You may have seen that Haygain has been put into administration. This is sad news, and I hope a buyer can be found, as otherwise, it may leave a lot of equestrians without product support.
One comment that has come up a lot since is about running costs, with a lot of people saying how expensive they are to run. This, of course, would apply to all hay steamers.
But it got me thinking. How much do all the electrical items we use on yards actually cost us – if you are lucky enough to have electricity?
How much something costs to run can easily be calculated. We need to know:
It’s power rating in Watts or kiloWatts (e.g. 3000W or 3kW)
How many hours its on per day (e.g. 3 x 30min = 1.5h per day)
How much you pay per unit of electricity (e.g. 29p per kWh)
So for example…..
A typical tumble drier used for 1h a day would cost £1.45/day
A typical fridge/freezer would cost £1.04/day
Infrared solarium lamps used for 1h a day would cost £0.87/day
A large hay steamer used for 1h per day would cost £0.67/day
A typical kettle used 4 times a day would cost £0.12/day
Obviously, the more you use something, the more it’s going to cost. And different makes and models of electrical equipment have different kW ratings. But interestingly, hay steamers are likely not the most expensive items in yards to run.
Do you have electricity on your yard?
What electrical equipment items do you use?
Have you worked out what is the most expensive to run?
This is on domestic tariff but can easily be calculated for business tariff.
The things that use the most electricity are the big items – as you can see lights, TV, broadband, computers etc are very low
| HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RUN YOUR YARD ELECTRICAL DEVICES? | |||||||
| kW | Time each use (min) | Times used per day | Time (min) | kWh | Electricity unit cost per kWh (£) | Per day (£) | |
| Horse treadmill (walk/trot/canter/gallop) | 11.0 | 30 | 2 | 60 | 11.0 | 0.29 | 3.19 |
| Horsewalker | 6.0 | 30 | 2 | 60 | 6.0 | 0.29 | 1.74 |
| Tumble Drier | 5.0 | 60 | 1 | 60 | 5.0 | 0.29 | 1.45 |
| Horse treadmill (walk/trot) | 4.0 | 30 | 2 | 60 | 4.0 | 0.29 | 1.16 |
| Fridge/Freezer | 0.15 | Always on | Always on | 1440 | 3.6 | 0.29 | 1.04 |
| Infrared Solarium Lamps | 3.0 | 30 | 2 | 60 | 3.0 | 0.29 | 0.87 |
| Hay Steamer | 2.3 | 60 | 1 | 60 | 2.3 | 0.29 | 0.67 |
| Washing Machine | 2.0 | 60 | 1 | 60 | 2.0 | 0.29 | 0.58 |
| Pressure washer | 3.0 | 30 | 1 | 30 | 1.5 | 0.29 | 0.44 |
| Kettle | 2.0 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 0.4 | 0.29 | 0.12 |
| Microwave | 0.9 | 10 | 2 | 20 | 0.3 | 0.29 | 0.09 |
| Conventional lightbulb | 0.1 | 120 | 1 | 120 | 0.2 | 0.29 | 0.06 |
| Halogen bulbs | 0.070 | 120 | 1 | 120 | 0.1 | 0.29 | 0.04 |
| Toaster | 1.0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0.1 | 0.29 | 0.03 |
| Fluorescent | 0.020 | 120 | 1 | 120 | 0.04 | 0.29 | 0.01 |
| LED | 0.015 | 120 | 1 | 120 | 0.03 | 0.29 | 0.01 |
