What a camera, feeder and tracker cost over three years

The box price is the smallest of three numbers

Every device in this category has three cost lines: the hardware, spread over the years you keep it; the subscription, if it has one; and the electricity, if it is mains-powered and never switched off. Only the first appears on a shelf label.

The electricity is computed the same way for all of them. Watts multiplied by 24 hours and 365 days, divided by 1,000, gives kilowatt hours a year; multiplied by the Ofgem price cap unit rate for 1 October to 31 December 2026 — 26.32 pence per kWh for direct debit customers in England, Scotland and Wales — that gives pounds. A camera drawing a steady 3 W is 26.28 kWh and about £6.92 a year.

The subscription is the line that does not behave. It is charged whether the device is used or not, it usually rises, and it stops the moment you stop paying, taking the feature you bought with it.

Subscriptions compound; hardware does not

Over three years the camera's plan costs £125.64 against £35 of hardware. That is about three and a half times the purchase price, and it arrives in instalments small enough that most households never add them up.

The tracker is worse in proportion. £45 of hardware and £54 a year of SIM subscription means the plan passes the purchase price inside the first year, and over three years it is £162 against £45. For an animal that has never gone missing, that is £208.50 over three years spent on a risk you may already be managing with a chip and a closed gate.

The feeder is the outlier, and it is the outlier because it has no plan. £75 of hardware over 5 years is £15 a year; over the three years in the table it is still only £35.61 a year including electricity and batteries. A device that does its job without a server behind it is structurally cheaper, and it keeps doing its job when a company changes its pricing.

• An example £3.49 a month camera plan is £41.88 a year and £125.64 over three years
• An example £4.50 a month tracker SIM is £54.00 a year and £162.00 over three years
• A feeder with no plan costs £75 once, which is £15 a year if you keep it 5 years
• Ask what the device still does when the plan lapses before you agree to the plan

Electricity is small, and there is no label to read

The electricity column is the least of the three. A camera at 3 W is about £6.92 a year and a feeder at 2 W about £4.61; together they are less than four months of the camera's example plan.

There is also nothing to compare them against. The UK energy label covers a defined list that includes air conditioners, dishwashers, ovens and range hoods, electronic displays, lighting products, space heaters, refrigerating appliances, tumble driers, washing machines and water heaters. Pet cameras, feeders and trackers are not on it, so there is no A to G class and no product information sheet for this category.

What that leaves is the rated power on the device's own label, which is a maximum rather than an average, and a plug-in meter, which is the honest figure. A meter left in place for 7 days gives a weekly kWh reading you can multiply by 52 and put into the cost-per-year calculator on this site.

The total price you should be shown, and the one you pay

Since 6 April 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority's guidance on unfair commercial practices requires an invitation to purchase to show a total price including mandatory fees, taxes and charges, and treats drip pricing — a headline price with compulsory extras introduced later in the checkout — as a prohibited practice. The advertising rules run in parallel: CAP Code rule 3.18 requires quoted prices to include non-optional taxes, duties, fees and charges that apply to all or most buyers.

For a consumer buying in the United Kingdom that means the shelf price already contains VAT at the standard rate of 20 percent. A subscription that is genuinely optional can sit outside the headline figure; one the device will not function without should not.

Buying from outside the United Kingdom changes the sum again. Non-excise goods worth £135 or less attract no customs duty on arrival in Great Britain, but VAT applies above that value, and on gifts worth more than £39, and carriers commonly add a handling charge of their own. A tracker that looked cheaper on an overseas site frequently is not by the time it reaches a door.

What to do with the result

Rank the three lines before you buy anything, and the decision usually makes itself: on these figures the feeder is £35.61 a year, the camera is £60.47 and the tracker is £69.50. The cheapest device to buy is not the cheapest to own, and the gap is in the plan rather than the box.

If you already own the hardware, the only line still under your control is the subscription. Check what the device retains without it — local recording, a last known position, scheduled feeding — and cancel anything whose lapsed state you can live with. At these prices one cancelled camera plan is £125.64 across three years.

Before you buy

• Write down the hardware price, the monthly plan and the rated power for each device
• Multiply the monthly plan by 36 to see the three-year figure next to the box price
• Compute electricity as watts times 24 times 365, divided by 1,000, times your own unit rate
• Ask what the device still does when the subscription lapses
• Divide each three-year total by three and compare devices on cost per year
• Check the consignment value against the £135 threshold before ordering from overseas
• Cancel any plan whose lapsed state you can live with, and bank the three-year figure

Questions readers ask

Why spread hardware over three years rather than one?

Because a device bought once and used for three years costs a third as much per year as the sticker suggests, and comparing a one-off £35 with a recurring £41.88 is otherwise meaningless. Three years is a conservative life for this kind of product; if you keep a feeder for five, its annual figure drops from £25 of hardware to £15.

Is a tracker subscription avoidable?

Only by choosing a device that does not use a mobile network. Anything reporting a position from outside the house needs a SIM and a data plan, and at an example £4.50 a month that is £54 a year. Bluetooth tags avoid the fee and only report when another phone passes within range of them.

How much does running a camera actually cost in electricity?

At a steady 3 W it is 26.28 kWh a year, which at the current cap rate of 26.32 pence per kWh is about £6.92. That is roughly two months of the example £3.49 a month plan attached to it, so the plan is the number worth arguing about.

Will I pay VAT on a device sent from abroad?

On consignments above £135 sent to Great Britain, yes, and on gifts worth more than £39. Below £135 there is no customs duty on non-excise goods, though VAT may still be accounted for by the seller or the carrier, and carriers commonly add a handling fee the original listing did not show.

Should a required subscription be in the advertised price?

The CMA guidance requires an invitation to purchase to show a total price including mandatory charges, and prohibits introducing compulsory extras as the buyer proceeds. CAP Code rule 3.18 requires quoted prices to include non-optional fees that apply to all or most buyers. A plan the device cannot function without is not an optional extra.

Sources

1. Ofgem — Energy price cap unit rates and standing charges: 26.32p per kWh for 1 October to 31 December 2026, direct debit — checked 2026-11-03
2. GOV.UK — Unfair commercial practices (CMA207): total price, drip pricing, applying from 6 April 2025 — checked 2026-11-03
3. GOV.UK — Goods sent from abroad: tax and duty (£135 customs threshold, £39 gift threshold) — checked 2026-11-03
4. GOV.UK — Regulations: energy information (the product categories the UK energy label covers) — checked 2026-11-03