Is it worth replacing that appliance
The efficient one costs more today and less every year. Whether that trade works out depends on numbers, and usually it is closer than the shop suggests.
Your figures
Result
- Coste del aparato500 €55,8 %
- [object Object]396 €44,2 %
- Saving per year
- $33.00
- Years to pay for itself
- 15.2
- Consumption cut
- 55.0%
- kWh saved per year (kWh)
- 220
- Saving over its life
- $396
- Net balance over its life
- -$104
What we assume
- Only the electricity saving is counted. Breakdowns, noise, capacity and features are real reasons to replace something and are not in the arithmetic.
- The consumption figures should be the annual kWh from the energy label. Real use rarely matches the label, which is measured with specific programmes and loads.
- A constant electricity price is assumed over the whole life. If prices rise, replacing pays off sooner.
- The environmental argument is separate and not measured here.
How it is calculated
The yearly saving is the difference in consumption times the price of electricity. The payback period is the price of the new appliance divided by that saving:
payback = price / (kWh saved x price per kWh)
If the payback is shorter than the life you expect, it pays for itself. If not, it does not — on electricity alone.
Why the answer is usually "not on energy alone"
The saving on a modern appliance against a merely average one is often 20 to 40 a year, and the appliance costs several hundred. That is a payback measured in double-digit years, which is longer than most appliances last. Replacing a genuinely old and failing machine is a different calculation, and so is replacing one that is about to break.
An example
Going from 400 kWh a year to 180 at 0.15 saves 33 a year. A 500 appliance takes about 15 years to pay for itself — longer than the 12 you expect it to last, so on energy alone it does not.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find the yearly consumption?
On the EU energy label, as kWh per year (or per 100 cycles for washing machines and dishwashers). It is the only figure that lets you compare two appliances fairly.
It says it does not pay off. Should I keep the old one?
On electricity alone, yes. But if it is breaking down, noisy, or too small, those are legitimate reasons the calculation does not capture. It answers one question, not the whole decision.
What if electricity gets more expensive?
Then the payback shortens. Try a higher price to see how sensitive the answer is: if it only pays off at double the current price, that is worth knowing.
Keep calculating
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