What does an hour of that candle cost?
Enter the price and the burn time for two candles. The one that costs less per hour is the one that is genuinely cheaper to use, whatever the shelf price says.
Enter figures you have checked for the specific candles you are comparing. These fields intentionally start empty; Ember & Main does not supply product-price defaults here.
Candle A
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Enter a price and a burn time
Candle B
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Enter a price and a burn time
Why this is the number that matters
Price tells you what you hand over once. Ounces tell you how heavy the jar is, which varies with wax type and wick count. Cost per hour is the only figure that reflects what you actually get, and it is the measure every comparison on this site is ranked by.
One caution: every burn time here comes from the maker or from a shop selling the candle, measured under conditions of their choosing. We treat those as claims, label them as stated, and name whoever published each one. We run no burn tests ourselves, so nothing on this site is a measurement we made — and where publishers disagree about the same candle, we show the disagreement rather than quietly picking a winner.
Questions
- How do you calculate candle cost per hour?
- Divide the price by the burn time in hours. To take a made-up example, a candle priced at $38 and rated for 85 hours would cost about $0.45 an hour. Those figures are illustrative arithmetic, not a real candle and not a price we have observed: every actual price on this site carries the page it was read on, the date, and whether it was a list or a promotional price.
- Where do I find a candle's burn time?
- It is usually printed on the base or the box, and listed in the product specifications online. Treat it as a manufacturer estimate: there is no standard test behind it, so figures from different brands are not strictly comparable.
- Is the cheapest cost per hour always the best buy?
- No. It tells you what an hour costs, not whether you will enjoy it. Scent throw, vessel quality, and whether you like the fragrance are worth real money. Use the number to know what you are paying before judgement takes over.