Heating & cooling running costs
EIA data · June 202618 appliances, ranked by what they cost over a year at the U.S. average of 18.34¢ per kilowatt-hour. Run together at the default usage shown on each page they come to about $9,417 a year.
13 of these draw power for only part of the time they are switched on — drawing in bursts rather than steadily — so the figures below apply a duty cycle to each. Ignoring that is the most common reason published estimates run high.
What drives cost in this category
Almost everything here is either resistance heating, which converts one unit of electricity into exactly one unit of heat, or a compressor, which moves heat rather than making it. That single distinction sets the cost of the category. A heat pump and an electric furnace can warm the same room, and one costs two to four times less to do it.
The change with the most leverage
Replacing resistance heat with a heat pump is the largest running-cost reduction available anywhere on this site — larger than every lighting, standby and appliance-efficiency change combined. Nothing else in a home offers a multiplier rather than a percentage.
What people get wrong
Thermostats do not reduce wattage. They switch the appliance off and on, so a 1,500 W heater on a thermostat is still a 1,500 W heater whenever it is drawing. What changes is the fraction of the hour it runs, which is why identical heaters cost different amounts in different rooms.
Heating & cooling ranked by yearly cost
| Appliance | Typical W | Duty | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric furnace | 15,000 | 30% | $3,012 |
| Heat pump | 3,500 | 50% | $1,171 |
| Central air conditioner | 3,500 | 60% | $1,125 |
| Space heater | 1,500 | — | $803 |
| Electric baseboard heater | 1,500 | 70% | $703 |
| Oil-filled radiator | 1,500 | 60% | $482 |
| Portable air conditioner | 1,100 | 70% | $412 |
| Ductless mini-split | 900 | 60% | $361 |
| Window air conditioner | 900 | 70% | $337 |
| Electric fireplace | 1,500 | 60% | $301 |
| Dehumidifier | 500 | 60% | $241 |
| Evaporative cooler | 350 | — | $187 |
| Attic fan | 300 | 50% | $80.33 |
| Humidifier | 200 | 50% | $66.94 |
| Box fan | 75 | — | $40.16 |
| Tower fan | 50 | — | $33.47 |
| Ceiling fan | 60 | — | $32.13 |
| Electric blanket | 100 | 50% | $26.78 |