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Laundry Cost Calculator

Official water and energy figures, your own utility rates — a year of laundry in money, US or EU.

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Estimate a year of laundry costs — enable JavaScript. The sourced energy and water figures are in the cards below.

Where the figures come from

Only the water and energy quantities are sourced — your utility rates are yours to enter, so the cost is an estimate for your bill, not a published number. US and EU figures stay in separate panels because the two test procedures are not comparable.

  • US, ENERGY STAR: certified washers use about 14 gallons a load vs 20 for a standard machine, about 300 loads a year, and save about $530 in energy over their lifetime; about 90% of a washer's energy goes to heating water. Source.
  • US, DOE: ratings assume 295 cycles a year, and washing warm instead of hot can roughly halve a load's energy. Source.
  • EU, European Commission: the average machine used about 96 kWh a year and 36 litres a cycle in 2020. Source.

To cut what each wash costs, the biggest lever is temperature (most of the energy is water heating) and not overloading or underloading — size the load with the laundry weight calculator and dose right with How Much Laundry Detergent to Use.