Does air conditioning use a lot of electricity?
Less than its reputation suggests: a bedroom split actively cooling draws 0.5 to 0.8kW, roughly a fifth of a kettle, and far less once holding temperature. What makes air conditioning look expensive is running hours, weeks of daily use in a hot summer, not the power draw itself, which is modest beside ovens, showers and tumble dryers.
Put the numbers beside familiar appliances and the picture rights itself. Kettle: 3kW while boiling. Electric shower: 8 to 10kW. Oven: 2 to 3kW. Tumble dryer: 2 to 3kW per cycle. A 2.5kW-cooling split: 0.6 to 0.8kW electrical at full effort, a few hundred watts while holding. The heat pump's trick, moving heat rather than making cold, is why the output exceeds the input threefold.
The bills people fear come from multiplication, not magnitude: 0.7kW for six hours a day for six weeks is real money, £35 to £45 at current rates, but it buys six weeks of liveable rooms and decent sleep during exactly the period the house is otherwise miserable. Per hour of benefit, little else on the meter competes.
Efficiency choices compound quietly: an accurately sized unit runs in its efficient band; clean filters can be worth 10% or more; sensible setpoints (each degree of extra cooling costs roughly 3 to 5% more); and dry mode instead of deep cooling on muggy-but-mild days. All free, all habit.
For the efficiency-minded buyer, the label to read is SEER, seasonal efficiency: modern units run SEER 6 to 8, meaning six to eight units of cooling per unit of electricity averaged across a season. It is the honest number, and it has roughly doubled in fifteen years, which is why replacing a very old system often part-funds itself.
More in using your system, or browse all 40 questions on the FAQ index.
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