Heating & Cooling electricity costs
The largest share of most US electricity bills. Cycling equipment rarely runs at full draw, so duty cycle matters more than nameplate wattage.
- Space Heater $808/yr avg Electric resistance heaters are 100% efficient at converting electricity to heat, which sounds good but is misleading…
- Central Air Conditioner $1,225/yr avg Central AC draws between 2,000 and 5,000 watts depending on tonnage, but a correctly sized unit cycles rather than…
- Window Air Conditioner $339/yr avg A single-room window unit typically draws 500 to 1,440 watts. Because it cools a small space, the duty cycle is often…
- Heat Pump $969/yr avg A heat pump moves heat rather than generating it, delivering two to four units of heat per unit of electricity. In…
- Electric Furnace $2,726/yr avg Electric resistance furnaces are the most expensive common way to heat a home. At 10 to 20 kilowatts they dwarf every…
- Ceiling Fan $32.31/yr avg Ceiling fans cost very little to run, but they cool people rather than rooms - they create a wind-chill effect on skin…
- Box Fan $40.38/yr avg A box fan is one of the cheapest comfort appliances to run, typically costing a few dollars per month even in…
- Dehumidifier $242/yr avg Dehumidifiers run longest in exactly the humid weather when they are most needed, so real-world cost is usually higher…
- Electric Baseboard Heater $471/yr avg Baseboard heaters are resistance heating with per-room thermostats. The per-room control is the saving grace: heating…