How much does it cost to run a hair dryer in the UK?
An 1,800 watt hair dryer running for ten minutes uses 0.3 kilowatt hours and costs 7.9p at the Ofgem cap rate of 26.32p per kWh. Used every day that comes to £28.82 a year. A 2,100 watt dryer such as the Philips 5000 Series costs 9.2p for the same ten minutes, and a 1,600 watt Dyson Supersonic 7.0p.
What a hair dryer draws
A hair dryer is a small fan blowing across a heating element, and the element does nearly all the electrical work. That is why the ratings look so big for something you hold in one hand. Philips sells its 5000 Series dryer, the BHD500, at 2,100 watts, Dyson rates the Supersonic at 1,600 watts, and Shark's FlexStyle air styler and dryer is listed at 1,750 watts. The figure we use for a typical household dryer is 1,800 watts. EnergySage puts most models between 1,500 and 2,000 watts, with travel dryers down at about 800 and the most powerful at 2,500.
That puts a hair dryer in the same power class as a fan heater, and the comparison is a fair one because they are the same machine in different shapes. The difference on the bill is time. A heater runs for hours, a hair dryer for minutes.
Work it out for your own hair dryer
Type in the wattage from the plate on the back, then your own unit rate. The numbers update as you type.
What a dry costs
| Time | 1,600 W (Dyson Supersonic) | 1,800 W (typical) | 2,100 W (Philips 5000 Series) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | 3.5p | 3.9p | 4.6p |
| 10 minutes | 7.0p | 7.9p | 9.2p |
| 15 minutes | 10.5p | 11.8p | 13.8p |
| 20 minutes | 14.0p | 15.8p | 18.4p |
| 30 minutes | 21.1p | 23.7p | 27.6p |
| 1 hour | 42.1p | 47.4p | 55.3p |
Short hair blown dry in five minutes every morning costs about 28p a week. Long, thick hair that takes twenty minutes on a high heat every morning costs about £57.64 a year on a typical dryer, and two people in the same house doing that double it.
| Appliance | Typical draw | Usage we assume | Per hour (UK) | Per usage (UK) | Per month (UK) | Per hour (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hair dryer | 1800 W | per 10 minute dry | 47.4p | 7.9p | £2.40 | 33.0 cents |
Rates: Ofgem cap 1 October to 31 December 2026 at 26.32p per kWh (source), EIA residential average June 2026 at 18.34 cents per kWh (source). Checked 2026-09-22.
The arithmetic, in one line
Divide the watts by a thousand, multiply by the minutes over sixty, then multiply by your unit rate.
An 1,800 watt dryer is 1.8 kilowatts. Ten minutes is a sixth of an hour, so it uses 0.3 kilowatt hours. Multiply by 26.32p and you get 7.9p. Do that every day and the year comes to about 110 kilowatt hours and £28.82, a little more than a Wi-Fi router left on around the clock for the whole year.
Where the money goes inside the dryer
The fan motor in a hair dryer is small. The heating element is the expensive part, and the heat setting decides how hard it works. The cool shot button switches the element off and leaves only the motor running, which is why it feels so weak and why it costs next to nothing.
Two things follow from that. The first is that a lower heat setting on a high fan speed is usually the cheapest way to dry, because moving air does most of the drying and the element only speeds up evaporation. The second is that the last minutes on full heat, when your hair is already nearly dry, are the least useful and the most likely to damage it.
Against the rest of the morning routine
The hair dryer is rarely the biggest cost in a bathroom. An eight minute shower on an 8.5 kilowatt electric shower costs 29.8p, nearly four times a ten minute dry. A boil of a 3 kilowatt kettle for the morning tea is about 3.9p, half of the dryer. A quarter of an hour with a pair of hair straighteners costs about 0.35p, because a straightener is rated at around 50 watts against the dryer's 1,800.
Is it cheaper to air dry
Air drying is free, and on most mornings that is the whole answer. The useful middle ground is towel drying properly before you switch on. Every minute you take off an 1,800 watt dryer saves about 0.79p, and squeezing and blotting the water out before you switch on leaves the dryer less water to evaporate, which is the only thing that shortens the dry.
If you dry your hair in a cold bathroom in winter, the dryer is also warming you, and the heat it puts into the room is not entirely wasted. In summer it is, and that is the time to drop to a lower heat.
Five ways to cut what drying costs
- Towel dry first, firmly, because the dryer pays for every gram of water it has to evaporate.
- Use a high fan speed and a medium heat rather than full heat on a low speed, since airflow does most of the work.
- Fit the concentrator nozzle and aim it, so the warm air goes into the hair rather than around it.
- Finish on the cool shot rather than more heat, which sets the style and costs almost nothing.
- Clean the filter at the back. A clogged intake slows the airflow, the dryer runs hotter, and drying takes longer.
What this costs in the United States
At the EIA residential average of 18.34 cents per kilowatt hour, a ten minute dry on an 1,800 watt dryer costs 5.5 cents and a year of daily use about $20.08. In California, at 34.74 cents, the same year is about $38.04, and in Texas at 15.94 cents about $17.45.
Common questions
Does a hair dryer use a lot of electricity?
Per minute, yes. At 1,800 to 2,100 watts it draws as much as a fan heater, and the heating element is most of that. Because it runs for minutes rather than hours, a daily ten minute dry adds up to about 110 kilowatt hours a year, which is £28.82 at the cap rate of 26.32p per kWh.
How much does it cost to run a hair dryer for an hour in the UK?
An 1,800 watt dryer costs 47.4p for a full hour, a 2,100 watt dryer 55.3p and a 1,600 watt dryer 42.1p. Very few people dry their hair for an hour, so the ten minute figure of 7.9p is the more useful one.
Does a Dyson hair dryer use a lot of electricity?
Less than many cheaper dryers. Dyson rates the Supersonic at 1,600 watts, so ten minutes costs 7.0p against 9.2p for a 2,100 watt dryer, about a quarter less for every minute it runs. Whether it saves money overall depends on whether it also dries your hair faster.
Is it better to use a hair dryer or air dry?
On cost, air drying wins because it is free, and towel drying first is the next best thing. Every minute you take off the dryer saves about 0.79p on an 1,800 watt model, so blotting out the water before you switch on turns a ten minute dry into a shorter one for nothing.