What an appliance costs to run
Wattage, hours, and the unit rate off your own bill. It also handles the part most appliance calculators get wrong for Ireland: domestic electricity does not carry the standard rate of VAT, and using 23% overstates the answer.
Off your own bill. This site does not publish a national average — see below.
Cost to run, including VAT
€0.70
2 kWh. Before VAT that is €0.64.
VAT on domestic electricity is applied at 9%, not the standard rate — the figure comes from this site’s payload, not from this calculator.
The part most appliance calculators get wrong for Ireland
Domestic electricity in Ireland does not carry the standard rate of VAT. It sits at the second reduced rate of 9%, not 23% — and a calculator that adds the standard rate to a unit price overstates the answer by a noticeable margin on every appliance, every time.
The rate is not permanent, and this is the unusual part. The Act applies it for a period: 1 May 2022 – 31 December 2030. It has already been extended once. This site carries the dates the Act states rather than treating the rate as open-ended, because an end date that has quietly passed is exactly the kind of thing a calculator keeps applying.
Source: Revenue — Second reduced rate of VAT, and Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010, s. 46(1)(caa). More on the second reduced rate page.
Why you have to enter your own unit rate
Because there is no such thing as “the” Irish unit rate. Suppliers price differently, plans differ within a supplier, day/night meters have two rates, and a standing charge sits on top of all of them and is not per-kWh at all. An average would be wrong for almost everybody.
The rate you want is on your own bill, usually expressed in cent per kWh. Divide by one hundred to get the euro figure this calculator asks for.
What the standing charge does to this
Nothing, and that is the point. A standing charge is a fixed daily amount you pay whether you switch the appliance on or not, so it does not belong in the cost of running one. Including it would make a kettle look more expensive the fewer times you boiled it.
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| Energy used, at your unit rate | The daily standing charge |
| VAT at the rate electricity carries | The PSO levy, where your supplier itemises it |
| The full time the appliance is drawing power | Cycling — a fridge or a heater at its rated wattage only while the thermostat calls |
That third row is the one that makes a real difference to a real bill. A 2 kW heater rated at 2 kW draws 2 kW when it is on. A thermostatically controlled one at a comfortable setting may be on for a third of the time it is switched on. This calculator has no way to know your duty cycle, so it prices continuous running — which is an upper bound, and worth reading as one.
Gas, briefly
Gas used for domestic heating or lighting sits at the same 9% as electricity and for the same period. Vehicle gas, LPG used as a propellant, welding gas and lighter fuel are excluded and are not at this rate — an exclusion list worth knowing if you are pricing anything other than a home boiler.