How much does it cost to run?
Free calculators for appliance running costs, gas unit conversions, solar panel savings, and energy bills. Updated for the October 2026 price cap.
Free calculators for appliance running costs, gas unit conversions, solar panel savings, and energy bills. Updated for the October 2026 price cap.
Find out exactly what your tumble dryer, heater, or any appliance costs per hour, day, and month at the current 26.32p/kWh rate.
Calculate now →Convert your gas meter reading in cubic metres or cubic feet into kWh, then see the cost. Uses the official gov.uk conversion factors.
Convert now →Enter your unit rate, standing charge, and usage to see your annual cost and how it compares to the Ofgem price cap.
Check now →Estimate annual savings, payback period, and CO2 reduction based on your roof size, direction, and location.
Calculate now →Ofgem's price cap changed on 1 October 2026. Electricity now costs 26.32p per kWh, while gas sits at 7.97p per kWh. Your daily standing charges are 54.83p for electricity and 29.68p for gas. These are the maximum rates your supplier can charge on a standard variable tariff; fixed deals may differ.
There's one big change this quarter. The government has removed VAT from all domestic electricity bills for the period 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, so you pay no VAT on electricity at all. Gas still carries 5% VAT. That's why electricity has stayed broadly flat while gas rose about 8%. For a medium-use household the cap works out at roughly £1,723 per year, up £60 on the previous quarter. Your actual bill depends on how much you use. A family running a tumble dryer daily and heating water with an immersion heater pays far more than a couple in a well-insulated flat. The cap sets the unit rate, not a limit on your total bill.
Ofgem recalculates the cap every quarter: January, April, July, and October. They look at wholesale energy costs, network charges, supplier operating costs, and a profit margin. When wholesale gas prices fall, the cap drops. When they spike (as they did in 2022, reaching 34p/kWh for electricity), the cap rises. This October's rise was driven almost entirely by higher wholesale gas, since the VAT cut held electricity down.
The cap applies to around 20 million households on standard variable tariffs. If you're on a fixed deal, you've locked in a rate that won't change until your contract ends. But most people roll onto the standard tariff when their fix expires, so the cap matters for the majority of bill-payers in England, Wales, and Scotland.
Ofgem defines a "medium user" as someone consuming 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas per year. That's the Typical Domestic Consumption Value (TDCV). Ofgem lowered it in July 2026 to reflect households using less energy, about 7% less electricity and 17% less gas than the previous review. At the October rates, that gives you roughly £658 for electricity and £757 for gas, plus standing charges of around £200 for electricity and £108 for gas. Total: about £1,723.
A low-use household (1,800 kWh electricity, 7,500 kWh gas) pays closer to £1,400. And if you're in a large, draughty house with electric heating, you could easily exceed £2,300. These aren't guesses. They're direct calculations from published Ofgem rates multiplied by the TDCV figures.
The formula is simple: wattage (in kW) multiplied by hours of use, multiplied by the unit rate. A 2,000W fan heater running for 5 hours costs 2 x 5 x 26.32p = £2.63. That's £18.42 per week if you run it every day. Over a full winter (say 20 weeks), that single heater costs you £368. Knowing this helps you make better choices.
You might switch to a lower-wattage oil-filled radiator at 1,500W, saving 25% on heating that room. Or you might decide the £190 annual cost of a tumble dryer justifies buying a heated airer at £40 that costs £16 per year to run. Small decisions, real savings. Our calculators do the maths so you can compare options in seconds.