Martin Lewis has explained how you can easily calculate the cost of running any electrical household appliance. Appearing alongside Susanna Reid on today's Good Morning Britain (Oct 10), he explained the maths people can do by using the example of cooking a jacket potato.
The Money Saving Expert founder suggested it would be cheaper to cook a spud in a microwave rather than an oven because of the wattage of each appliance and how long you would need to use them for. The only exception to this would be if you are cooking six or more potatoes.
Martin said: "A typical microwave is 1000 watts - 1000 watts is a kilowatt (kw)- so we know a KW of electricity under the new price cap guarantee is 34p. How long does a jacket potato take - we say about 10 minutes in a microwave.
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"So you're talking a sixth of 34p - we'll call it 6p - one jacket potato in the microwave is 6p. An oven can be 1000 to 2000 watts but we'll go generous and say it's 1000 watts - but to cook a jacket potato in an oven it takes say an hour which is 34p.
"If you had six jacket potatoes - cause they'd all go in the oven and you don't pay any more - that would still be 34p. It's cheaper to cook one jacket potato in the microwave."
Martin also shared the advice on Twitter, explaining to his 1.8 million followers the calculations they should do. He tweeted: "How to calculate energy cost of an appliance: 1. Find its wattage 2. Know 1000W is a Kilowatt (kW) 3. You pay roughly 34p per kW per hour. So 100W (a tenth of a kW) appliance on for two hours is 3.4p an hour x 2 = 6.8p."
However, journalist Dr Simon Evans commented to suggest that the picture may not be this simple. He said: "Hi Martin, this isn't true for eg an oven or a fridge or dishwasher, because they only operate at max wattage for short periods."
Martin acknowledged that the calculations wouldn't work for all appliances, but that it was still a useful thing to understand. He said: "I know, but this is a rule of thumb in a simple tweet, which is a good start point. It gives an indication and is most useful when you're talking about 'how much will it cost to switch X on' rather than appliances that are constantly on. :)"
The financial guru is calling on energy providers to reduce standing charges after revealing that even if a household used no energy, they would still be charged £273 this year.
One Good Morning Britain viewer, called Cherry, asked if it was cheaper to use washing machines and dishwashers at night. Martin responded: "Most people are on standard rates that apply all the time so you pay the same amount whenever you use energy.
"The two things that would change that - if you're on a Time of Use Tariff such as Eco 7 or Eco 10 it will be cheaper at night but generally you would know if you were on one. If you have solar panels you would want to use your energy during the day when there's daylight so that some of that is being used up by your solar panel."
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