SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
The device's rated power draw.
Check the appliance's nameplate or manual. If only amps are given, multiply by YOUR supply voltage — nominally 120 V in the US and Canada, 230 V in the UK, Europe and Australia — and note that 'usually 120 V' is only usual in one of those places: applying it to a 230 V supply halves the wattage and halves the running cost this page reports. A 240 V circuit (a US dryer or range, or most of the world's sockets) uses that figure instead. On a motor or compressor, amps × volts gives VA rather than watts, and the real draw is lower by the power factor, so prefer the nameplate watts where the plate offers both.
The average daily runtime.
For appliances that cycle on and off (like a refrigerator), estimate the actual average running time, not the total time it's plugged in.
Your local electricity rate.
Check a recent electric bill — rates vary significantly by utility and region, and some plans have time-of-use pricing.
Energy used per year
1,100 kWh
Figures that depend on a rate wait for yours — this page does not assume one.
- Daily energy use
- 3 kWh
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Appliance Energy Cost Calculator: 1,095 kWh — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- Annual cost = (wattage / 1000) x hours used per day x 365 x cost per kWh
Inputs used
- Appliance Wattage
- 1500
- Hours Used per Day
- 2
- Electricity Rate ($ per kWh)
Intermediate steps
- Daily energy use
- 3 kWh
What this calculation does not cover
- This is a running-cost estimate, not a load calculation. Nothing here checks whether the circuit, breaker or conductors can carry the appliance — that is a separate calculation under the code in force where you are, and a 20,000 W entry returns a cost with no comment at all on the supply feeding it.
- The model assumes the appliance draws the entered wattage steadily for every hour entered. Anything that cycles or modulates — a refrigerator, freezer, heat pump, inverter-driven washer — spends most of its running time below the nameplate figure, and you have to convert that duty cycle into equivalent full-load hours yourself before entering it. Plate watts against plugged-in hours overstates a fridge several times over.
- Standby and off-mode draw is not counted. The hours entered are running hours, so the watts a television, microwave clock or charger pulls for the rest of the day sit outside the calculation entirely, and across a whole house those form a load of their own.
- One flat rate is applied to every kilowatt-hour of the year. Standing or daily supply charges, tiered blocks, time-of-use and seasonal rates, taxes and levies, and any price change during the year are all outside the model — use your bill's effective rate (total charges divided by total kWh) if your tariff is not flat. The currency symbol is a label on your own number; nothing here converts between currencies.
- The same daily runtime is applied to all 365 days. A heater, air conditioner, pool pump or dehumidifier runs on a season rather than on an average day, so for those loads the annual figure is only as good as the year-round average hours you fed it.
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-09-06 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.1
Regulatory standards & verification citations1
- Annual cost = (wattage / 1000) x hours used per day x 365 x cost per kWh
Cite this page
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