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Written and fact-checked by Jacob Whitmore · Published 26 Jun 2026 · Last reviewed 2 Oct 2026 · How we work
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We ranked seven UK dehumidifiers by what one night of running costs at the electricity rate that starts on 1 October 2026: 26.32p a kWh under Ofgem’s October to December cap. The cheapest to run with a published wattage is the MeacoDry Arete One 12L, at 31.8p for eight hours. The dearest is the Meaco DD8L desiccant, at 69.5p on its low setting and £1.37 on laundry mode. We also read the 39 electric dehumidifiers in Amazon UK’s top 100 on 18 September 2026 to see which ones tell you what they cost to run: 14 do, every one of them per hour, and not one uses the October rate.

The short answer

Cheapest per night: the MeacoDry Arete One 12L, 31.8p for eight hours from 1 October 2026, and 18.2p per litre removed. Cheapest per litre: the Arete One 25L at 15.7p. The DD8L desiccant costs three times as much per litre in a heated room. Prices checked 18 September 2026.

How this guide was made: desk research, not a hands-on test. We have no humidity chamber, so every extraction and power figure below is the manufacturer’s own, quoted with the temperature and humidity it was measured at. The cost per litre is our arithmetic on those figures at the Ofgem cap rate, with the working shown so you can redo it. We shortlist on UK availability, warranty terms, published specifications and verified UK owner reviews, discounting incentivised ratings, and we check each Amazon listing’s specification box against the maker’s own page, because on several of these products they disagree. Prices in the comparison table are pulled live from Amazon UK. Where we have tested something ourselves, we say so on the page. This guide is rechecked at every Ofgem cap change and monthly through the damp season from September to November.

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Prices and specs last checked 18 September 2026 · re-check overdue (was booked for 1 October 2026) · how we picked

Ranked by what a night costs

Each machine is costed on its maker’s own power figure, run for eight hours at 26.32p per kWh, the unit rate under Ofgem’s cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 (direct debit, Great Britain average; your region will differ slightly). The 54.83p a day standing charge is left out because you pay it whether the machine runs or not. Treat each night as a ceiling: a machine with a humidistat stops its compressor once the room reaches the target, so most real nights cost less.

RankMachineTypeMaker’s power figureOne night, 8 hoursPer litre at 20°C, 60% RHPrice, 18 Sep 2026
1Meaco Arete One 12LCompressor151W at 20°C, 60% RH31.8p18.2p£179.99
2MeacoDry ABC 10LCompressor152W at 20°C, 60% RH32.0p21.4p£125.96
3Devola 12LCompressor185W, no conditions stated39.0pNot published£114.99
4Meaco Arete One 25LCompressor267W at 20°C, 60% RH56.2p15.7p£299.99
5Meaco DD8LDesiccant330W low, 650W laundry69.5p low, £1.37 laundry59.6p low, 54.7p laundry£169.99
UnrankedPro Breeze 12LCompressorNone published32p to 40p on Pro Breeze’s own 4p and 5p an hour claimsNot published£119.99
UnrankedPro Breeze OmniDry 20LCompressorNone on Pro Breeze’s site; the Amazon listing says 1,000W56p on its own 7p an hour claimNot published£169.99

The two Pro Breeze machines sit outside the ranking because Pro Breeze publishes pence-per-hour claims but no wattage and no unit rate, so there is nothing to multiply by 26.32p. Its 12L page carries two different claims, 4p and 5p an hour.

Rank by the night and the smaller machines win. Rank by the litre and the Arete One 25L wins at 15.7p, because it removes twice the water of the 12L for 1.8 times the power. If the room is wet enough to keep a machine running for hours, the per-litre column decides the bill. If the machine only has to top the room off, the night is the better guide. Thirty nights on the Arete One 12L at the ceiling comes to £9.54; on the DD8L’s laundry setting, £41.06.

The per-hour trap

Mini dehumidifiers that use a Peltier plate look cheapest of all. One in the bestseller list, a 22.5W unit sold under the finade name, costs 4.7p a night at the October rate, about a seventh of the Arete One 12L. Its listing says it removes up to 500 ml a day at 30°C and 85% humidity; its own title says 400 ml. At those tropical conditions each litre costs 28.4p to 35.5p. Meaco’s figure for the Arete One 12L at 30°C and 80% works out at 10.3p.

We call this the per-hour trap: the machine that is cheapest per hour is the dearest per litre of water removed, and a pence-per-hour claim cannot show it. Every running-cost claim in the 39 listings we read is per hour.

How they compare

ModelName saysRemoves at 20°C, 60% RHPower thereCost per litreNoise dB(A)TankSuitsWarrantyPrice
Meaco Arete One 12L12 L/day5.23 L/day151W18.2p35-382.5 LUp to 3 bedrooms5 years£179.99
Pro Breeze 12L (PB-18-UK)12 L/dayNot publishedNot publishedCannot be worked out40 max claimed1.8 LUp to 20 m21 year£119.99
Pro Breeze 20L OmniDry (PB-D-24-WF)20 L/dayNot publishedNot publishedCannot be worked out36 max claimed4 L20 to 30 m21 year£179.99
Meaco Arete One 25L25 L/day10.73 L/day267W15.7p40-424.8 L4 to 5 bedrooms5 years£299.99
MeacoDry ABC 10L10 L/day4.48 L/day152W21.3p36-402.6 LSmaller homes2 years (5 extendable)£125.96 (18 Sep)
Devola 12L12 L/dayNot published185W, conditions not statedCannot be worked out362 LNot stated2 years with registration£114.99 (18 Sep)
Meaco DD8L (desiccant)8 L/day7.5 L/day on speed 2650W54.3p39-482 LUnheated spaces2 years£169.99 (18 Sep)
Extraction, power, noise, tank size and warranty are as published by Meaco and Pro Breeze. Cost per litre is our arithmetic on those figures: watts × 24 hours ÷ litres a day, at 26.32p per kWh, the Ofgem cap rate for 1 October to 31 December 2026. Prices read on Amazon UK on 3 September 2026. Pro Breeze cover is one year as standard, three years only if you buy its protection plan within seven days of the machine.

The cost of removing a litre of water

The capacity in a dehumidifier’s name is measured in tropical test conditions. Meaco publishes an extraction table for each of its machines, and the only line on the Arete One 12L’s table that reaches 12 litres is 30°C at 80% humidity. At 20°C and 60% humidity, closer to a heated British room in winter, the same machine pulls out 5.23 litres a day.

The same tables make an honest running cost possible. Meaco states the power draw at those conditions, so each litre of water removed can be priced: watts times hours gives the electricity used, and the extraction rate says how many litres that electricity removed. At the October to December 2026 cap rate of 26.32p per kWh:

ModelPower at 20°C, 60% RHExtraction at 20°C, 60% RHCost per litre removed
Meaco Arete One 12L151W5.23 L/day18.2p
Meaco Arete One 25L267W10.73 L/day15.7p

What a litre costs in a cold room

Running costs on this page use the Ofgem cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026: 26.32p per kWh, direct debit average. On a fixed deal or a different rate?
Room conditionsArete One 12LArete One 25L
10°C, 50% RHNot published63.2p
10°C, 60% RH42.1p39.3p
10°C, 80% RH21.9p20.2p
20°C, 50% RHNot published23.5p
20°C, 60% RH18.2p15.7p
20°C, 80% RH11.9p10.1p
30°C, 60% RH14.3pNot published
30°C, 80% RH10.3pNot published
Each row uses Meaco’s own published wattage and extraction rate for that condition, priced at 26.32p per kWh. Meaco publishes six conditions per machine and they are not the same six for both, which is why some cells are empty.

Call it the cold-room penalty. Same machine, same 60% humidity, and a litre of water costs 42.1p to remove at 10°C against 18.2p at 20°C. That is 2.3 times as much, because a compressor works badly in cold air, and on the 25L the penalty is 2.5 times. If you are deciding where to put the machine, that is the figure that matters: run it in the heated part of the house, not in an unheated garage.

The bigger machine removes each litre for less, which matters if damp is the problem you are pricing. Pence per hour flatters whichever machine draws the least power; pence per litre measures the work done.

We could not build the same figure for either Pro Breeze machine. Pro Breeze’s UK product pages give no wattage and no measurement conditions, and their running cost claims disagree with themselves: the 12L page says 4p an hour in one place and 5p in another, the 20L page says 7p and 10p, and none of the four figures names the electricity rate it assumes. For scale, 5p an hour at the current cap rate implies a draw of about 190 watts. Until the inputs are published, treat pence-per-hour claims as marketing.

This table was rebuilt on 2 October 2026 for the cap rate that changed on 1 October, and is priced at 26.32p per kWh. At the July to September 2026 rate of 26.11p the same cells read 18.1p and 15.6p a litre in a heated room, and 41.8p and 38.9p in a cold one. Every figure here is arithmetic on Meaco’s own published wattage and extraction rate for each condition, not a rescaling of the old pence.

Checked again on 3 September 2026 against Meaco’s product pages for the Arete One 12L and 25L and Pro Breeze’s product pages for its current 12L and 20L models, at the Ofgem cap rate for 1 July to 30 September 2026. The arithmetic is ours and is shown in full, so you can redo it. One correction from the same check: an earlier version of this guide called the 25L pick the Meaco Platinum Range 25L. The machine the link sells is the MeacoDry Arete One 25L, and the guide now uses its proper name. A second correction, made on 3 September: the comparison table priced the 25L at £400 to £500, which was out of date. It was £299.99 on Amazon UK when we checked, and the table now carries dated prices instead of bands.

Drying laundry is the other half of this sum: our heated airer running costs guide prices the whole job by method, and finds that a 300W airer plus this 151W dehumidifier costs 95p over an eight-hour night, within 4p of a tumble dryer cycle.

Have a plug meter reading? Our dehumidifier running cost calculator takes measured watts, so it prices your machine as it actually runs.

The seven, cheapest night first

Meaco Arete One 12L

Best overall

31.8p a night from 1 October 2026 · £179.99 on 18 September 2026

The one to buy if you are only buying one. It is quiet and carries a five-year warranty. Meaco is also the only maker here that publishes what its machine removes in a normal British room: at 20°C and 60% humidity, 5.23 litres a day for 151 watts, which works out at 18.2p for every litre of water it pulls out of the air. It doubles as a HEPA air purifier, so it earns its keep in summer too.

The catch: At £179.99 it is £60 more than the Pro Breeze, and the 12 litres in its name needs 30°C and 80% humidity, which no British house sees in winter.

5.23 L/day at 20°C, 60% RH · 2.5 L tank · 35-38 dB(A) · 10.9 kg · 5-year warranty

Behind this verdict: the extraction, wattage and pence-per-litre figures come from Meaco’s published performance table, the only one in this guide that states its test conditions, read 3 September 2026, price checked the same day. The 35 to 38 dB(A) noise range is Meaco’s own figure; we have not measured it.

Check price on Amazon →

MeacoDry ABC 10L

Smaller homes

32.0p a night from 1 October 2026 · £125.96 on 18 September 2026

Near enough the same night as the Arete One 12L, for £54 less. It removes less water for that money. At 20°C and 60% humidity Meaco says it draws 152 watts and removes 4.48 litres a day: 32.0p a night and 21.4p per litre removed from 1 October 2026.

The catch: Two-year warranty against the Arete One’s five, and the steepest cold-room penalty of the three Meacos here: 52.2p a litre at 10°C and 60%, 2.4 times its heated-room figure.

4.48 L/day at 20°C, 60% RH · 2.6 L tank · 36 to 40 dB(A) at one metre · 10.1 kg · 2-year warranty, extendable to 5

Behind this verdict: the extraction and wattage figures come from the six-condition table on Meaco’s product page, read 18 September 2026, price checked the same day on Amazon UK. The listing still quotes 3p an hour at 24.5p a kWh; Meaco’s own page says 4p at 26.11p. The noise range is Meaco’s figure; we have not measured it.

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Check price on Amazon →

Pro Breeze 12L

Best budget

32p to 40p a night on Pro Breeze’s own claims · £119.99 on 18 September 2026

£60 less than the Meaco and it will dry a damp room, but you are buying on trust. Pro Breeze publishes no wattage and no test condition for this machine, so its running cost cannot be checked, and its own page quotes 4p an hour in one place and 5p in another. At the current cap rate, 5p an hour implies a draw of about 190 watts. Pro Breeze cites a Which? Great Value award from January 2026 on its page for this model, while the Amazon listing title says Best Buy. Which? sits behind a paywall, so we quote the maker.

The catch: One year of warranty against Meaco’s five, and the three-year plan is a paid extra that has to be bought within seven days of the machine. No air purifier either.

12 L/day claimed, condition not stated · 1.8 L tank · 40 dB(A) maximum claimed · 4.76 kg · 1-year warranty

Behind this verdict: Pro Breeze’s own product page and its Amazon listing, read 3 September 2026. With no published wattage or test condition, this machine’s running cost could not be verified against any source, the pence-per-hour figures are the maker’s.

Check price on Amazon →

Devola 12L

Lowest price with a stated wattage

39.0p a night from 1 October 2026 · £114.99 on 18 September 2026

The cheapest 12-litre machine here that tells you its power draw, at £114.99. Devola’s own page gives 185 watts, which is 39.0p a night from 1 October 2026.

The catch: Devola states no test conditions, so no cost per litre can be worked out, and its Amazon listing says 210 watts where its own website says 185.

12 L/day, conditions not stated · 2 L tank · 36 dB at maximum speed (Devola’s figure) · 2-year warranty with registration

Behind this verdict: wattage and the “approximately 5p per hour” claim at 24p a kWh are from devola.co.uk, read 18 September 2026; price checked the same day on Amazon UK. We have not run this machine.

Check price on Amazon →

Pro Breeze 20L

Best for drying laundry

56p a night on Pro Breeze’s own 7p an hour claim · £169.99 on 18 September 2026

The laundry machine: 20 litres a day and a one-click laundry mode, at £179.99, the same price as the 12L Meaco. It is the obvious pick if wet washing is the reason you are buying. The same caveat applies as on the 12L Pro Breeze: 20 litres a day is a nameplate figure with no test condition attached, and with no published wattage there is nothing to price it against.

The catch: 13.5 kg, one year of warranty, and no published figure for what it removes in a 20°C room. Pro Breeze claims 36 dB(A) maximum but does not say at what fan speed or distance.

20 L/day claimed, condition not stated · 4 L tank · 36 dB(A) maximum claimed · 13.5 kg · 1-year warranty

Behind this verdict: Pro Breeze’s own product page and its Amazon listing, read 3 September 2026. The 20 L/day figure names no test condition, and with no published wattage there is nothing to check it against.

Check price on Amazon →

MeacoDry Arete One 25L

Best for damp or large homes

56.2p a night from 1 October 2026 · £299.99 on 18 September 2026

The cheapest per litre of the four, and the one to buy if damp is a real problem in the house. It removes 10.73 litres a day in a 20°C room at 60% humidity for 267 watts, which is 15.7p a litre. Meaco’s published table for it stops at 20°C and 80% humidity, where it removes 17.53 litres a day, so nothing in the published table reaches the 25 in the name.

The catch: £299.99 and 16 kg, which is more machine than a flat needs, and it runs at 40-42 dB(A) against the 12L’s 35-38.

10.73 L/day at 20°C, 60% RH · 4.8 L tank · 40-42 dB(A) · 16 kg · 5-year warranty

Behind this verdict: Meaco’s published performance table, read 3 September 2026; the £299.99 price was checked the same day. The Amazon listing’s 25-litre tank figure is wrong, Meaco says 4.8 L; see “Where the listings and the makers disagree” below.

Check price on Amazon →

Meaco DD8L

Only for unheated spaces

69.5p a night on low, £1.37 on laundry, from 1 October 2026 · £169.99 on 18 September 2026

The dearest machine on this page to run, and the right one for a garage or boat that drops towards freezing. Meaco rates it at 330 watts on fan speed 1 and 650 watts on speed 2 and laundry mode: 69.5p a night on low, £1.37 on laundry.

The catch: In a heated room it costs 54.7p to 59.6p per litre removed, three times the Arete One 12L. Even at 10°C, Meaco’s figures for its sister DD8L Zambezi put a litre at 56.9p on low against the Arete One 12L’s 42.1p. A desiccant pays its way only where a compressor stops working; Meaco rates this one down to 1°C.

7.5 L/day at 20°C, 60% RH on speed 2 · 2 L tank · 39, 43 or 48 dB(A) by mode · 6.4 kg · 2-year warranty

Behind this verdict: wattage and extraction for both fan speeds are from Meaco’s DD8L product page, the 10°C comparison from its DD8L Zambezi page, both read 18 September 2026. The Amazon listing’s “only 8p / hour” for laundry drying does not match Meaco’s own 17p. We have not run this machine.

Check price on Amazon →

Where the listings and the makers disagree

On three of the four listings in this guide, the Tank volume field repeats the machine’s litres-per-day figure. The Arete One 25L is listed with a 25-litre tank; Meaco says it holds 4.8 litres. The Pro Breeze 20L listing states 1,000 watts, roughly four times what Pro Breeze’s own 7p-an-hour claim implies, and gives it the same dimensions as the 12L.

MachineFieldAmazon listing saysMaker’s own page says
Arete One 12LTank volume12 litres2.5 litres
Arete One 12LWattage136 W151 W at 20°C, 60% RH
Arete One 25LTank volume25 litres4.8 litres
Arete One 25LExtraction14 L/day10.73 L/day at 20°C, 60% RH
Pro Breeze 20LTank volume20 litres4 litres
Pro Breeze 20LWattage1,000 WNot published
Listing specification boxes read on Amazon UK on 3 September 2026, against the manufacturers’ UK product pages read the same day.

None of this is a fault in the machines, and it is not unique to these four. It is the reason every specification in the table at the top of this page comes from the manufacturer’s own page, and the reason a buying guide built by reading listing fields will be wrong in ways nobody notices.

What 39 bestseller listings say it costs to run

On 18 September 2026 we read the top 100 of Amazon UK’s Dehumidifiers bestseller list. Sixty-one were moisture absorbers, hanging bags, refills or silica packs with no plug. That left 39 electric machines. We scored each one only on the seller’s own title, feature bullets and technical specification, and checked every running-cost hit by hand. This section links to no product.

What the listing doesListings, of 39
States a running cost in pounds or pence14
  of which quote it per hour14
  of which quote it per litre removed, or per night0
  of which name the unit rate behind it (24p, 24.5p twice, 34p a kWh)4
  of which give a date but no rate (October 2024 twice, November 2022, April 2025)4
  of which give neither rate nor date6
  of which use the 26.32p rate that applies from 1 October 20260
Gives energy use in kWh but no money figure4
Claims a yearly saving on bills against unnamed rivals, with no currency or rate3
Says nothing numeric about running cost18
States the temperature and humidity behind its extraction figure8
  of which at 20°C or cooler0 (all eight are 30°C to 35°C, 80% to 95% humidity)

Four of the fourteen money claims are contradicted by the seller’s own numbers or by the maker’s website:

  • The Meaco DD8L listing says it dries laundry for “only 8p / hour”. Meaco’s own page says laundry mode draws 650 watts and costs 17p an hour at 26.11p a kWh.
  • The Pro Breeze OmniDry 20L listing claims 7p an hour beside a specification box that says 1,000 watts, which would be 26.3p an hour from 1 October.
  • The NETTA 12L title says 4.5p an hour. A bullet on the same listing says 5p at 34p a kWh, and its stated 170 watts at 34p comes to 5.8p.
  • The MeacoDry ABC 10L listing still says 3p an hour at 24.5p a kWh. Meaco’s own page now says 4p at 26.11p.

The three AEOCKY listings go furthest: each says the machine saves “up to 468” or “up to 528” in electricity bills a year running around the clock, with no pound sign, no unit rate and no named rival.

None of this makes the machines bad. It means a pence-per-hour line on a listing is a sales figure with an expiry date. The only fair comparison is watts at a stated temperature and humidity, and of the makers in this guide only Meaco publishes that. The ranking above uses it wherever it exists.

How to choose one

Two things matter most: capacity and type. Capacity is the litres of water a machine can pull from the air in a day. For most homes, 10 to 12 litres is enough; step up to 20 to 25 litres for a large home, ongoing damp, or a lot of indoor laundry. For type, a compressor model is the efficient choice in normal heated rooms and suits most homes, while a desiccant model copes better in cold or unheated spaces like a garage, at the cost of using more power. A humidity sensor and a laundry mode both help keep the running cost down. For capacity by home size, see our dehumidifier size guide.

Head to head

Common questions

What size dehumidifier do I need?

For most UK homes a 10 to 12 litres-per-day model is plenty. Step up to 20 to 25 litres a day if you have a large home, persistent damp or mould, or you dry a lot of laundry indoors.

Compressor or desiccant?

Compressor models like the Meaco Arete are the most energy-efficient in normal, warm rooms and suit most homes. Desiccant models cope better in cold spaces such as garages and unheated rooms, and they are lighter, but they use more electricity. On Meaco’s own figures that advantage does not show up at 10°C: its DD8L Zambezi desiccant costs 56.9p a litre there on low, against 42.1p for the Arete One 12L. The case for a desiccant is a space colder than that.

Do dehumidifiers help with damp and mould?

Yes. By pulling moisture out of the air they cut condensation and damp and make it harder for mould to grow. They also make a cold home feel warmer and help wet washing dry faster.

Are they expensive to run?

The two Meaco models in this guide work out at 18.2p and 15.7p per litre of water removed, on Meaco’s published power and extraction figures at 20°C and 60% humidity and the October to December 2026 cap rate of 26.32p per kWh. Most machines also have a humidity sensor that switches off once the target is reached, so they are not running all the time. In a cold room the same two machines cost far more for each litre: 42.1p and 39.3p at 10°C and 60% humidity. (That sentence covers the two Arete One machines; the MeacoDry ABC 10L and the DD8L desiccant were added on 18 September 2026 and are costed in the ranking at the top of this guide.)

How much more does it cost to run in a cold room?

More than twice as much per litre. The MeacoDry Arete One 12L removes a litre of water for 18.2p at 20°C and 60% humidity, and 42.1p at 10°C and the same humidity, on Meaco’s published power and extraction figures at the October to December 2026 cap rate of 26.32p per kWh. A compressor dehumidifier works badly in cold air, so an unheated garage or spare room is the expensive place to run one.

Do the Amazon specifications match the manufacturer’s?

Not on these four listings. Three of the four give a tank volume that is really the machine’s litres-per-day figure: the Arete One 25L is listed with a 25-litre tank and Meaco says it holds 4.8 litres. The Pro Breeze 20L listing states 1,000 watts, about four times what Pro Breeze’s own running cost claim implies. Every specification in this guide is taken from the manufacturer’s page instead.

Which dehumidifier is cheapest to run per night?

Of the machines in this guide with a published wattage, the MeacoDry Arete One 12L: 151 watts for eight hours is 31.8p at the 26.32p per kWh rate that applies from 1 October 2026. The MeacoDry ABC 10L is 32.0p. Per litre of water removed, the Arete One 25L is cheapest at 15.7p.

Can I trust the pence-per-hour figure on an Amazon listing?

Treat it as a sales line. Of the 39 electric dehumidifiers in Amazon UK’s top 100 on 18 September 2026, 14 quoted a running cost, all per hour. Only four named the unit rate, none used the 1 October 2026 rate, and four were contradicted by the seller’s own figures or the maker’s website.

Are mini dehumidifiers cheaper to run?

Per hour, yes. Per litre, no. A 22.5-watt Peltier mini costs about 4.7p a night from 1 October 2026, but on its own listing’s figures each litre costs 28.4p to 35.5p even at 30°C and 85% humidity. The Arete One 12L is 10.3p a litre at 30°C and 80%. We call this the per-hour trap.

Fighting heat as well as damp? Several of the portable air conditioners we rate double as dehumidifiers, or browse more Home & Garden picks.

Related reading: what a dehumidifier, fan and air conditioner cost to run.

If the water on the glass is the reason you are here, our guide to stopping condensation on windows prices every fix side by side, including what a litre of water costs to remove at the October 2026 cap.

If it is dust or pollen and not damp, our air purifier guide reworks each machine’s advertised room size at 4.8 air changes an hour, and finds that 22 of the 25 bestseller room sizes it could check assume two or fewer.

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lookinto.co.uk publishes independent UK cost research and free quote comparisons across home energy, mobility, home improvement and later-life care. The cost indices are built from published data, and every figure is sourced on the page it appears on.