The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to one of the most significant changes to our working lives that the world has ever seen: millions of people have left the office behind to work from home (WFH). For some, working from home was already part of their regular working routine. For many, it’s a whole new way of doing things.
Hungary relatively expensive
So, how has working from home impacted our hip pockets? How much are we spending to use our own broadband, keep our lights and heating on and make those extra cups of coffee throughout the day? Comparethemarket.com.au analysed how some of these costs could stack up throughout a month around the world. You can find their results on their website.
According to their survey, the most expensive countries to work from home are Denmark (287 USD/month), Germany (284 USD) and the Republic of Ireland (246 USD). On the other end of the list there are Turkey (41 USD), Argentina (48 USD) and Bangladesh (57 USD). Compare the Market analysed the following factors:
- Average monthly cost of a fixed-line broadband package
- Average price of 1GB mobile data Cost of electricity per kWh
- Cost to use laptop (8 hours 0.05 kWh)
- Monthly cost to use a laptop
- Cost to use a light bulb (8 hours 0.06 kWh)
- Monthly lighting cost
- Cost to use a boiler (4 hours 24 kWh)
- Monthly heating cost
- Cost to use a kettle (10 mins 3 kWh)
- Monthly cost to use a kettle
- Monthly cost to use air conditioning
They found that Hungary was in the 7th place on the list with a relatively high amount, 199 USD per month.
About the methodology
Broadband
The average monthly cost of a fixed-line broadband package according to Cable.co.uk’s worldwide comparison.
Mobile Data
The average cost of 1GB of data according to Cable.co.uk’s worldwide mobile data pricing.
Utility costs
They estimated energy costs by multiplying the estimated kilowatts per hour (kWh) of each activity by the average cost per kWh of electricity in each country, (sourced from World Bank) to establish the estimated cost for an hour’s use. Then they used this figure to calculate the cost across a working day (eight hours) and month (20 working days).
For countries where the capital city has an average annual temperature of over 12˚C, we looked at air conditioning costs, whereas for those lower than 12˚C, we looked at the cost of heating. For these two factors, we calculated the estimated cost for six months of usage, then averaged this across twelve months.
Read alsoBudapest is one of the world’s best places for late-night drinks and partying!
Source: Press release/Compare the Market
