How Much Does It Cost to Run This Appliance?
Pick your state for a live electricity rate, then enter wattage and how often you use it. Instantly see daily, monthly, and annual running costs — plus how much it adds to your power bill.
The average US home spends about $1,733/year on electricity at today's $0.17/kWh — most of it heating, cooling, and appliances you barely notice.
$0.17
average US electricity rate per kilowatt-hour (May 2026)
10,500
kWh average US home electricity consumption per year
~$29
annual cost to run a single 60W light bulb 8 hours per day
Where your electricity bill actually goes
Phantom loads add up
Devices in standby mode — TVs, gaming consoles, phone chargers, microwaves with clocks — collectively account for 5–10% of home electricity use. A cable box drawing ~17W 24/7 costs about $25/year doing nothing. Unplug or use smart power strips.
Old appliances cost more than you think
A 20-year-old refrigerator might use 800W compared to a modern ENERGY STAR model at 100–150W. At today's rate that difference costs about $937/year. A new fridge often pays for itself in 5–7 years through energy savings alone.
AC and heating dominate bills
Heating and cooling typically account for 40–50% of a home's electricity bill. A central AC running 8 hours/day at 3,500W costs about $140/month at today's rate. A smart thermostat can cut this 10–15% with minimal effort.
How the Appliance Energy Cost Calculator Works
Daily cost = (watts ÷ 1,000) × hours used × quantity × your electricity rate. Annual cost = daily cost × days per week × 52, and monthly cost is that annual figure ÷ 12. Picking your state loads its live average residential rate ($/kWh), so the numbers reflect where you actually live.
We also show what this one device adds to a typical home's power bill (~10,500 kWh/year) and project the 10-year cost with electricity inflation. Actual cost varies if usage fluctuates seasonally or the appliance cycles on and off (like a refrigerator) — for exact totals, use a plug-in energy monitor like a Kill-A-Watt meter.