Take the shock out of your electricity usage
There aren’t many things to do around the house without electricity. A cup of tea, a text message, a spot of vacuuming, help with homework or just chillin’ with your favourite streaming service, all use tiny amounts of electricity. Baking a cake uses a bit more.
We dug into the data flowing past our Energy Specialists screens to figure out what a dollar's worth of electricity buys you¹.
The results are out, and we’ll admit, we’re surprised too!
Starting with the thing most of us carry around the house that’s not the cat. For just $1 you can charge your smartphone for seven months!
In the kitchen $1 will wash three loads of dishes (so make sure you fill it up), power your fridge for 3 days, boil your kettle enough times to make 140 cups of tea, or toast 120 slices of bread.
21 hours of TV viewing costs $1 and so does 63 recharges of a laptop or 16 hours on a desktop computer.
$1 spent on LED lighting buys you 260 hours of illumination vs. 52 hours with incandescent bulbs, so if you haven’t switched up to eco bulbs, you know what to do.
Appliances with the biggest appetites for electricity keep you cooler, warmer and cook your meals. $1 buys 45 minutes of heating or cooling from your air conditioner and heat pump. And $1 will pay to cook 1 roast dinner, heat water for one bath or keep your shower running for 18 minutes.
To keep track of your electricity usage, save power and money, check out Octopus Energy’s handy charts and make the most of our off-peak tariffs so you can use those power hungry appliances when electricity costs less.
If you set a timer on your dishwasher, washing machine, heat pump, battery chargers or dryer to go to work after midnight you can save by paying only half the normal rate with Octopus Energy.
