Advanced options
What The Ironing Cost Calculator Works Out
- Per hour of ironing: the iron's label wattage x its 60% duty cycle (the thermostat cycles the plate on and off), divided by 1,000 for kilowatt-hours and multiplied by the unit rate. The rate defaults to the current Ofgem price cap unit rate (26.32p per kWh from October 2026). A 2,400W steam iron averages about 1.4 kWh, roughly 38p an hour at that rate.
- Per year: the hourly cost x hours a week x 52. The two-hour weekly basket costs GBP 40-odd a year: cheap enough to acquit the iron of the energy-villain charge, dear enough that the real question is the hours, not the tariff.
- Iron less: the compression toolkit. Shake and hang clothes straight from the machine, do not over-dry, and reclassify bedding, towels and t-shirts as iron-free, which halves most baskets without a witness noticing.
- Custom iron wattage (advanced): enter the figure from the rating plate. Travel irons run 1,000W to 1,500W; steam generator stations 2,400W to 3,100W, though they also run hotter for less time per garment.
- Thermostat duty cycle (advanced): the share of the time the plate is actually heating. Steady shirt work sits around 50% to 60%; heavy steam on linen pushes it towards 80%.
- Saving from a smaller pile (advanced): the yearly cost multiplied by the share of the basket you could stop ironing, plus the hours handed back. The time usually matters more than the pennies.
- Ironing service for the shirts (advanced): what a collection-and-return ironing service would charge for your weekly shirts over a year, typically GBP 2 to GBP 3.50 per shirt, against the electricity of doing them yourself.
- What your ironing hour is worth (advanced): the service fee saved per hour at the board, after electricity, based on the minutes you take per shirt. Some households find the figure liberating in one direction, some in the other.
- Alternatives: garment steamers de-crease hung clothes at similar wattage and suit delicates, the bathroom-steam trick handles the travel one-off free, and non-iron shirt finishes have quietly abolished the task for much of officewear.