Washing Machine at Night Doesn’t Really Save on Your Utility Bill

Is it Really Worth Doing the Laundry at Night?

Many people change their habits to save money on their bills.
For example, some prefer to do the laundry at night because it’s believed to be cheaper than during the day.

However, is this really true? Before adjusting your schedule, it’s essential to check the details of your electricity plan.
Your current promotion may not differentiate between daytime and nighttime rates.
It’s important to understand how much you can actually save by using appliances during the cheaper time slot.

Understanding Time Slots F1 and F23

When choosing an electricity plan, you can opt for a single-rate or dual-rate tariff.
The single-rate plan has a constant energy cost, let’s call it A.
In contrast, the dual-rate plan has the following differentiated costs:

– Slot 1 (B) Monday to Friday, 8 am to 7 pm;
– Slot 23 (C) Monday to Friday, 7 pm to 8 am, and all day on weekends.

Typically, the single-rate energy cost A falls between the B and C of the dual-rate plan.
While it’s cheaper than daytime rates, it’s not as cost-effective as evening and weekend prices.

Maximizing Savings

If you mostly consume energy during the evenings and weekends, a dual-rate plan might be best.
Otherwise, a single-rate plan could be more economical.
For dual-rate users, paying attention to when high-consumption appliances are used can maximize savings.

Calculating Laundry Savings at Night

To assess the difference between slot 1 and slot 23, let’s consider two current offers:

Enel energy Placet fissa “Luce Consumer”: €0.2341/kWh in slot 1, €0.2041/kWh in slot 23;
Eni “Fixa Time Web”: €0.1200/kWh in slot 1, €0.1131/kWh in slot 23.

Assuming an average family uses 1.5 kWh per laundry load about 20 times a month, this results in a monthly usage of 30 kWh.

With Enel, the monthly cost for laundry in slot 1 would be €7.023, and in slot 23 it would be €6.123.
With Eni, the costs would be €3.60 and €3.393, respectively.

Although there is a saving, it’s minimal and may not justify a change in habits.
Also, considering fixed costs which impact around 50% of the bill, the final saving reduces by half.

Overall Savings Between Slot 1 and Slot 23

Extending the analysis to other appliances, concentrating consumption in slot 23 shows minimal savings.
Even in the extreme case where all consumption shifts to one slot, the difference in savings remains insignificant.

For a family with an average consumption of 250 kWh per month, the costs in slot 1 would be €58.525 with Enel and €30 with Eni.
In slot 23, the costs would be €51.025 with Enel and €28.275 with Eni.

While there are slight savings, they are unlikely to justify significant changes in consumption habits.
Companies like Eni acknowledge this, indicating that the impact of choosing one slot over the other is minimal, often less than €2 per month for a 250 kWh consumption.