How Much Electricity Does an Iron Use?

For many homeowners electricity bills are not exactly met with open arms, in fact, most people will try their utmost to reduce or prevent electricity bills from skyrocketing each month by saving energy using an abundance of sensible tactics.

One thing a lot of people don’t do is check to see how much energy is being used up by their electrical appliances. These can prove costly, especially if you purchase an appliance that consumes a lot of electricity and is not that entry efficient. So, how much electricity (power) does an electric iron use?

Typically, an electric iron will use between 800 to 2400 watts of power, which is higher than most household appliances. Fortunately, nearly all modern-day irons will specify their electricity usage either on the packaging or in the manual.

So, for example, if you were to use an electric iron that uses 1100 watts every day for 30 minutes, you will consume 550 watts per day, or 16.5 kWh on a monthly basis, which will be an electricity cost of around £2.80 per month (based on £0.17p per kWh).

Also, if you were using a more powerful iron, such as a steam generator iron, let’s say one that uses 2,200 watts every week for about 3 hours a week, then you would consume 6600 watts per week, or 26.4 kWh every month, which would accumulate to an electricity cost of about £4.50 per month.

How to Reduce Your Electric Bill Caused by Ironing

Despite electrical irons only consuming around 5% of the total electricity cost in most households, it is pivotal that you choose the correct model to save and reduce as much energy usage as possible.

There are of course other ways of bringing down your electric power usage on an iron, however, it will mean reducing the amount of ironing you are partaking in. A good way of reducing the amount of money from your energy bill is by hanging your freshly washed clothes to dry as soon as the washing machine finishes.

This has been proven to reduce wrinkles in your clothes and other linens, and even if your clothes still have a few wrinkles after the fact, you will still be spending less time ironing them as most of the wrinkles will have been drastically reduced.

Another awesome trick is to actually hang your clothes up in the bathroom whilst you are taking a hot shower. The steam that is generated from the shower will help to remove the wrinkles too, just like a steam iron.

As a rule of thumb, it is obviously key to make sure you unplug the electric iron from the outlet once you have finished using it, and never leave it unattended. Failing to do this will remain an energy cost as the iron will still release electrical energy despite not being used. If irons with an auto/off feature will still use some energy when plugged in.

Power Saving Tips and Tricks

In the modern-day of energy-efficient products, there are many electrical manufacturers that are constantly applying new energy-saving technologies to the latest home appliance tech. With many movements centered around reducing energy usage and the world’s carbon footprint, which is great for the stability of the planet and also our wallets!

For anyone looking into purchasing a new iron, it is important to try and take in as much information about the product as possible, acknowledging all of the technical attributes to make sure it is energy efficient, which will result in the iron being as cost-efficient as possible. This is made much easier to do nowadays due to each product being required to have an “energy efficiency” label on it.

Reducing your electric iron power consumption is made a lot easier with these additional tips:

• Iron many items at one time – by ironing your laundry in one go is a good idea. Try to iron just large piles of clothes at one time to reduce the energy used. Turning your iron on and off multiple times a day or week will invevitably use more electric.
• Turn it off – make sure your iron is turned off after you have finished using it, and unplugged from the wall.
• Hang them – use hangers to air dry your clothes rather than hanging them directly on a washing line or indoor air dryer.
• Fold them – fold your clothes and sheets after you have ironed them and put them away to avoid creating more creases and then having to touch them up for a second time.
• Keep ironing – use the residual heat that has built up in your iron for 10 minutes before you have finished ironing clothes by turning your iron off and continuing to use it. The heat will remain the same and you will get the same results without using 10 minutes’ worth of electricity!
• Use lower temps – use the lowest temperature possible whilst ironing your clothes. You can often get away with the silk setting while ironing cotton clothes and sheets, and by using the cotton setting for ironing linen items. Try it, and see if it works, and if it does, you’l be saving money!
• Use the right mode – when you are ironing different types of fabric, make sure to select the correct modes for those fabrics, or, per our previous point, go down to a cooler setting and see if that still works on the fabric you are ironing.
• Get organised – Organise your ironing by fabric type and iron the things that require the lowest/coolest setting first and then work your way through to the items that need a higher heat setting.

Conclusion

There are so many different irons available on the market today, and they do tend to differ quite dramatically when it comes to power consumption and usage. The main thing to bear in mind is that you will need an iron to not only suit your clothing and washing requirements but your electrical needs too.

The top attributes to look for are the price, different functions, and electrical efficiency. Be careful while using and after using your iron, and make sure that you follow the tips provided here so that you aren’t making unnecessary mistakes with your energy usage and general iron maintenance.