In this electricity scenario, ten full-power minutes cost nearly twice as much as five
26.32p/kWh, two cups a day, 1,600W during the chosen minutes and 0.4W at all other times. All bars start at zero.
Data: Sage SES450 manual and low-power table, checked 28 September 2026; Ofgem October-December rate, rechecked 29 September 2026. Calculated values.
Under these assumptions, increasing full-power time from five to ten minutes per cup changes the calculated electricity cost from 3.63p to 7.14p a cup. This is not a measured brewing time or saving.
Five minutes is a budgeting example, not a measured brewing time.
Electricity-only examples: about £22 to £36 a year
Under the stated five-minute, two-cup daily assumptions, the three Sage rated-power examples calculate electricity costs of about £22 to £36 a year. They are not total coffee or ownership costs.
| Machine | Published power | Electricity per cup | Electricity per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sage Bambino SES450 | 1,300-1,600W | 2.98-3.63p | £21.73-£26.53 |
| Sage Barista Express SES875 | 1,560-1,850W | 3.55-4.18p | £25.89-£30.54 |
| Sage Dual Boiler BES920UK | 2,200W | 4.95p | £36.14 |
Each row includes two cups every day for 365 days, at 26.32p/kWh, with 0.4W for the rest of the day. The ranges use the ends of the published power ratings.
Sage gives those ratings in its Bambino manual, Barista Express manual and Dual Boiler specifications.
This is not an efficiency ranking: the machines may need different amounts of time to make the same drinks. The table covers electricity only, not coffee, milk, water, care products or the machine's purchase price.
What electricity costs per kWh from October 2026
Ofgem's published electricity rate is 26.32p per kWh from 1 October to 31 December 2026. That is the Great Britain average for Direct Debit customers, covering England, Scotland and Wales, not Northern Ireland.
Use the unit rate on your own bill if it differs. Do not add your household's daily standing charge to the machine's cost: you pay that whether you make coffee or not.
The annual examples keep this October rate unchanged for a full year; they are budgets, not forecasts of future tariffs.
Does leaving a coffee machine plugged in use electricity?
Low-power electricity alone calculates to under £1 a year for these Sage model families. At Sage's published 0.4W, running continuously in that mode for 24 hours a day over 365 days calculates to 92p, using Ofgem's 26.32p/kWh rate for 1 October to 31 December 2026, held constant for the year. This excludes heating, brewing, steaming and time kept hot before low-power mode begins. It is not the machine's total annual electricity cost.
The worked examples assume that low-power mode fills all the time between sessions. Any extra time staying hot, including the wait before automatic shut-off, would add to them. Follow your model's manual when switching off after use.
How to keep your espresso machine running costs down
- Switch off, or let the machine drop into low-power mode, as soon as you finish. Keeping it hot uses energy; follow your model's shutdown instructions. The Barista Express manual says to switch off and unplug when it is not in use.
- Make drinks back to back so they share one warm-up, rather than heating the machine from cold again.
- Put the unit rate from your own bill into the calculator. It takes pounds per kWh: 26.32p is £0.2632.
In the 1,600W electricity-only scenario, two cups daily for 365 days calculate to about £52 a year at ten full-power minutes per cup, against about £27 at five minutes. The underlying figures are £52.15 and £26.53, including 0.4W between sessions and holding Ofgem's October to December 2026 rate of 26.32p/kWh constant for the year. These are alternative assumptions, not a measured saving from changing your routine.
Full-power periods account for almost all of this £26.53 electricity scenario
365 days at 26.32p/kWh, with 0.4W between sessions. All bars start at zero. Displayed parts differ from the total by 1p because each is rounded separately.
Data: Sage SES450 manual and low-power table, checked 28 September 2026; Ofgem October-December rate, rechecked 29 September 2026. Calculated values.
The assumed full-power periods account for £25.62 of the calculated annual electricity total.
Heat-up and milk steaming both add to the bill
Sage's Bambino manual says its ThermoJet reaches extraction temperature in three seconds. That is a heating-system claim, not the time or electricity needed for warming accessories, brewing and steaming a whole drink.
The Barista Express uses a Thermocoil. The Dual Boiler has separate espresso and steam boilers and a heated group head. The designs heat different components.
Count the whole coffee session, not just the seconds when coffee comes out. Include milk steaming if you make milk drinks. If two drinks share one warm-up, count that warm-up once.
To change the assumptions, put your own electricity rate and use into the calculator. Its measured-kWh option can price a reading you supply; its wattage option calculates a full-power example like the ones above.
For care instructions, check when your model needs descaling and which cleaning and filter tasks are separate. Keep following those instructions rather than skipping care to save electricity.
Sources and calculations
This page is compiled from Sage's manufacturer documentation and published specifications, checked on 28 September 2026, and Ofgem's electricity rate, rechecked on 29 September 2026. We have not used these machines.
Calculation method: watts / 1,000 x hours x price per kWh gives the cost in pounds. Calculate the full-power and low-power periods separately, then add them. Annual totals use 365 days; per-cup totals divide the unrounded annual cost by 730 cups.
Calculator formula and calendar references
The calculator's original source checks are dated 16 September 2026. Virginia Cooperative Extension, Estimating Appliance and Home Electronic Energy Use, BSE-301NP (2020), p. 1, gives wattage multiplied by hours and divided by 1,000, then multiplied by the electricity rate. Its US tariffs and appliance-use examples are not used here.
BIPM's SI Brochure, ninth edition, V4.01 (June 2026), Table 8, printed p. 140, defines an hour as 60 minutes and a day as 24 hours. The US Naval Observatory's leap-year explanation supports the calculator's 365-day default and 366-day option. These calendar choices are not assumptions about how often you make coffee.
Measured mode multiplies your kWh by your unit rate. Its yearly projection divides that energy by your recorded whole days, then multiplies by the selected year's days and the same rate. Rated mode uses your watts, minutes per use-day and use-days. Both hold the rate constant; they cannot predict changes in tariffs or your routine.