A stairlift or home lift costs very little to run compared with what it costs to buy and service. This calculator shows how little, using the Ofgem price cap rate for 1 October to 31 December 2026 and published per-journey figures, with every step of the sum on screen.
Free calculator · UK cap rate, Oct to Dec 2026
Stairlift and home lift running cost calculator
Pick a lift, set how many journeys you make a day, and see the electricity cost per day, month and year. Every figure below shows its working.
Up then down counts as 2 journeys. Four return trips a day is 8.
Default is the Ofgem cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 (26.32p per kWh). Your bill shows your own rate.
Advanced: standby power and your own figure
None of the maker figures we found states a standby wattage, so this starts at 0. A plug-in energy monitor on the lift's socket for 24 hours gives you the real number.
Stairlift · 8 journeys a day
The working
Standing charge (54.83p a day at the current cap) is left out because you pay it whether or not the lift runs. Prices are rounded only at the last step.
Where the numbers come from
- Stairlift: 0.024 kWh per journey. Published by Age UK Mobility, which puts four journeys a day at around 35 kWh a year. It gives one figure for all stairlifts, and says a curved stairlift normally still costs under £20 a year to run.
- Home lifts: derived from Stiltz cost-per-trip figures. In a comment piece on THIIS, Stiltz priced a Trio+ upward trip at £0.0035 and a Duo+ upward trip at £0.0032, with £0.0002 for a downward trip on either, at 27.9p per kWh, fully loaded, 30 seconds a journey. We divided each by 27.9p to get kWh, then assumed half your journeys go up and half come down.
- Unit rate: 26.32p per kWh, the Ofgem price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026, as listed by Uswitch. The default moves when the cap does. Next change: 1 January 2027.
- What this cannot tell you. We have not measured any lift. Maker figures are for one load and one journey time, and the £0.0002 downward figure is rounded at source. Standby draw is the number most likely to change your total, and no source we read publishes it.
Calculator by Look Into, the UK household cost desk. Rates dated October 2026.
What a lift costs to run at the October 2026 cap
At four journeys a day a stairlift uses 35.04 kWh a year, which is £9.22 at 26.32p per kWh. Double that to eight journeys and it is £18.45. A through-floor home lift on the Stiltz Trio+ figures comes to £5.10 a year at eight journeys a day, before any standby draw.
Those sums are small next to the cost of owning a lift. Our UK Stairlift Price Index puts electricity at about £120 over ten years, against £990 to £1,170 for annual servicing in years 2 to 10.
Questions about lift running costs
Does a stairlift use a lot of electricity?
No. Age UK Mobility puts a stairlift at 0.024 kWh a journey. At four journeys a day that is 35.04 kWh a year, or £9.22 at the October to December 2026 cap of 26.32p per kWh.
Why does a home lift come out cheaper per journey than a stairlift?
On Stiltz's own figures a downward trip costs almost nothing (0.02p at 27.9p per kWh), so the average across up and down journeys is low. The stairlift and home lift figures come from different sources measured in different ways, so treat the gap as rough rather than exact.
Does standby power matter?
It can be the biggest part of the bill. A lift drawing 5 W around the clock uses 43.8 kWh a year, which is £11.53 at 26.32p per kWh. No maker figure we found states standby draw, so measure yours with a plug-in energy monitor.
Is the standing charge included?
No. The standing charge (54.83p a day at the current cap) is paid whether or not the lift runs, so the calculator leaves it out.
Can I put this calculator on my own website?
Yes. Copy the code from the embed box under the calculator. It is free, and the rate inside it updates when we rebase to each new price cap.