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AGA 30 Amp Costs 2022
I've come back this post in April 2022 as I am getting a lot of views on the page with the electricity increases which have changed the running costs of all AGAs. I have been seeing a lot of scare posts on Facebook mainly because electricity companies are sending our revised estimate bills with revised monthly payments which do not reflect the actual running costs of the AGA. So I think it's time to look at the actual figures.
In October 2005 I wrote this Blog post. Yes it really was that long ago! I said this:
We have had our claret 2 oven 30 AMP Electric AGA for nearly a year and looking at our electric bills for the last year it looks like the AGA is costing about £10 a week to run. We can check it as it heats up of night on Economy 7 and this lower rate is shown on the electricity bill separately. This is of course different from my earlier posting when I thought it was £5 a week (which was the information given to me by the installer). But energy costs have gone up significantly in the last 12 months; so that's the cost of inflation especially in electricity supply!
Of course all the costs of the other types of AGAs have increased too. So I would take a guess that 2 oven gas, oil and 13 amp AGAs cost double that at £20 a week and the LPG would be significantly more. The difference though between the oil and gas AGAs and the electric AGAs is that you would also get the additional benefit of hot water (if you have a boiler fitted). The 13Amp AGA is expensive to run but you have the electronic timer AIMS thingy which allows you to turn the AGA off when you aren't using it. The disadvantage of this is that you would loose the benefit of the cosy AGA kitchen.
I'm not sure of running costs of Rayburns but I'd guess that they are similar to an AGA - the benefit with a Rayburn is that you can run the heating for the house off of it. I especially like the Rayburn model that used to be the Alpha model (before AGA took the company over) it looks like an AGA but heats the water and central heating.
Someone recently made the comment to me that they thought the increase in energy costs have been affecting the sales of AGAs.
So what are my 30 Amp AGA Running Costs in April 2022?
From readings last year it was £96 for the whole month before we switched to the Bulb EV tariff and then it went to £36 for the first month - though after reading the meter myself today I think my wife may have got this wrong as I'm getting a higher normal rate useage than what I was expecting. It did increase with the increase in tariff this year. The tariff went up again on 1st April 2022. Just spoken to my wife and she has told me how it works we pay the full rate to charge the AGA up for the first 3 hours of charge and then it's the cheap rate for four hours. 7 hours in total.
So how much does it cost to run our 30 Amp AGA in April 2022?
Readings taken 31 March 2022 Rate 01 on Meter (normal rate) 16545
31 March 2022 Rate 02 on Meter (off Peak) 16326
Reading on this day were taken at 1530
1 st April 2022 Rate 01 on Meter 16558 (13 units used)
1 st April 2022 Rate 02 on Meter 16347 which means we used 21 KW to heat the AGA up last night.
New rates from 1st April with Bulb are for Off Peak 9.350p so to run the AGA last night it will cost us £1.96p x30 which is £59 plus 5 (estimate) x 33.457= £1.67 which is £50.18. So for a 30 day month the total is £109 (I'm basing this on a 180 KW useage per week for a 30 Amp AGA)
£109 a month (until I check that ordinary rate useage figure).
Of course the ordinary rate has increased and the standing charge has doubled so making the electricity bill a lot higher, But the AGA still seems cheap enough to run. I will check the rates over this month (April 2022) and come back and see if there is any big fluctuations.
And looking at the normal meter readings I'm going to have to check to see how much the AGA is using of the normal rate to charge up too as the useage since last night looks high to me but I have used the dishwasher twice today and its a cold day with the heating on too. I need to check the readings first thing in the morning.
And just in case you think I am cheating by running the 30 Amp AGA at a really low temperature to get those figures!
(I've done a video and I will put it in here).
We are running it on Mark 4 .5 on the dial.
Temperatures are checking at 1545 on 1st April 2022- after using it make our lunch and our evening dinner which we are having early as our son is going on Ten Tors training tomorrow and is going to bed early to get up early.
I used an infrared thermometer to measure them.
Roasting oven - bottom of oven 240 degrees C. Top of oven 267 degrees C
Simmering oven - bottom of oven 115 degrees C Top of oven 123 degrees C
Roasting Top Plate 315 degrees C
Simmering Top Plate 225 degrees C
Which are the figures you'd expect them to be on a traditional AGA.
