Where Your Home's Electricity Actually Goes

An electric water heater costs a median $203.74 a year to run, more than any other major home appliance in WattCost's certified dataset — more than a refrigerator, more than a clothes dryer, more than a window air conditioner. A phone charger left plugged in all day costs closer to a dollar. Most people have that ranking backwards.

Every figure below comes from the same formula used across this site: certified annual kWh × your state's electricity rate ÷ 100, applied to ENERGY STAR certified models and April 2026 US EIA rates (national average 18.83¢/kWh). Nothing here is a guess — see the full methodology for both source datasets.

The ranked list: what each appliance actually costs per year

These are median annual running costs across every certified model in each category, at the US average electricity rate. Your actual state and model will move the number, but the ranking itself rarely changes:

• **Water heaters — $203.74/year.** The single biggest electricity line item in most homes with an electric tank. See why heat pump models cut this dramatically.
• **Room air conditioners — $100.16/year.** Concentrated into the cooling season (750 hours in the DOE test basis) rather than spread year-round. Full breakdown: window vs. portable AC costs.
• **Clothes dryers — $114.30/year.** One of the few categories where your state matters almost as much as the machine — see the state-by-state spread.
• **Freezers — $78.71/year.** Always-on, like refrigerators, and often overlooked because it sits quietly in a garage or basement.
• **Refrigerators — $64.96/year.** Runs 24/7/365, yet costs less per year than a room AC that only runs part of the year — because efficiency has improved dramatically. Why the cheapest and priciest models differ by 19x.
• **Dehumidifiers — $64.59/year.** Seasonal like room ACs, but with a much wider spread between the most and least efficient certified models.
• **Dishwashers — $45.00/year.** The certified figure includes the energy to heat water for the wash cycle, at the DOE-standard 215 cycles a year.
• **Televisions — $35.31/year.** Based on roughly 5 hours of on-time a day; heavy streaming households will run higher.
• **Air purifiers — $27.87/year.** Assumes continuous operation under the ENERGY STAR test basis — running fewer hours costs proportionally less.
• **Clothes washers — $20.71/year.** Far cheaper than the dryer that follows it, since washers don't generate heat the way dryers or water heaters do.
• **Computer monitors — $8.49/year.** The cheapest category on the site — a rounding error next to the water heater above it.

The stuff that barely matters (and why you keep hearing about it)

"Phantom loads" — chargers, set-top boxes, and other devices drawing power while switched off or idle — get a disproportionate amount of energy-saving advice for how little they actually cost. The US Department of Energy estimates standby power accounts for 5–10% of residential electricity use, or roughly $100 a year for an average household spread across every always-plugged-in device combined.

Compare that to a single water heater at $203.74 a year, or a room air conditioner at $100.16. Unplugging chargers is a fine habit, but it will never outweigh the appliance decisions above it on this list. If you're optimizing for real dollars, work down the ranked list, not up from the smallest number.

Where to focus first

If you're deciding where to spend attention (or money) on cutting a bill, the ranking above is the order to work in: water heater first, then cooling, then the dryer, then the always-on appliances. A heat pump water heater or a more efficient refrigerator will move your bill by tens of dollars a year; unplugging a Wi-Fi router will not.

It's also worth checking your own state's electricity rate before assuming a national figure applies to you — the same appliance can cost 3–4x more to run in a high-rate state than a low-rate one, independent of how efficient the model itself is.

FAQ

Which single appliance is worth replacing first for energy savings? Based on median annual cost, an electric water heater is usually the highest-leverage swap — certified heat pump models use about 70% less energy than a standard electric tank, according to ENERGY STAR.

Does unplugging devices when not in use actually save meaningful money? A little, but not much in absolute terms — DOE estimates standby power at 5–10% of household electricity use, well below what a single major appliance upgrade saves.

Why does a refrigerator that runs 24/7 cost less than a seasonal air conditioner? Because certified refrigerator efficiency has improved enormously over the past two decades; the DOE test basis for room ACs (750 cooling hours) still adds up to a meaningful annual cost even though it's not year-round.

Are these figures the same everywhere in the US? No — they're calculated at the US average rate (18.83¢/kWh as of April 2026). States range from about 12¢/kWh to over 46¢/kWh, so your real cost can be well above or below the figures here; see the methodology for how state rates factor in.

Where do these numbers come from? Every figure combines EPA ENERGY STAR certified model data with US EIA state electricity rates — both public datasets, multiplied with no adjustment. Details on the methodology page.