How much does a cordless drill charger cost to run?
About 1.6p an hour in the UK and 1.1¢ an hour in the US. A cordless drill charger draws about 60 W for as long as it is on. Negligible; a work van station will do a dozen batteries a day.
What it costs, by how long it runs
| Running for | kWh | UK | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 minutes | 0.01 | 0.26p | 0.18¢ |
| An hour | 0.06 | 1.6p | 1.1¢ |
| An 8-hour night | 0.48 | 13p | 8.8¢ |
| A full day (24 hours) | 1.44 | 38p | 26¢ |
| A month at 8 hours a day | 14.4 | £3.79 | $2.64 |
UK prices use the Ofgem price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 (direct debit, average across England, Scotland and Wales, with no VAT on electricity this winter): 26.32p per kWh (Ofgem). The standing charge of 54.83p a day is paid whatever you run, so it is left out. US prices use the US average residential price for June 2026 from the Energy Information Administration: 18.34¢ per kWh (EIA). Your own tariff is on your bill; scale the figures by it.
Measure your own
These are typical figures for a typical unit. A plug-in energy monitor between the socket and the appliance shows the real watts and adds up the kWh, so after a day or a week you know exactly what it costs on your tariff.
Compared with similar appliances
| Appliance | Average W | UK per hour | US per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi router | 10 | 0.26p | 0.18¢ |
| Phone charging | 12 | 0.32p | 0.22¢ |
| Tablet charging | 25 | 0.66p | 0.46¢ |
| Camera battery charger | 25 | 0.66p | 0.46¢ |
| MacBook Air | 30 | 0.79p | 0.55¢ |
| Monitor, 27 inch | 30 | 0.79p | 0.55¢ |
| Starlink Mini | 30 | 0.79p | 0.55¢ |
| Laptop (mains charger) | 55 | 1.4p | 1¢ |
| Laptop over USB-C | 60 | 1.6p | 1.1¢ |
| Cordless drill charger | 60 | 1.6p | 1.1¢ |
| Starlink (Standard dish) | 75 | 2p | 1.4¢ |
| Drone battery charger | 80 | 2.1p | 1.5¢ |
| Gaming laptop | 180 | 4.7p | 3.3¢ |
| Desktop PC | 250 | 6.6p | 4.6¢ |
| Angle grinder | 270 | 7.1p | 5¢ |
| Circular saw | 420 | 11p | 7.7¢ |
Running it in a power cut
See which power station will run a cordless drill charger, and for how long.
Appliance draw modelled on web.archive.org. The US Department of Energy retired this page in 2025; the link is the Internet Archive's June 2024 capture. The figures remain typical ranges for a typical unit, not a specification.
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