Appliance EnergyCost Calculator
Language· English

Appliance energy cost calculator

Estimate how much electricity an appliance uses and what it costs to run each day, week, month and year, using your own electricity rate.

Looking for a specific appliance? See all calculators, including refrigerators, washers, dryers, space heaters, dehumidifiers and air conditioners.

Which method fits my appliance?
  • Power and hours: Heaters, kettles, air conditioners, dehumidifiers, lighting, fans: anything with a wattage you run for a known time.
  • Energy per cycle: Washing machines, dishwashers and clothes dryers, from a kWh per load figure.
  • Energy per year: Refrigerators and freezers, from the yearly kWh on the energy label.
  • In use plus standby: Televisions, consoles and computers that stay plugged in when not in use.

Not sure which figure you have? See how to read appliance energy labels.

Calculator

How do you know its energy use?

Used as the name in your comparison. It does not fill in any values.

Rated input power from the label or manual. Appliances that cycle on and off use less on average.

On a day the appliance is used. Up to 24.

Up to 7.

Electricity price

From your bill or supplier. Use the price per kWh, for example 0.15.

Changes the currency symbol only. No exchange rates are applied.

How to find your price on your bill
  • Where your bill shows them, add up the charges billed per kWh, such as supply (or generation) and delivery. These are the charges that grow when an appliance runs.
  • Leave out fixed monthly charges, such as a customer or service charge. They generally stay the same however much electricity you use.
  • If the price is in cents, divide by 100: 15.5¢ per kWh is 0.155.
  • Only a total amount and total kWh? Dividing the amount by the kWh gives a rough all-in average. Because it includes fixed fees and taxes, it may overestimate the extra cost of running an appliance.
  • If your price changes by time of day or with how much you use, enter the price that applies to most of your use.

For comparison, the U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes average electricity prices by state. Your own bill gives a closer estimate.

Fill in the fields above to see your estimate.

Estimated results

Fill in the fields to see the estimated energy use and cost.

Your comparison

Open the dashboard

Loading your saved appliances…

Learn

Find the right figure to enter, replace an assumption with a measurement, and see exactly how each estimate is calculated.

How the estimate works

Energy (kWh) = power (W) × hours ÷ 1,000

Cost = energy (kWh) × price per kWh

Illustrative example: a 1,500 W heater used for 2 hours uses 1,500 × 2 ÷ 1,000 = 3 kWh. At an illustrative price of $0.20 per kWh, that costs 3 × $0.20 = $0.60.

Weeks, months and years follow fixed conventions, such as a 365-day year. Read the full methodology

An estimate, not your bill

Utility bills can include fixed or standing charges, taxes, time-of-use or tiered rates and other fees, so they will not match a running-cost estimate exactly. Read the disclaimer.