How much does it cost to run a dishwasher per load, against washing up by hand?
A full size dishwasher on its eco programme uses about one kilowatt hour per load, which costs 26.1p at the current Ofgem cap rate of 26.11p per kWh, and a well rated machine on the same cycle can come down to 18.3p. Run it five times a week and the electricity comes to £5.66 a month, or £67.89 a year.
Where the energy in a wash actually goes
Almost all of it goes into heating water. The pump, the motor and the electronics barely register next to the element, which is why two machines with the same 1400 watt plate rating can differ by half on the bill.
That is also why the UK energy label stopped quoting watts. It quotes energy per 100 cycles on the standard eco programme instead, and dividing by a hundred gives you the honest per load figure. Modern full size machines land between 0.7 and 1.0 kilowatt hours a cycle on eco, older units and hot intensive programmes reach 1.5, and Citizens Advice uses the same label convention when it explains how to compare appliances.
So the number to look for is not on the plug. It is printed on the label stuck to the front of the machine in the showroom, and it is in the manual as energy per cycle.
One more thing about that label. The tested cycle assumes a full machine, cold fill and a standard soil level, so a household that runs the machine half empty with a hot prewash will never see the label figure. The number is a fair way to compare two machines against each other, and a starting point rather than a promise for your own kitchen.
The sum, worked in full
One kilowatt hour multiplied by the cap rate of 26.11 pence gives 26.1p for the load. Five loads a week is 21.7 loads a month, so 21.7 kilowatt hours, which is £5.66. Across a year at 260 loads it is £67.89.
A machine rated 0.7 kilowatt hours on eco costs 18.3p a load and £47.52 a year. A hot intensive cycle at 1.5 kilowatt hours costs 39.2p and £101.83. The gap between the gentlest and the hottest programme on the same machine is bigger than the gap between two different machines.
Work it out for your own dishwasher
Type in the wattage from the plate on the back, then your own unit rate. The numbers update as you type.
What a load costs, programme by programme
| Cycle | kWh per load | Per load | Five loads a week | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eco, well rated machine | 0.70 | 18.3p | £3.96 a month | £47.52 |
| Eco, typical full size machine | 1.00 | 26.1p | £5.66 a month | £67.89 |
| Hot intensive or pots programme | 1.50 | 39.2p | £8.49 a month | £101.83 |
| Appliance | Typical draw | Usage we assume | Per hour (UK) | Per usage (UK) | Per month (UK) | Per hour (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dishwasher | 1400 W | per eco cycle | 36.6p | 26.1p | £5.66 | 25.7 cents |
Rates: Ofgem cap 1 July to 30 September 2026 at 26.11p per kWh (source), EIA residential average June 2026 at 18.34 cents per kWh (source). Checked 2026-09-22.
Readers in the United States can take the same one kilowatt hour and multiply by the EIA residential average of 18.34 cents, which gives 18.3 cents a load, or $3.97 a month for five loads a week. In California at 34.74 cents the same load costs 34.7 cents, and in Texas at 15.94 cents it costs 15.9 cents, so the state you live in matters more than the model you buy.
Five changes that actually cut the figure
- Use the eco programme as the default and stop treating it as the slow one. It is the cycle the label is measured on and the one that uses the least energy.
- Only run it full. A half load on a full programme costs the same as a full one, and most machines have no meaningful half load saving.
- Scrape plates rather than rinsing them under a hot tap. A rinse under hot water can use more energy than the wash it is meant to help.
- Skip the heated drying phase if your machine lets you, and open the door at the end instead. The residual heat in the crockery does the rest for nothing.
- Keep the filter and the spray arms clear. A blocked arm leaves crockery dirty, and a second cycle doubles the cost of the load on the spot.
- Check the salt and rinse aid if you are in a hard water area, because limescale on the element makes it work harder for the same water temperature.
Dishwasher against the washing up bowl
Here is the honest comparison. A washing up bowl holds about eight litres, and lifting eight litres by forty degrees takes 0.37 kilowatt hours of heat. A gas boiler at the cap rate of 7.33 pence per kilowatt hour, allowing for the boiler losing some of it, does that for about 3.2p. An immersion heater at the electricity rate does it for 9.7p.
Wash up twice a day with gas hot water and you have spent about 6.4p against 26.1p for the dishwasher, so the sink wins on energy. Do the same with an electric immersion heater and you are at 19.4p, which is close enough that the dishwasher takes the argument on time alone.
Two things push the comparison back towards the machine. Hand washing rarely uses one bowl of water for a full dishwasher load, and a dishwasher holds far more than most people wash in a single go. The machine also uses less water, which matters if you are on a meter.
Standing charges do not come into any of this, since you pay the daily charge on the meter whether the machine runs or not. The same goes for the argument about running the dishwasher at night. On a flat rate tariff the hour makes no difference at all, and only a time of use tariff with a cheap overnight window turns midnight into a saving.
The sensible rule is simple. Fill the machine, run it on eco, and wash the pans in the bowl while it gets on with everything else.
Common questions
How much does it cost to run a dishwasher for an hour?
The question does not quite work, because a dishwasher does not draw its full rating for a whole hour. A 1400 watt machine held at full power for sixty minutes would cost 36.6p, but a real eco cycle spreads about one kilowatt hour across two and a half to three hours, so the whole programme costs 26.1p rather than 36.6p an hour.
How much does it cost to run a dishwasher every day?
One load a day at one kilowatt hour costs 26.1p, which is £7.95 a month and £95.30 a year on the current cap rate. A machine rated at 0.7 kilowatt hours a cycle brings that down to £5.56 a month.
Is it cheaper to use a dishwasher or wash dishes by hand?
It depends entirely on how you heat the water. A bowl of hot water is about eight litres lifted forty degrees, which is 0.37 kilowatt hours. Heated by a gas boiler that is roughly 3.2p, so hand washing wins. Heated by an immersion heater it is 9.7p a bowl, and two bowls a day lands close to the dishwasher for a fraction of the crockery.
Does the eco programme really save money when it runs for three hours?
Yes. Eco cycles wash for longer at a lower water temperature, and heating the water is where nearly all the energy goes. The extra hour costs pennies in pump and motor time, while the lower temperature saves more than that on the heating element.