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Electricity Cost Calculator
Find out what any appliance costs to run. Enter its power in watts or kilowatts, how many hours a day you use it and what you pay per kilowatt-hour. You get the cost per day, month and year and the energy it uses.
- Cost per day
- $0.77
- Cost per year
- $279.23
- Energy per day
- 4.5 kWh
- Energy per year
- 1,643 kWh
Saved setups
Save a set of inputs you reuse — your usual rate, your loan, your room sizes — and load it back in one tap.
Your recent calculations
Results you calculate here are kept on this device so you can come back to them.
Formula
How to use it
- Enter the appliance’s power draw from its label or manual.
- Enter the average hours it runs each day.
- Enter your electricity price per kWh from a recent bill.
- Read the cost per day, month and year.
Worked examples
A 1,500 W space heater running 3 hours a day at 16¢ per kWh
- Energy per day
- 4.5 kWh
- Cost per day
- $0.72
- Cost per month
- $21.90
- Cost per year
- $262.80
A 60 W bulb left on 8 hours a day at 25¢ per kWh
- Energy per day
- 0.48 kWh
- Cost per day
- $0.12
- Cost per month
- $3.65
- Cost per year
- $43.80
A 3.5 kW air conditioner running 6 hours a day at 17¢ per kWh
- Energy per day
- 21 kWh
- Cost per day
- $3.57
- Cost per month
- $108.59
- Cost per year
- $1,303.05
Finding the wattage
Look for a label on the back or underside giving watts (W). If it lists only volts and amps, multiply them: 120 V × 5 A = 600 W. The label shows maximum draw; many devices use much less on average. A refrigerator, air conditioner or oven cycles on and off, so its average is well below the label — for those, a plug-in watt meter or the yearly kWh on the energy label gives a better figure.
Typical power draws
LED bulb 8–12 W. Laptop 30–70 W. Television 50–150 W. Desktop or gaming PC 200–500 W under load. Refrigerator 100–200 W averaged over the day. Microwave 1,000–1,500 W. Space heater or hair dryer 1,500 W. Window air conditioner 500–1,500 W. Electric clothes dryer 3,000–5,000 W. Central air conditioning 3,000–4,000 W.
Your real price per kWh
US residential electricity averages roughly 16–17 cents per kWh, but ranges from about 11 cents in some states to over 40 cents in Hawaii. For the truest figure, divide your total bill by the kWh used — that folds in delivery charges and taxes that the headline rate leaves out. On a time-of-use plan, use the rate for the hours the appliance actually runs.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to run a 1,500 W heater?
At 17 cents per kWh, 1.5 kWh an hour costs about 25.5 cents an hour. Three hours a day is about 77 cents a day, or roughly $23 a month.
How do I convert watts to kWh?
Multiply watts by hours and divide by 1,000. A 100 W device running for 10 hours uses 1 kWh.
How much does a TV cost to run per year?
A 100 W television on for 5 hours a day uses 0.5 kWh a day. At 17 cents per kWh that is 8.5 cents a day, about $31 a year.