Hand dryer running cost calculator
Example figures are filled in. Replace any you know, then press Work it out.
Hand dryer running cost calculator: key facts
- A dryer's electricity per dry is power (kW) × seconds ÷ 3,600 kWh. A 1.4 kW dryer running for 12 seconds uses about 0.0047 kWh, roughly 0.14p at 29p per kWh.
- A 2.3 kW warm air dryer running for 35 seconds uses about 0.022 kWh a dry, roughly 0.65p at the same price: nearly five times as much.
- Paper towels cost the towels plus bin bags, waste collection and staff time. With 2 towels at 1p each, the example figures come to about 2.57p a dry.
- The government's figure for small non-domestic electricity users in 2025 was 29.09p per kWh, including the Climate Change Levy and excluding VAT. Your own tariff may be higher or lower.
- Payback is installed cost ÷ yearly saving. Include electrical work in the installed cost, and maintenance in the yearly cost.
- Running cost isn't the only factor: NHS England's infection control manual says disposable paper towels for clinical hand washing, and UKHSA guidance asks schools and childcare settings in England for paper towels by basins.
- The calculator doesn't size how many dryers you need at peak times. Too few dryers mean queues and wet hands, whatever the running cost.
How does the hand dryer running cost calculator work?
It multiplies the number of dries a year by the cost of each dry. For a dryer, that's the electricity it uses; for paper towels, it's the towels plus a share of the bin bags, waste collection and staff time. The difference is your yearly saving, and the installed cost divided by that saving is the payback period.
The sums are simple and the calculator shows every part, so you can see where the money goes:
- Dries a year = dries on a typical day × days open a year.
- Dryer cost per dry = power in kW × seconds per dry ÷ 3,600 × your electricity price. Add yearly maintenance if you've been quoted for it.
- Towel cost per dry = towels per dry × cost per towel, plus the cost of a bin bag and its collection divided by the dries that fill it, plus the time spent refilling dispensers and emptying bins.
- Yearly saving = yearly towel cost − yearly dryer cost.
- Payback = installed cost of all the dryers ÷ yearly saving.
Every box starts with an example figure. They're there so the calculator works straight away, not because they're right for your building. The figures that matter most are the number of dries, the dryer's power and drying time, and what a towel really costs you. Change those first.
All figures are before VAT. If your organisation can't reclaim VAT, the real cost of towels, electricity and dryers will be higher, but the comparison works the same way. For the reasoning behind the example figures and what the hygiene and environmental studies say, see our guide to hand dryers vs paper towels.
How do I work out how many hand dries a day my building has?
Multiply the number of people in the building on a typical day by how often each of them uses the toilet, then add visitors. If you use paper towels now, you can work it backwards from how many towels you get through.
This is the figure that moves the result most, and it's the one people most often guess. Three ways to estimate it:
From headcount
Take the number of staff, pupils or customers in the building on a normal day and multiply by the number of times each one uses the washroom. In an office, staff using the toilet three times during a working day is a reasonable starting assumption, so 60 staff is about 180 dries. Add visitors and customers separately: a busy pub or gym can have more customer dries than staff dries.
From the towels you buy now
This is often the most accurate route. Take the number of towels you bought over the last few months, divide by the number of days you were open, then divide by the towels people take per dry. If you got through 120,000 towels over 100 open days and people take 2 each, that's 600 dries a day.
From a count
Count the people going in and out of one washroom for an hour at a busy time and an hour at a quiet time, then scale up. It's tedious, but it's real data for your building.
Where do I find a hand dryer's power and drying time?
The power in watts or kilowatts is on the dryer's spec sheet and on the rating plate on the unit. The drying time is in the maker's literature, but it's worth timing a real dry: people often stop early or keep going.
Two numbers decide a dryer's electricity cost, and they pull in different directions:
- Power. Shown in watts (W) or kilowatts (kW) on the spec sheet and the rating plate. 1,000 W is 1 kW. Some dryers let you turn the heater off or the motor down, which lowers the power but can lengthen the dry.
- Drying time. The seconds the dryer runs per use. Makers' figures are measured in their own way, so treat them as a guide. If you have a dryer already, time several people using it.
A powerful dryer that dries quickly can use less electricity per dry than a lower-powered one that runs for longer. That's why the calculator asks for both. The two example settings show the difference:
| Example dryer | Power | Seconds | kWh per dry | Cost per dry at 29p/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High-speed | 1.4 kW | 12 | 0.0047 | 0.14p |
| Traditional warm air | 2.3 kW | 35 | 0.0224 | 0.65p |
These are example figures, not the specification of any particular model. Choose My own figures and enter the numbers from the spec sheet of the dryer you're considering. The calculator leaves out the small amount of electricity a dryer uses on standby, which is usually tiny compared with the drying itself; check the spec sheet if you want to include it.
Electricity price: use the unit rate on your bill in pence per kWh, before VAT. The example 29p is the government's 2025 average for small non-domestic users, including the Climate Change Levy. Larger users usually pay less per kWh; very small users usually pay more.
How do I work out what a paper towel really costs?
Divide what you pay for a case by the number of towels in it, then add the hidden costs: bin liners, the waste collection, and the time someone spends refilling dispensers and emptying bins. The calculator adds those as a cost per dry.
The price of the towels is only part of the cost, and the other parts are the ones most often left out:
- Cost per towel. Case price ÷ towels in the case. A £30 case of 3,000 towels is 1p a towel. Towel quality varies a lot, and cheaper, thinner towels often mean people take more of them.
- Towels per dry. Count what people actually take, not what the dispenser is designed to give. Two is a common figure; some people take three or four.
- Bin bags and collection. The cost of a liner plus your waste contractor's charge for taking it away, per bag. Washroom bins fill quickly with towels, so this adds up in busy buildings.
- Staff time. Minutes spent refilling dispensers and emptying bins, at the hourly cost of whoever does it. The example uses 3 minutes per 200 dries at the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour. If cleaning is contracted out at a fixed price, you may prefer to set this to 0.
Things the calculator doesn't price, but you might want to think about: blocked toilets and drains when towels get flushed, litter on the floor, storage space for cases, and dispensers that need replacing. They're hard to put a reliable number on, so they're left out rather than guessed.
What do typical results look like?
With the example towel and electricity figures, a high-speed dryer costs a small fraction of paper towels to run in every building below. A traditional warm air dryer costs several times more than a high-speed one but, on these figures, still less than towels.
These use the calculator's example figures for towels (2 at 1p, 50p bags holding 200 dries, 3 minutes' work per 200 dries at £12.71 an hour) and electricity at 29p per kWh. The dries per day and days open are assumptions for illustration. Your own figures will give different answers.
| Example building | Dries a year | High-speed dryer (1.4 kW, 12 s) | Warm air dryer (2.3 kW, 35 s) | Paper towels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small cafe: 40 dries a day, 300 days | 12,000 | £16 | £78 | £308 |
| Office, 60 staff: 180 a day, 250 days | 45,000 | £61 | £292 | £1,155 |
| Busy pub: 300 a day, 360 days | 108,000 | £146 | £700 | £2,773 |
| Gym: 800 a day, 360 days | 288,000 | £390 | £1,868 | £7,395 |
Two things stand out. First, the type of dryer matters a lot: in the gym example a warm air dryer costs nearly five times as much to run as a high-speed one. Second, the bigger the building, the bigger the yearly gap, so payback on installation is quickest where use is heaviest.
The result can flip the other way. If your towels are very cheap, your bins are collected at no extra cost, and nobody's time is counted, paper towels can come out close to or below a warm air dryer. That's why it's worth putting in your own figures rather than relying on anyone's averages, including ours.
How long will hand dryers take to pay for themselves?
Divide the full installed cost of the dryers by the yearly saving. Use a real quote that includes the electrical work, and include any yearly maintenance or service contract, or the payback will look better than it is.
The calculator only shows payback when you enter an installed cost, because we don't publish prices and every job is different. When you ask for quotes, check that the price includes:
- The dryers themselves, in the finish and model you've chosen.
- Electrical work. Each dryer needs a suitable supply, normally a fused connection near where it's mounted. Installing that is a job for a competent electrician working to the wiring regulations (BS 7671), not DIY. If there's no supply near the basins, this can be the biggest part of the cost.
- Fixing and making good: wall fixings suitable for the wall, removing old dispensers and filling holes.
- Maintenance: filters, drip trays or a service contract, if the supplier recommends them. Put this in the yearly maintenance box.
Renting instead of buying? Some suppliers rent hand dryers, often including installation and servicing. To compare, set the installed cost to 0 and put the yearly rental for each dryer in the maintenance box. The calculator then shows the yearly cost of renting against towels.
How many dryers? The number you need depends on the busiest few minutes of the day, not the daily total. A school at break time or a stadium at half time needs far more dryers per person than an office. Ask suppliers how they've sized the number, and check it against your own peak.
What doesn't the hand dryer running cost calculator include?
It compares running costs only. It doesn't decide whether dryers are suitable for every room, how many you need at peak times, or the carbon from making and disposing of paper towels, and it doesn't replace a supplier's quote.
- Healthcare and childcare guidance. NHS England's National Infection Prevention and Control Manual says clinical hand-wash basins should have paper towel dispensers and staff should dry hands with disposable paper towels. UKHSA guidance for schools and childcare settings in England asks for paper towels next to basins. A cheaper running cost doesn't override that. See hand dryers for schools.
- Peak capacity. It works on a daily total, not on how many people need to dry their hands in the same few minutes.
- Price changes. It uses today's figures for every year. Electricity and towel prices both change, so re-run it with current prices when you review.
- Paper towel carbon. It shows the carbon from the dryers' electricity, using the government's 2026 UK grid factor, but not the carbon from making, transporting and disposing of towels. Published life-cycle studies are discussed in our hand dryers vs paper towels guide.
- Hard-to-price costs. Blocked toilets, floor litter, vandalism, noise complaints and replacing broken units are left out because there's no reliable figure to use.
- Lifespan. It doesn't spread the cost of dryers over their working life. If a payback period is longer than you'd expect the dryers to last, treat that as a warning sign.
Use the result as a starting point for a conversation with suppliers, not as a final answer.
Related guides
Hand dryer running cost calculator: frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to run a hand dryer?
Multiply the dryer's power in kW by the seconds per dry, divide by 3,600, and multiply by your electricity price. A 1.4 kW dryer running for 12 seconds at 29p per kWh costs about 0.14p a dry; a 2.3 kW dryer running for 35 seconds costs about 0.65p. Multiply by your dries a year for the yearly cost.
Are hand dryers cheaper to run than paper towels?
With typical figures, yes, and often by a wide margin, because towels carry the cost of the towels, bin bags, waste collection and staff time. But the answer depends on your towel price, your waste charges, the dryer you choose and how many dries you have, so put in your own figures.
What electricity price should I use?
Use the unit rate on your electricity bill in pence per kWh, before VAT. If you don't know it, the example 29p is the government's 2025 average for small non-domestic users including the Climate Change Levy. Larger users usually pay less and very small users more.
How do I find out how many people use my washrooms?
Multiply the people in the building on a typical day by how often each uses the toilet, and add visitors. If you buy paper towels now, divide the towels used by the days open and by the towels taken per dry; that's often the most accurate estimate.
Why does the calculator include staff time and bin bags?
Because they are real costs of paper towels that are easy to forget. Someone has to refill the dispensers and empty the bins, and the waste has to be collected. You can set them to zero if they don't apply to you, for example if cleaning is on a fixed contract.
Does it work for renting hand dryers?
Yes. Set the installed cost to 0 and put the yearly rental for each dryer in the maintenance box. The yearly dryer cost then includes the rental, and you can compare it directly with paper towels.
Does the calculator include VAT?
No. Enter all prices before VAT. If your organisation can't reclaim VAT, the real costs of both options will be higher, but the comparison between them works the same way.
Can I use hand dryers in a hospital, clinic or school?
The calculator only compares cost. NHS England's infection control manual says clinical hand-wash basins should have paper towel dispensers, and UKHSA guidance asks schools and childcare settings in England for paper towels by basins. Check the guidance that applies to your setting before deciding.
Is my information saved or sent anywhere?
No. The calculator runs in your web browser and nothing you type into it is sent to us or anyone else. Only the separate enquiry form, if you choose to fill it in, sends details to us.
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources on 11 November 2026:
- Gas and electricity prices in the non-domestic sector (DESNZ, GOV.UK)
- Greenhouse gas reporting: conversion factors 2026 (DESNZ, GOV.UK)
- National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates (GOV.UK)
- National Infection Prevention and Control Manual for England, chapter 1 (NHS England)
- Health protection in children and young people settings: preventing and controlling infections (UKHSA, GOV.UK)