The Burrow
Feb 17, 2025
Kids use screens for various purposes, namely entertainment. Considering how much screen time children have at home, what’s the impact of school holidays to energy costs?
As experts in helping Australians look for cheaper energy plans, we wanted to see how school holiday screen use for children impacts energy bills. We gathered data and crunched the numbers in seven countries across the globe.
Here’s what we found.
Based on our calculations, almost all countries see home screen time increase heavily when the kids are home for school holidays – and this increases the electricity usage costs. Finland saw the biggest increase at 180%, while France saw the lowest at 75% – the only country to not see an increase above 100%.
The table below showcases the jump in electricity use costs from the extra screen time kids get during school holidays compared to when they’re at school, looking at the total usage in just one day of holiday and school.
| Country | School holiday energy increase |
|---|---|
| Finland | 180% |
| Australia | 133% |
| Canada | 133% |
| New Zealand | 115% |
| United Kingdom | 115% |
| United States of America | 106% |
| France | 75% |
Looking across a whole year and actual costs to parents, it’s the United Kingdom (UK) that has the biggest bills for children’s screen-based holiday entertainment. Assuming children maintain the average daily screen use for each day, the cost of school holiday (and weekend) screen time in the UK is AU$245.83 per year for 175 days, compared to AU$131.42 for 190 school days per year.
That gives the UK a total cost of AU$377.25 per year just for one child’s typical annual screen use at home.
America had the second-highest cost for both holiday screen time – AU$130.14 for 185 days – and school day screen time – AU$68.97 for 180 days – for a total of AU$199.11 per year.
Australia had the same average cost for school holiday screen time use, but a lower school day usage cost of AU$67.61, meaning Australia had the third-highest cost for screen use at AU$197.75 per year.
Canada had the lowest annual cost, with school holidays costing AU$43.39 over 180 days, while school days cost only AU$20.84 for 185 days for a total of AU$64.23 a year per child. While Finland had the biggest increase in costs for a holiday day compared to a school day, they had the second-lowest annual cost at AU$115.64. Likewise, France had the lowest increase in electricity usage costs for a day of school holidays compared to school, but the overall annual cost of AU$163.67 per year was right in the middle of the list.
| Country | All holidays (AUD) | All school days (AUD) | Annual (AUD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | $245.83 | $131.42 | $377.25 |
| United States of America | $130.14 | $68.97 | $199.11 |
| Australia | $130.14 | $67.61 | $197.75 |
| France | $104.85 | $58.82 | $163.67 |
| New Zealand | $86.76 | $46.39 | $133.15 |
| Finland | $81.94 | $33.70 | $115.64 |
| Canada | $43.39 | $20.84 | $64.23 |
For parents wanting to minimise the impact children’s school holiday screen time has on electricity bills, there are some things you can do to cut down costs.
Compare the Market’s Head of Energy, Meredith O’Brien, notes that children’s screen time is just one fraction of a family’s electricity bill, and switching to a better plan can have a massive impact on the cost of a bill.
“Some regions have regulated markets where households can’t choose their own plan, but for those who can, there’s potentially significant savings to be had,” says O’Brien.
“Many plans might have a discount or good perks at the start, but they may default to a worse rate after the initial contract is up. Other plans might simply have better tariffs and potentially help you reduce your electricity cost, not just for screens and entertainment, but everything: heating and cooling, laundries and kitchens, lighting, and more.
“Comparing available energy plans and switching to a better deal can help you save money, and only takes a few minutes.”
To calculate approximate screen time electricity costs and the difference between school holidays and school days, some assumptions and calculations were made.
The average amount of screen time per country for children was sourced, assuming that the child sleeps 10 hours at night, which gave a ‘screen time per waking hour’ figure. This per hour figure was then multiplied by the number of hours at school during the school day, to calculate the approximate amount of screen time saved during school days in comparison to a day at home.
Using the average cost of electricity per kWh in each country, an average hourly cost for screen time was calculated by getting the average energy consumption for an hour of screen time. This average energy consumption for screen time was calculated by getting the cost for an hour for multiple devices, and then averaging that figure.
These devices were:
Once this average hourly cost of screen time was calculated, this was multiplied by the number of screen time per waking hours for school holiday days, and the amount of screen time per waking hour for school holidays was calculated.
The percentage difference between the day cost for a school day and holiday was calculated and presented in the first table of this article.
The day cost for screen time on a school holiday was multiplied by the number of school holiday days for a whole year to get an annual school holiday screen time cost for each country. The cost of school day screen time was multiplied by the number of school days to get an annual school year screen time cost for each country.
Average electricity costs were sourced from GlobalPetrolPrices.
Average screen time use for children was sourced from the following:
The average length of school days was taken from World Population Review for each country except the UK and France, which were sourced separately due to a lack of data.
To calculate the number of holidays, the number of school days was subtracted from 365 for each country. The number of school days were sourced from the following places:
The data was based on the average screen time use of children aged up to age 12. Teenagers typically have a lot more screen time per day, but not all countries had data for the same age groups. Teenage screen use costs would likely be much higher for school holidays, while remaining lower for school days. Additionally, costs are based on a single child. Given that multiple children may use the same device at the same time, this does not mean that costs will double for two children, for example. This makes it difficult to calculate realistic costs for multiple children using the above methodology.