If you are conscious about your electricity bill, you’ve probably wondered just how much power many electrical appliances throughout your house use. An oil diffuser is a great way to set the mood in your house and make it feel relaxing, but just how much electricity is it actually using when you run it?
A typical 0.08-gallon oil diffuser will use 0.02 kilowatt-hours of power every hour. Using an average price of $0.12 per kilowatt-hour, it would cost about $0.0024 per hour to run an oil diffuser in your home. However, oil diffusers come in many sizes, which means yours might use more or less power.
Now, if you aren’t well versed in power and electricity jargon, you might be very confused right now. That’s why I’ll take some time to lay this all out in layman’s terms so you can fully understand exactly how much electricity your oil diffuser uses.
I’ll also go over how much it will generally cost in electricity to run your diffuser and how to calculate precisely how much it will cost YOU in your particular situation. Let’s jump right into it!
How Much Electricity do Essential Oil Diffusers Use?
When you plug something, especially an oil diffuser, into the wall, many people think that it uses a TON of electricity. However, you actually might be surprised at how little electricity your diffuser uses when you plug it into a wall outlet.
After looking at a wide range of diffusers online, most oil diffusers use between 12 and 25 watts of power. Using this range of numbers, we can calculate that a typical oil diffuser will use somewhere between 0.012 and 0.025 kilowatt-hours of energy for every hour that it is on.
Obviously, there are many different diffusers out there, so the one you have or plan to get could use more or less electricity. Many variables impact how much electricity a particular diffuser uses, so it’s impossible to give a generic number that will hold true for every single oil diffuser out there.
But the numbers mentioned above should be pretty accurate at representing most small oil diffusers (usually around 0.08 gallons) that you can buy from a retail store or online.
If you’re curious about how much power your particular diffuser uses, the best places to look are on the box that it came in, the instruction manual, or the retailer’s website. Overall, when you look at this objectively, oil diffusers don’t use a whole lot of electricity at all.
Figuring Out How Expensive It is to Run an Essential Oil Diffuser
Now that we’ve gone over how much electricity an average oil diffuser uses in a day, a common next question that many people ask is, “but how much will it cost me?”
Not many people are truly able to translate a wattage or kilowatt-hour number into the real world, but almost everyone can relate to a dollar amount. Let’s get right into it, and I’ll walk you through exactly how to calculate how much it will cost you to run your oil diffuser (it’s easier to do than you might think!).
1. Find Out Exactly How Much Electricity Your Diffuser Needs
The first (and most crucial) step in finding how much it will cost to run your diffuser is to find out exactly how much electricity your diffuser needs to be adequately powered.
You can usually find this information by doing a quick Google search on your specific oil diffuser model. If you’re unable to do that or just want to do it the old fashioned way, you can check the box you bought your diffuser in or the instruction manual. Other great places to look are the retailer’s website, online reviews, or the manufacturer’s website.
Usually, you’ll find this number in watts (W, w), but you might have to use other given information to find the wattage in some cases. If you can find the amperage (A) and voltage (V) or your diffuser, you can use the formula A x V=P (where P is the power given in watts).
2. Estimate How Long You Run Your Diffuser
Once you have found how many watts it takes your diffuser to run appropriately, it’s time to take a minute and figure out how many hours you typically use your diffuser per day.
There are really only two ways to figure this out: the (slightly) scientific method or just plain old estimating.
If you would like to get as an exact number as possible, the best thing to do is use your diffuser just as you usually would, but track how long you use it every day for a week. You can then take all of the data you collect and figure out the average amount of time you use your diffuser per day.
The other method of estimation is a whole lot simpler but is likely a little less accurate. Simply take a minute to think through your typical day and figure out how long you might run your diffuser. Most people who have a full-time job might run their diffuser for an hour in the morning and then from 6 pm to 9 pm, for a total of 4 hours. However, your schedule might be completely different, so take some time to figure it out for yourself.
3. Find Out the Price Per Kilowatt-Hour in Your Area
Out of all the information gathering and calculations that you have to do to find the price of running your oil diffuser, this step is by far the simplest.
Simply make a quick Google search to find the average price per kilowatt-hour in your particular location. If you live in the U.S., you can use this helpful table to find the cost per kilowatt-hour in your state. For this example, though, I’ll use an estimated cost per kilowatt-hour of $0.12.
This entire calculation is far from being entirely accurate, so if you’re off by a few cents, it won’t make much of a difference. However, the more precise you are, the better your estimation of how much it will cost you to run your diffuser will be.
4. Calculate to Get a Rough Estimate of How Expensive It is to Run Your Diffuser
Now that you’ve gathered all the necessary information, it’s time to calculate how much it will cost you to run your oil diffuser every day. The calculations are actually pretty simple, so bear with me!
The first thing you’re going to want to do is take your diffuser’s wattage and convert it to kilowatt-hours. To do this, use the formula W/1000=KWh or just use this online calculator.
After you have how many kilowatt-hours of power your diffuser uses, multiply that number by the price per kilowatt-hour in your state or location. After you have done that calculation, simply multiply your number by how many hours you plan to use your diffuser every day. Once you have done all that, you have your final number of how much it will cost you per day to run your oil diffuser.
If you feel a little confused after all that, don’t worry, I’ll do a quick example to help clear any confusion up.
Let’s take an example 20 watt oil diffuser and an average price per kilowatt-hour of $0.12. Let’s also assume that I plan on using this diffuser for a total of 4 hours every day. Using this information, I’ll follow the steps I laid out above and get my total price per day to run my oil diffuser.
First, I’ll multiply my wattage (20) by 1,000 to get it in kilowatt-hours: 20W/1000=0.02KWh
Then I’ll multiply my kilowatt-hour number (0.02) by my average price per kilowatt-hour ($0.12) to get my cost per hour to run my diffuser: 0.02KWh x $0.12=$0.0024
Next, I’ll take my cost per hour ($0.0024) and multiply it by my estimated hours of usage per day (4) to get my final price per day for operating my diffuser: $0.0024 x 4=$0.0096
My final cost for using this diffuser is $0.0096 per day. That’s less than a single penny per day!
As you can see, a typical oil diffuser uses a minimal amount of electricity. Because of this, the impact that a diffuser will have on your electricity bill is also pretty minuscule.
The many benefits of having a diffuser in your home clearly are worth the estimated $4 or $5 that it will add to your electric bill. Oil diffusers can make you more relaxed and make your home more pleasant, which to me at least, is priceless!
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