Appliances and electronics are beneficial for making life easier for everyone in all aspects of life, and the morning routine is no exception. From jumping in the shower to cooking breakfast, the morning routine often uses a lot of electrical items and appliances.
In the current economic climate, the cost of fuel and electricity is high, so it’s no surprise that there is a greater price to carry out your usual morning routine. But just how much does a morning routine cost right now? By looking at the daily and annual costs of using the appliances that are often most utilised when we wake up, the team at Hey Discount have been able to determine the true cost of getting ready in the morning and compared this to how much it’s risen in the last year.
The overall cost of a morning routine
Since the increase in the energy price cap, this year the average cost of electricity is around 34p per kWh, much higher than the 21p per kWh cap from twelve months earlier. As a result of this change, energy bills across the UK have risen meaning the average annual cost of a morning routine has increased by over £100, or by an extra 29p per day.
To add further insight to this study, we will not only look at the cost of using appliances during your morning routine today, but also reflect on the increase in costs from twelve months ago.
The average cost of freshening up in the morning is currently 52 pence. This might not sound like a lot, but over a year this adds up to £190.27, an increase of £72.74 from the annual costs last October. Most of this comes from running a shower.
Spending just eight minutes cleaning yourself costs 39 pence (£140.63 per year), as the shower uses 8 kilowatts (kW), and if you choose to dry your hair using a hairdryer, there will be an added cost of 14 pence per day, or £49.64 per year. Last year using the shower only cost 24p per day, a saving of £53.76 on today’s prices.
Breakfast is widely considered the most important meal of the day, it fuels the body and mind to deal with the challenges of the day. Everyone approaches breakfast in a different way, but most people will use at least one electrical item in the process of breaking their fast. Whether you’re filtering a coffee or toasting your bread, the average cost of making your breakfast could be 24 pence per day, which is around £86.43 per year. However last October, the average electricity cost of a breakfast routine was just 15 pence per day, or £53.36 a year.
As mentioned, and to no surprise, many people enjoy a hot drink first thing in the morning, usually a tea or coffee. The caffeine gives us the kick we need to jump-start our day. The average cost of boiling a kettle for three minutes a day is around three pence, and doing this every day will cost £12.41 a year; but it only would have been £7.67 a year earlier. And if you like to enjoy a coffee made with the perfect balance of milk and caffeine, using a coffee machine would cost a further £8.07 per year (at an extra two pence per day to your breakfast routine).
When it comes to eating breakfast, fewer people are likely to cook themselves breakfast every day, but it is still useful to know the cost. Running an electric hob for ten minutes (the average time to fry up bacon and eggs, or boil a pan of water) will cost ten pence per day or £37.23 per year. While toasting bread (in a toaster) will cost you £14.27 per year if it is used for three minutes per day, last year toasting bread only cost three pence, or £11.75 a year. Meanwhile, microwaves only use £4.34 per year if they are also run for three minutes per morning, this is up from £2.66 in 2021.
Most costly appliances
1 - Electric Shower, £140.63 average annual running cost (£53.76 more than last year):
The shower is the most expensive electrical item used in the morning routine. On average people shower for eight minutes, but this varies vastly from person to person, depending on hair length, how long people allow themselves to get ready, which shower playlist is in action…
The shower we studied uses 8 kW when turned on, at current electricity prices it costs almost 40 pence for an eight-minute shower. One year ago an eight-minute shower using the same device would cost just under 25 pence, saving over £50 per year.
2 - Hairdryer, £49.64 average annual running cost (£18.98 more than last year):
While a shower is something that is hard to go without, one part of the morning routine it would be easy to cut out is using a hairdryer. How long you use a hairdryer depends massively on how much hair you have, but running one for 15 minutes at 1.6 kW costs 14 pence a day. The hairdryer cost has risen by almost £20 a year, as the daily cost has increased by 6 pence.
3 - Hob, £37.23 average annual running cost (£14.24 more than last year):
If you are someone who likes to have a cooked breakfast in the morning, it can be an expensive habit. Not taking into account the cost of ingredients needed, the average annual cost of using a hob every morning is almost £40. The hob we studied uses 1.8 kW, and if run for ten minutes a morning, it would cost ten pence per morning. Last year it would have only cost six pence a day, saving people almost £15 per year to cook a daily breakfast.
Methodology
- Using the top-rated product for each type of appliance studied sold at Argos, we discovered the kW they use when active.
- Taking into account the average times these are used, we entered the details into an electricity cost calculator to discover the cost of using these for one morning.
- We then multiplied this by 365 days to discover the annual cost of a morning routine for each appliance.
