaves sparingly, so they shouldn’t cost too much to run each month, although restaurants and cafes that use microwaves regularly could see their costs add up quickly.

Industrial Electric Ovens

An electric oven typically uses between 2,000 and 5,000 watts of power – a significant amount for an appliance that may be used for multiple hours per day. Meanwhile, industrial electric ovens, as in those likely to be found in restaurants, use around 7,000 watts of power on average. Using one of these for 12 hours per day could cost your business over £20 a day, or £465 per month.

Air Conditioning Units

While not widely used in homes in the UK due to our notoriously poor weather, air conditioning units are actually quite common in businesses. They use a lot of power, too. They generally use between 2,000 and 3,000 watts per hour, on average, so if they’re used all day, you could expect to pay over £6 per day to keep your business premises cool during the summer months.

Photocopiers

The energy-efficiency of photocopiers varies greatly depending on their size, speed, and model. While smaller models may use as little as 100 watts of electricity, some high-end models will use over 1,000 watts. That being said, the average photocopier found in an office uses around 600 watts, which would cost around 15p per hour to run.

Electric Heaters

Electric heaters are another type of appliance that vary greatly in terms of their energy consumption. Smaller heaters may use as little as 200 watts of electricity, while larger models may use upwards of 2,000 watts. If heating a workplace with an electric water heater, you could expect to pay around £20 per day on electricity costs.

Televisions

Televisions, commonly found in pubs and other workplaces across the UK, typically use between 50 and 200 watts of electricity, depending on their size and make. While this isn’t a lot, setting you back around 5p for a few hours of use, such as showing a football match, premises with multiple televisions running throughout the day will see their costs rise quickly.

Appliance Costs Table (2025)

The table below shows the typical power ratings, daily usage, and estimated running costs for common business appliances based on average UK electricity rates in 2025.

How many watts do my appliances use?

See the infographic below to find out… Download this infographic here.