Heated Towel Rail Power Consumption Calculator

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If you are wondering how much electricity your towel rail (heated) or electric tower heater is consuming then this article is for you. We will calculate a tower rail power consumption and also look at the cost to use it for an entire year.

By the end of this article you will learn to calculate power consumption of any electric towel heater using a simple calculator.

Electric tower rails are normally rated between 50 watts to 250 watts. In theory, a 100 watt towel rail running for 24 x 7 throughout the year will consume around 72 kWh of electricity in a month and around 876 kWh of electricity in a year.

In reality, the power consumption would be half of the above values as more than half of the time tower rail are on standby mode, during which they consume less power.

Table of Contents

towel rail Power Consumption:

The power consumption of a towel rail (for that matter any electrical appliances) depends upon two main things

First is the wattage of your towel rail,
And second is the electricity tariff in your area.

Before we jump in to calculating the power consumption of your towel rail, lets see what these terms are and how you can find out your towel rail wattage and the electricity tariff of your locality.

If you already know these terms and just want to use the calculator then please scroll down.

what is The Wattage of A towel rail:

The wattage of an heated towel rail varies from 50 watt to over 250 watt, the higher the wattage, quicker it heats up and more is the electricity consumption.

heater tower rail wattage — 200 Watts Electric Towel Rail

electric tower heater wattage — 200 Watts Electric Towel Rail

You can find the wattage of your towel rail by reading on the label in it or just look for your towel rail on amazon and you will find its wattage in the description section.

(if you don’t have time for that then don’t worry, I have created a small table which shows power consumption of a range of electric tower rail having different wattage).

If you don’t know what a watt is then here it is,

Watt is the unit of power. It means the rate at which electricity is consumed or produced by a device. For example, a 50 watt TV consumes power at a rate of 50 watts per hour, it does not mean that the TV consumed 50 kWh (units) of electricity, it means it will consume power at a rate of 50 watts every hour.

So in short, the wattage of an towel rail lies between 50 watts to 250 watts and you can find it by looking at the label on it. With that out of the way lets look at what is electricity tariff?

What is your Electricity Tariff:

In simple words electricity tariff is the amount your electricity provider charges you for one unit (kWh) of electricity. I live in Mumbai, India here the electricity tariff is Rs 12/kWh.

(What is a Kilowatt hour (kWh) – Kilowatt hours or units of electricity is the energy consumption of a device. For example a 50 watt table fan running for 50 hours will consume 50 watt x 50 hours = 2500 watt hours = 2.5 kilowatt hours of electricity = 2.5 units of electricity. (1 kWh of electricity = 1 unit of electricity))

To find your electricity tariff, just look into your previous month electricity bill and find out your monthly electricity consumption, then just divide your monthly electricity consumption with your total monthly electricity bill, the figure you get is approximately your electricity tariff.

If you don’t want to do any of this then just google electricity tariff followed by your location.

Calculate Your towel rail power consumption:

With these two information in hand you are ready to calculate the power consumption of your towel rail

Let me show you with an example,

I have selected a 100 watt towel rail listed on amazon. Lets assume we will be using our tower rail and use it 24 X 7 throughout the year.

electric tower rail heater wattage-min — 80 Watts Heated Towel Rail

Hence, we will calculate the power consumption of this 100 watt electric towel rail in a day, in a month and in an entire year.

With the knowledge of your towel rail wattage and your electricity tariff, just use this simple formula to calculate power consumption.

Power consumption of a towel rail = Wattage of a towel rail X operational hours

Cost to run a towel rail = Power consumption of a towel rail X electricity tariff.

(Operational hours is basically the number of hours you are using your towel rail)

Now let’s calculate

Electricity consumption of A 100 watt towel rail:

Wattage in our case is 100 watts and number of hours is 24 in a day, 720 in a month and 8,760 in a year.

Hence by using the above formula.

Power consumption of a 100 watt towel rail in a day (24hrs) = 100 watt X 24 hours = 2400 watt hours (Wh) = 2.4 kWh

We will convert this 2.4 watt hour (Wh) into Kilo watt hour (kWh) as electricity tariffs are given for per kWh. To do this simply divide 2.4 by 1000, you will get 2.4 kWh (As 1kg = 1000g, 1km = 1000m, similarly 1kWh = 1000Wh)

Now that we know the power consumption just multiply it by your electricity tariff and you will get how much it will cost you to run your towel rail

let’s calculate how much it will cost to run this 100 watt towel rail for 24 hours in a day in Los Angeles, London and in Mumbai.

In case of Los Angeles, the electricity tariff in Los Angeles is around 25.8 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), hence it will cost around $ 0. 62 (2.4 kWh X 25.8 cents) to run this 100 watt towel rail for the entire day.

In case of London, the electricity tariff in London is around 36p/kWh , hence it will cost around £0.86 (2.4 kWh X 36p/kWh) to run this 100 watt towel rail for the entire day.
In case of Mumbai, the electricity tariff in Mumbai is around Rs 10 per kilowatt hour (kWh), hence it will cost around Rs 24 (2.4 kWh X Rs 10) to run this 100 watt towel rail for the entire day.

For your reference I have calculated the cost to run this 100 watt towel rail for the entire month and the entire year in Los Angeles, London and Mumbai.

Country (Tariff)	Daily Power Consumption of a Towel Eail 100 Watt @ 24 hours	Monthly Power Consumption of a Towel Tail 100 Watt @ (720 hours)	Annual Power Consumption of a Towel Rail 100 Watt @ (8,760 hours)
Los Angeles (25.8 c/kWh)	2.4 kWh, $ 0.62	72 kWh, $ 18.57	876 kWh, $ 226
London (36p/kWh)	2.4 kWh, £ 0.86	72 kWh, £ 25.93	876 kWh, £ 315
Mumbai (Rs 10/kWh)	2.4 kWh, Rs 24	72 kWh, Rs 720	876 kWh, Rs 8,760

The above figures suggest the maximum power consumption of a 100 watt towel rail.

In reality, the power consumption would be half of the above values as more than half of the time tower rail are on standby mode, during which they consume less power.

The above table is to show you that even in the worst case scenario the power consumption of medium size heated power rails is not that high.

Most households do not run their heated towel rails all day for a whole year.

And also all tower rails have a built in automatic timer to program the towel rail to turn on and off at times to suit your needs. This will help to reduce the power consumption even more.

For example, you can schedule the towel rail to turn on a hour prior to your shower and turn off a hour later. This way the overall power consumption would be drastically reduced.

If you are not using timer, then start using it, you will reduce your electricity bill by good margins.

Electricity Consumption Different Wattage towel Rails:

For your reference, I have made the below table which shows the power consumption of different wattage towel rail running for 24 hours everyday for an entire year.

Wattage	Daily Power Consumption ( 24 hours)	Monthly Power Consumption (720 hours)	Annual Power Consumption (8,760 hours)
70 watts	1.68 kWh	50.4 kWh	613.2 kWh
100 watts	2.4 kWh	72 kWh	876 kWh
150 watts	3.6 kWh	108 kWh	1,314 kWh
200 watts	4.8 kWh	144 kWh	1752 kWh
250 watts	6.0 kWh	180 kWh	2,190 kWh

Again this is that maximum power consumption, realistically the power consumption will be half of these values as almost half of the time they are in standby mode.

Now go ahead and use the below calculator to find out the power consumption of your towel rail.

Just type the wattage of your towel rail, hours of usage and your electricity tariff and let the calculator do the math for you.

towel rail Power Consumption Calculator:

If you want to know the exact power consumption of your towel rail then you can buy a cheap Kill A Watt Meter from amazon.

Calculate Power Consumption Of A Towel Rail Using Kill A Watt Meter:

Kill A Watt Meter is a simple device which gives real time data of power consumption of any device.

You can check it on amazon using this link – Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

To use a kill a watt meter to calculate the power consumption of your towel rail, first connect your tower rail plug into the kill a watt meter and then plug the kill a watt meter in your wall socket and you are good to go.

Then start using your towel rail and you can see in real time how many kWh (units) of electricity it is consuming.

You can check out our other articles to know more about power consumption of other household devices and how you can reduce your electricity bill by going solar.