Appliance Electricity Cost Calculators

Most come from a DOE-developed appliance energy table reproduced by Virginia Cooperative Extension. A smaller number of appliance types that table doesn't cover come from a commercial wattage reference chart instead, and those rows are marked with an asterisk and called out in the sourcing note above the table.

These are typical ranges across many models, not a measurement of your exact unit. Size, age, efficiency rating, and settings all shift the real number. The wattage printed on your appliance's nameplate, or listed in its manual or spec sheet, will always be more accurate than a table average.

Multiply watts by hours used per day, divide by 1,000 to get kWh, then multiply by your electricity rate per kWh. Each appliance guide linked above has a built-in calculator that does this automatically once you enter your own rate.

Running watts is what an appliance draws once it's operating normally. Some appliances, especially anything with a motor or compressor (a refrigerator, a pool pump, an air conditioner), briefly draw several times their running wattage for a second or two when they first switch on. That starting spike matters for sizing a generator or circuit, but it's brief enough that it barely affects your monthly cost, so the calculators on this site use running watts.