How much electricity does a kitchen extractor fan use? Enter your kitchen extractor fan's wattage, its hours of use per day and your electricity rate, then click Calculate to get your daily, monthly and yearly cost and total kWh consumption. Those same results also cover kitchen extractor fan power consumption. Also see how much electricity does a led light bulb use.
Wondering how much electricity does a kitchen extractor fan use? Far less than most appliances in your home: a typical fan draws just 15 to 50 watts, so the running cost is a few pounds a year, while a larger cooker hood with lighting costs more but still stays modest. This guide shows the formula, a worked example and the settings that quietly push up your electricity bill.
Every extractor fan has a rated wattage, usually printed on the label inside the casing or in the manual. That number tells you the power the motor draws while it is running, and it is the starting point for every cost estimate. A small wall-mounted fan is a low-energy appliance; a powerful cooker hood sitting above a hob is a different beast, because it moves far more air and often carries its own lights.
The power consumption of extractor fans falls into fairly predictable bands. Compact bathroom units are the lightest, standard kitchen exhaust fans sit in the middle, and big ducted hoods are the heaviest.
These bands are why a single answer to "how much electricity does a cooker hood use" never exists. A hood is a ventilation system with several parts (motor, lights, controls), and each one adds to the total.
A range hood and a cooker hood are the same appliance under two names, and both use the biggest share of their power on the highest speed. Doubling the speed does not simply double the draw, because airflow rises faster than motor power in many models, but the top setting is always the thirstiest. The sensible habit is to use the low setting for simmering and keep boost for the moments that really need it.
You can work out the cost to run any fan in under a minute. You need three numbers: the fan's wattage, the hours it runs and the price you pay for each unit of electricity.
Electricity is billed in kilowatt-hours (kWh), so the wattage is first converted to kilowatts by dividing by 1,000. Your electricity tariff appears on your bill in pence per kWh, and the same calculation gives you the cost of any period.
$$\text{Cost} = \frac{\text{Watts}}{1000} \times \text{Hours} \times \text{Price per kWh}$$If the price on your bill is quoted as a unit rate, multiply the kWh by that rate. Most UK households currently pay a rate in the mid-20s of pence per kWh, but check your own statement, because a fixed deal or a time-of-use tariff changes the answer.
Take a fan rated at 34 watts, used for 1.5 hours per day while cooking, on a tariff of 26.4 pence per kWh. The steps look like this:
So the answer for this fan is under £5 a year. That is a rough estimate based on steady use, but it shows why the motor alone is rarely worth worrying about.
The table below keeps the same 1.5 hours per day and 26.4 pence per kWh, so you can see how much the wattage changes the result.
| Fan or hood power | kWh per year | Approx. monthly cost | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 W small extractor fan | 6.6 kWh | 14p | £1.73 |
| 34 W standard kitchen fan | 18.6 kWh | 41p | £4.91 |
| 85 W range hood, low speed | 46.5 kWh | £1.02 | £12.29 |
| 180 W range hood, medium to high | 98.6 kWh | £2.17 | £26.02 |
| 420 W large hood, boost | 230.0 kWh | £5.06 | £60.71 |
Even the last row, which assumes a powerful hood on boost for 90 minutes every single day, costs less than running a tumble dryer for a handful of cycles.
The label on your kitchen fan states a maximum or nominal figure. For a precise number, plug the appliance into a wattage meter (or a smart plug that reports usage) and read the draw at each speed. Hard-wired fans can be checked by an electrician with a clamp meter. Measure low, medium and boost separately, as the three readings can differ enormously.
The label wattage is only part of the story. Several features change how much a ventilation system really costs over a year, and some of them have nothing to do with the fan blades.
Older fans use AC motors, usually a simple induction motor that wastes some energy as heat. Newer models use BLDC motors (brushless DC), which commonly use 30 to 60 percent less power for the same airflow, run more quietly and last longer. If you are replacing a fan, checking the motor type is the quickest way to find an energy-efficient model, even if it costs more upfront.
Airflow is measured in CFM (cubic feet per minute) or cubic metres per hour. A higher rating means a bigger motor and a higher fan speed draw. Match the fan to the room: an oversized hood running flat out uses more electricity and also makes more noise than you need for an ordinary family kitchen.
Many hoods have built-in lighting, and lights often stay on much longer than the fan does. Older units use two halogen bulbs of around 35 watts each. Say you leave them on for 3 hours every evening: 70 W × 3 h = 0.21 kWh a day, which is 76.7 kWh a year and about £20.24, much more than the fan itself.
Replace them with a pair of 4 W LED lights and the same evening use is 0.024 kWh a day, 8.8 kWh a year and about £2.31. That single swap saves roughly £18 a year, which makes lighting the cheapest saving on the whole appliance.
Hoods with touch panels, Wi-Fi or heat sensors keep their control board awake all day. This phantom load, also called standby power, is tiny. At 1.5 W around the clock it adds up to 13.1 kWh a year, or about £3.47. Mechanical rocker switches draw nothing when off, so it is worth knowing which type you own.
A filter clogged with grease restricts airflow, so the motor strains and you run it longer to clear the same smoke and steam. Regular maintenance means washing metal mesh filters every month or so (many are dishwasher safe), replacing charcoal filters on recirculating hoods when due, and wiping the fan cover. A clean fan keeps energy use at the figure on the label.
How a hood is installed shapes its efficiency as much as its motor does. A ducted model sends air outdoors through ductwork, and every bend, long run or narrow section adds resistance. The motor must push harder to move the same volume of air, so a badly planned duct can raise the electricity needed for each minute of cooking. Short, straight, full-diameter ducting lets even a modest motor do the job at a lower speed.
A recirculating hood skips the duct entirely. It pulls air through a grease filter and a charcoal filter, then returns it to the room. This avoids losing heated air, but the charcoal filter has a limited life, and the motor must work against a denser filter stack. A clogged filter lengthens the time needed to clear the air, and every extra hour at 180 W uses 0.18 kWh, which costs about 5p at 26.4 pence per kWh. Ten extra minutes a day adds up to roughly 11 kWh a year, or about £2.89, for no benefit at all.
When comparing models in a shop, look beyond the headline wattage and ask how much air each watt moves. An efficient unit clears a pan of frying onions at a lower speed, which matters because a hood that finishes in 5 minutes at 85 W uses 0.007 kWh, while a weaker one grinding away for 15 minutes at 180 W uses 0.045 kWh, over six times as much electricity for the same job. Ask for the energy label and the sound level at each speed, and avoid buying a bigger motor than your hob needs, since oversized units draw more power at every setting.
Position matters for the same reason. A hood mounted too high captures less steam and tempts you to run the next speed up, which raises the draw. Fitting it at the height recommended in the manual, usually 65 to 75 cm above an electric hob, lets a low speed do more of the work. Combined with a clean filter and an LED lamp, this keeps your annual kWh near the label figure with no extra spending.
Because the fan itself is cheap to run, the biggest savings come from habits and small upgrades. These are the ones that actually move your energy bill. Related: how much energy does a home theatre use.
People often forget the fan is on and leave it running for hours after dinner. A timer function or delay shut-off stops it after ten minutes or so, enough to clear odors and lingering steam. If your fan has no timer, a plug-in timer or a smart plug can do the job for a socket-powered unit. Some models also include humidity sensors that switch on only when the air needs it, which stops pointless hours per day of running.
Keep clean filters and use low speeds for boiling and simmering. Save the boost setting for frying and searing. To put it in perspective, a hairdryer typically draws around 1,500 watts, so even a 180 W hood on high for an hour uses about the same as 8 minutes of drying your hair.
The hidden cost of any vented hood is not the electricity but the conditioned air it throws outside. In winter you pull warmed air out of the room, and your heating has to replace it; in summer you eject cooled air. That indirect cost can exceed the cost of the motor, so run the fan only as long as you need it. A cracked window can help the fan work less hard in mild weather, but in winter it admits cold air, so it is a trade-off.
The answer is yes, almost always. A fan that costs a few pounds a year protects the fabric of your home. Cooking produces a surprising amount of water vapour, and without ventilation that moisture settles on cold walls as condensation. Repeated condensation leads to damp and eventually mould, which damages paintwork and plaster and can affect health, particularly for people with asthma. The small price of running the fan is far lower than the cost of treating a mould problem. Next, look at escalator electricity consumption.
If you cook often, make a habit of switching on the extractor before you start, and leave it on for a short while after you finish. For a bathroom or utility room, the same logic applies. Most homes need a combination of the fan, open windows when the weather allows and regular cleaning.
A fan that runs for a short time on a low setting costs pennies; a hood left on boost with old halogen lights can cost many times more.
In short, a kitchen fan uses little electricity compared with the cost of what it prevents, and a quick check of the wattage, the tariff and the lighting will tell you whether your own setup deserves an upgrade. With the formula above and a few minutes with a meter, you can put a precise figure on your own appliance.