How much does it cost to run a hair dryer in the UK?
Price updated 9 July 2026 · Q3 2026 (Jul–Sep)
A typical hair dryer (1,800 W) used 9 minutes a day, every day costs about £2.14 a month (£25.73 a year) at 26.11p/kWh.
Hair dryers are high-wattage (1,200–2,200W) but only used for a few minutes, so their overall cost is small despite the big number on the box. Running a 1,800W dryer for ten minutes uses about 0.3 kWh. The power setting matters more than anything: a cooler, lower setting for longer is usually cheaper than blasting on maximum, though the difference over a year is modest for most people.
Work out your own cost
About £2.14 a month · £25.73 a year
Uses about 98.6 kWh a year. Prefilled with the Ofgem cap of 26.11p/kWh — edit any box for your own figures.
Cost by model power
The same hair dryer can vary a lot between models, so here is the range from a low-power to a high-power example.
| Model | Power | Per hour | Per day | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low-power model | 1,200 W | 31p | 4.7p | £1.43 | £17.15 |
| Typical model | 1,800 W | 47p | 7.0p | £2.14 | £25.73 |
| High-power model | 2,200 W | 57p | 8.6p | £2.62 | £31.45 |
What changes the cost
- Wattage and heat setting
- How long your hair takes to dry
- Only used for minutes at a time
- Ionic/efficient models can shorten drying time
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