Appliance Running Cost Calculator
Add the appliances you want to check. Pick a preset or type in the watts from the label on the back of your own device — the nameplate number is always more accurate than any preset.
Presets: typical wattages based on US DOE & ENERGY STAR appliance data, checked October 2026. Default rate: US average residential price 18.31¢/kWh (EIA, July 2026).Find yours on your bill: total charges ÷ kWh used. Outside the US? Enter your own rate — the math is the same.
Your list totals
Fridges, freezers and water heaters cycle on and off, so their presets use an average draw rather than the peak number on the label. Your total monthly kWh can be sent straight to the Bill Estimator below.
EV Charging Cost Calculator
What it costs to charge at home versus at a public charger — and what you save against a gasoline car doing the same miles.
Car presets: EPA efficiency ratings via fueleconomy.gov, checked October 2026. Public charging default: 41¢/kWh, AAA national average for public stations, October 2026 (DC fast charging often runs higher — Paren reported a $0.54/kWh average in Q3 2026). Gasoline default: $4.29/gal, AAA national average, October 2026.Charging at your mix of home & public
Savings are fuel only — they don’t count maintenance, insurance or the price of the car. Charging losses of roughly 10% are already reflected in the EPA wall-to-wheels ratings.
Solar Payback Estimator
A first-pass estimate of what a rooftop system produces, saves, and how long it takes to pay for itself — before you talk to any installer.
Installed-cost default: $2.86 per watt, EnergySage marketplace average, October 2026. Sun hours: typical peak sun hours by region (NREL PVWatts patterns), checked October 2026.Peak sun hours = the equivalent hours of full-strength sun per day, averaged over the year. Roof angle, shading and direction matter too — a site survey refines this.
Savings assume each solar kWh you use yourself offsets a kWh you would have bought (1:1 net metering). Where utilities pay less for exported power, real savings are lower — ask your installer how your utility credits exports.
Estimated payback
Production uses an 80% system-efficiency factor for inverter, temperature, wiring and soiling losses, and the 25-year figure assumes panels degrade 0.5% per year. It holds your electricity rate flat — if rates keep rising, payback is faster than shown.
Electricity Bill Estimator
Estimate a monthly bill from your usage, and see how it splits between the electricity itself and getting it to your house. Then compare what the same usage costs in other states.
State rates: average residential prices, EIA (July 2026), checked October 2026. State bills below add the same $12 customer charge so only the rate differs.US households average about 900 kWh a month (EIA). Your last 12 bills give the truest number — winter and summer differ a lot.
The flat fee you pay even if you use nothing — typically $5–$20/month.
Across states that publish a split, non-energy charges run from about 23% to 68% of the bill — 55% supply / 45% delivery is a typical middle. Taxes are not included in this estimate.
Estimated monthly bill
Same usage, other states’ average rates
State figures are averages across all utilities in that state — your utility can sit well above or below its state average.
LED Savings Calculator
The classic swap: old bulbs out, LEDs in. See what you save each year and how fast the bulbs pay for themselves.
Presets: standard bulb wattages (60W incandescent ≈ 9W LED). Bulb prices are editable shelf-price estimates — check your local store. Rate default: 18.31¢/kWh (EIA, July 2026).Your savings
The 10-year figure is energy savings only. It understates the real gain: a typical LED is rated for about 25,000 hours versus roughly 1,000 for an incandescent, so you also stop buying replacement bulbs — about 24 of them per socket over one LED’s life.
How to read your electricity bill
Most US bills look different but contain the same four building blocks. Once you can find these on yours, every number on this page becomes a number you can check.
Your usage, in kWh THE METER
Your meter counts kilowatt-hours: one kWh is 1,000 watts running for one hour. A 100W bulb left on for 10 hours uses exactly 1 kWh. Bills usually show the meter readings at the start and end of the period — the difference is your usage. This is the single most important number on the bill; everything else is a price multiplied by it (plus fixed fees).
Supply (generation) THE ELECTRICITY
The cost of making the electricity itself — fuel, power plants, wind and solar farms. In states with retail choice (Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and others), you can shop for a different supplier while keeping the same utility. In regulated states, the utility buys or generates the power and the price is set in a public rate case.
Delivery (transmission & distribution) THE WIRES
The cost of moving electricity to your home: high-voltage transmission lines, local poles and wires, transformers, storm repairs and meter reading. You can’t shop for this part — your local utility is a regulated monopoly for delivery. In many states delivery is now the faster-growing half of the bill, and in some it is bigger than the supply charge.
Customer charge, taxes & fees THE FIXED PART
A flat monthly customer charge ($5–$20 is typical) covers your meter and account, and is owed even if you use no electricity at all. On top come state and local taxes, plus riders and surcharges for things like energy-efficiency programs or grid upgrades. Together, the fixed parts explain why a month away on vacation never brings a zero bill.
An illustrative sample bill — 900 kWh at the US average rate
This is an example built from the averages used on this page (18.31¢/kWh, EIA July 2026), not a real utility’s bill. Your bill will itemize differently, but the parts will rhyme.
| Line item | How it’s figured | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Supply / generation | 900 kWh × 10.07¢ (55% of rate) | $90.63 |
| Delivery / distribution | 900 kWh × 8.24¢ (45% of rate) | $74.16 |
| Customer charge | flat monthly fee | $12.00 |
| Taxes & fees | varies by state and city — not in the 18.31¢ average | varies |
| Total before taxes | $176.79 |
Flat, tiered, or time-of-use? A flat rate charges the same per kWh all day. A tiered rate charges more once you pass a usage threshold. A time-of-use (TOU) rate charges more in peak hours (often 4–9 pm) and less overnight — which is why EV owners on TOU plans charge after midnight, and why your “rate” on a TOU plan is really a weighted average of several prices.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers, including the ones that make these calculators look wrong when they aren’t.
What exactly is a kilowatt-hour (kWh)?
A watt measures how fast something uses electricity; a kilowatt-hour measures how much it used in total. Run a 1,000-watt (1 kW) space heater for one hour and you’ve used 1 kWh. Run a 100W bulb for 10 hours — also 1 kWh. Your bill is mostly just kWh × price, so the two levers you control are how many watts your things draw and how long they run.
Why do electricity prices differ so much by state?
In July 2026 the average residential price ran from 12.72¢/kWh in Louisiana to 48.00¢/kWh in Hawaii (EIA). The gap comes from fuel and geography: states near cheap natural gas, hydroelectric dams or wind tend to pay less. Hawaii generates much of its power from imported oil on isolated island grids. Dense Northeast and California systems pay more for land, labor and grid upgrades, and some states add policy costs (renewable mandates, efficiency programs) into rates. Even within a state, neighboring utilities can differ by several cents.
Why is my real bill higher than these estimates?
Usually four reasons. (1) Fixed charges and taxes: these tools show the customer charge but not your local taxes and riders, which can add 5–15%. (2) Rate structure: if you’re on a tiered or time-of-use plan, your effective rate isn’t one number. (3) Usage surprises: the average US home uses about 900 kWh a month, but an all-electric home in a hot or cold month can use double that. (4) Estimates here use average prices; your utility’s actual tariff is the only one that counts. Compare the kWh, not just the dollars — if the kWh match, the difference is price, not usage.
Is the federal solar tax credit really gone?
For homeowners, yes. The residential clean energy credit under Section 25D of the tax code expired on December 31, 2025 — systems paid for after that date don’t qualify. That’s why our Solar Payback Estimator doesn’t apply one. State credits, utility rebates, property-tax exemptions and net-metering rules still exist in many places and can be worth thousands; they vary too much by address to bake into a national calculator, so check your state energy office and get quotes with the incentives itemized.
Why does public EV charging cost so much more than charging at home?
At home you pay your residential rate (18.31¢/kWh on average). A public station has to recover the cost of expensive fast-charging hardware, installation, demand charges from its own utility, land, maintenance and profit. AAA put the national average public price at 41¢/kWh in October 2026, and Paren’s industry data put DC fast charging at $0.54/kWh in Q3 2026. Public charging is for road trips and top-ups; the savings everyone quotes for EVs assume most charging happens at home, ideally overnight.
How accurate are the appliance wattage presets?
They’re typical values based on US DOE and ENERGY STAR data, good for ranking your appliances and spotting the expensive ones. They aren’t your appliance. A dryer’s nameplate might say 5,400W while it averages less as it cycles; a fridge’s draw depends on size, age and room temperature. For a number you can take to the bank, read the watts off the label on your device (or a $20 plug-in watt meter) and type it into the custom field.
I’m in the UK or Europe — can I still use these?
Yes. The physics and the math are identical; only the defaults are American. Type your own rate into any tool (your bill or supplier shows it in pence or cents per kWh) and use the custom watt fields. The solar sun-hour regions are US-based, though the estimator still works if you know your local peak sun hours — roughly 2.5–3 in the UK, 3–4 in Germany, 4.5–5.5 in southern Spain or Italy.
Where the numbers come from
Every preset on this page traces back to one of these. Rates and prices checked October 2026.
- Electricity prices: US average residential price 18.31¢/kWh and state averages (Louisiana 12.72¢, Texas 15.88¢, New York 29.90¢, California 33.61¢, Hawaii 48.00¢) — US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Electric Power Monthly, July 2026 data, via Choose Energy’s state rate tables. Average household usage ≈900 kWh/month — EIA.
- Solar installed cost: $2.86 per watt — EnergySage marketplace average, October 2026.
- EV efficiency & battery sizes: EPA ratings via fueleconomy.gov (US DOE), October 2026.
- Public charging & gasoline: 41¢/kWh national average public charging price and $4.29/gal regular gasoline — AAA fuel reports, October 2026. DC fast-charging average $0.54/kWh — Paren, State of the EV Charging Industry, Q3 2026.
- Appliance wattages: typical values based on US Department of Energy and ENERGY STAR appliance guidance, October 2026.
- Sun hours: typical peak sun hours by US region, consistent with NREL PVWatts data, October 2026.
- Federal solar credit: Section 25D residential clean energy credit expiration (December 31, 2025) — Internal Revenue Code as amended 2025.