Price Your Appliances
| Appliance | Watts | Hours per day | Quantity | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appliance rows appear here automatically. | ||||
Your Estimated Costs
| Appliance | kWh / day | kWh / period | Cost / period | Cost / year | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add an appliance and press Calculate to see the costs. | |||||
| Household total | kWh / day | kWh / period | Cost / period | Cost / year | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enter a rate and appliances, then Calculate. | |||||
Find what each appliance costs on your electric bill
This calculator estimates what each appliance in your home costs on your electric bill. Enter each device with its wattage and how long you run it, add your own rate per kWh from your bill, and the page shows a monthly and yearly cost for every appliance plus the total. Everything runs in your browser, and no numbers you enter are sent anywhere.
Most people see only one number on their utility bill: the total. When a bill jumps from 90 dollars to 140 dollars, the bill itself rarely explains why. The usual answer is that one or two appliances did most of the moving. A space heater run four hours a day, an old refrigerator in the garage, or a window AC unit can each account for more of the bill than all the lighting combined. This tool breaks the bill back into per-appliance pieces so you can see which device is worth your attention.
Rates vary a lot by country and by state, so the page never guesses yours. Find the rate on your bill on the line marked energy charge or price per kWh and type it in. If your plan has time-of-use pricing, use the rate that covers most of your running hours, or run the math once for each rate.
How to use it
- Type each appliance with the watts printed on its label or plug, the hours you run it per day, and how many of them you have.
- Enter your rate per kWh from the energy charge line of your bill, pick the currency symbol, and set the length of your billing period.
- The table updates with kWh per day, kWh over your period, the cost for that period and the cost per year, plus each appliance's share of the total.
- Copy the summary, export a CSV, or print the page for your records.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find my electricity rate?
Your utility bill typically displays a single price per kWh of energy, for example 0.17 dollars per kWh. The website of major utilities also displays the current residential rate. Rates differ widely between countries and even between neighboring utilities, which is why this calculator asks you to enter your own rate instead of assuming one.
How is the cost of an appliance calculated?
The formula is watts multiplied by hours, divided by 1000 to get kWh, then multiplied by your rate. A 1500 W space heater running 4 hours a day uses 6 kWh a day. At 0.17 dollars per kWh that is about 1.02 dollars a day, or roughly 31 dollars for a 30-day month. The calculator applies this formula to every row and repeats it for daily, monthly, and yearly totals.
Why is my real bill higher than the estimate?
The estimate covers running costs only. Your bill also adds fixed service charges, taxes, and fuel adjustments. Some appliances cycle as well: a refrigerator compressor turns on and off, so its average draw is lower than the wattage printed on the tag. These extra charges and duty cycles are the usual gap between an estimate and the amount you owe.
Which appliances use the most electricity?
In most homes the top spots go to climate control, meaning heating, cooling, and the water heater, followed by laundry appliances and refrigeration. Lighting is usually small once the bulbs are LEDs. Anything that makes heat or cold from electricity, such as a space heater, an oven, or a dryer, will sit at the top of a per-appliance list.
How can I lower my bill?
The biggest savings come from the biggest rows on this list. Swap remaining incandescent or halogen bulbs for LEDs, since a 60 W bulb is replaced by a 9 W LED with the same light output. Every degree you relax a thermostat saves roughly 3 percent of that system's running cost. Devices left in standby drain a few watts each, so a plug-in meter can tell you which ones are worth unplugging.
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