Fan fault means your electricity bill could be £20 higher next month

The Met Office predicts 2024 could be the hottest year on record, leaving people scrambling for ways to beat the summer heat. But experts at BOX have revealed how much fans are costing consumers to run – warning you could see your electricity bills rise.

To calculate the running cost of a fan, you need to know how much you pay for a unit of energy (1kw), which should be stated on your energy bill. Conformable We gasp the average national price per pence/kWh of electricity is 24.5p.

Next, you need to calculate the kW power of the fan. You can do this by checking its power, which can be found on the fan or on the instruction booklet. Once you know the wattage, convert this figure to kilowatt-hours by simply dividing the wattage by 1,000. This will reveal the amount of energy your fan uses per hour.

Multiply these two figures, the cost of one unit of energy by the kW output of your fan and that will be how much it costs to run the fan per hour. To find out how much this costs you per day, you can multiply by how many hours your fan is on.

Here are some examples:

• Box fans consume 0.073 kWh of electricity per hour at full speed. With an average electricity price of 24.5p, these fans can cost as little as 1.79p per hour. For an eight-hour working day, this would cost 14.32p.

• Tower fans use an average of 0.0565 kWh, costing about 1.38 per hour to run. If left on for 24 hours, this would add around 33.12p to your energy bill.

Andy Kerr, founder at BOX said: “As temperatures rise, consumers are often looking for ways to reduce their bills after a long, cold winter. However, it is possible to cool your household effectively with fans during the summer months. While the average 110W floor fan uses 2.7p of energy per hour or 64.8 per day, which would add £20.05 to your monthly energy bills, this price can be reduced if you are strategic with your fan and use their strengths.

“Many will keep their fans in storage during the colder months. However, this means they will have accumulated a lot of dust once you remove them – reducing their effectiveness. Before turning them on, make sure to remove any dust from the blades and any other surfaces before using the fan to increase their efficiency.

“As summer approaches, more people in the UK will be looking to invest in or remove their fans to keep them cool. While energy consumption remains a concern for many, running a fan is not as expensive as one might assume.”