How much does it really cost to charge your phone at home?

In today's (slightly amusing / utterly ridiculous) news...

It's pretty much a fact that we can't live without our smartphones. But you can now work out just how much money your friends owe you from charging their phones in your house (relax, it really isn't that much).

Ben Wilson, of Gocompare.com Energy said: 'One topic that comes up time and again with regards to saving energy and cutting down on the cost of our electricity bills is the irritation people feel when visitors charge their devices "free of charge" in their homes.' The new 'Charger Tariff Calculator', an interactive site from Gocompare.com, gives users the chance to work out just how much your friends are racking up in electricity bills by charging their smartphones, laptops and tablets.

After putting in how many times said friend has charged their phone at yours, as well as how you'd like your friend to pay you back (food, drink, holidays, clothes etc), the tool will work out how many full charges it would take to pay for certain items.

Turns out letting your mates charge their phone really isn't setting you back that much - but something tell us we think you knew that already.

However, for the fun of it: Here's the maths...

According to the calculator, if a friend has fully charged their phone at your house 25 times, they've used up just 7.5p worth of your electricity. It'll take 266 times before they owe you a 45g bar of chocolate (80p), 32,633 times before you've got yourself a V-Festival ticket (£97.90) and 40,000 times for a brand new pair of Hunter wellies (£120).

'Allowing a friend to charge their smartphone every time they pop over really isn't going to break the bank. Hopefully this fun tool will give people an idea of just how little their generosity is costing them - unless of course they actually decide to keep count and work their way towards a festival ticket or luxury five-star holiday!' says Ben.

Err, how many friends can you honestly say have charged their phone more than 30,000 times in your home?

And we're really not sure how invoicing your friends would go down IRL...