How much does an oxygen concentrator (5 L/min) cost to run?
About 9.2p an hour in the UK and 6.4¢ an hour in the US. An oxygen concentrator (5 L/min) draws about 350 W for as long as it is on. A continuous-flow home concentrator is a serious load — a portable pulse-dose unit draws a fraction of this.
What it costs, by how long it runs
| Running for | kWh | UK | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 minutes | 0.058 | 1.5p | 1.1¢ |
| An hour | 0.35 | 9.2p | 6.4¢ |
| An 8-hour night | 2.8 | 74p | 51¢ |
| A full day (24 hours) | 8.4 | £2.21 | $1.54 |
| A month at 8 hours a day | 84 | £22.11 | $15.41 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medication fridge (insulin) | 14 | 0.36p | 0.25¢ |
| Electric breast pump | 24 | 0.63p | 0.44¢ |
| CPAP (no humidifier) | 30 | 0.79p | 0.55¢ |
| BiPAP / VPAP | 45 | 1.2p | 0.83¢ |
| CPAP with heated humidifier | 51 | 1.3p | 0.94¢ |
| Nebuliser | 130 | 3.4p | 2.4¢ |
| Mobility scooter charger | 180 | 4.7p | 3.3¢ |
| Electric wheelchair charger | 200 | 5.3p | 3.7¢ |
| Oxygen concentrator (5 L/min) | 350 | 9.2p | 6.4¢ |
Running it in a power cut
See which power station will run an oxygen concentrator (5 L/min), 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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