Home & cleaning running costs
EIA data · June 20265 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 $92.68 a year.
One of these draws power for only part of the time it is switched on — drawing in bursts rather than steadily — so the figure below applies a duty cycle to it. Ignoring that is the most common reason published estimates run high.
What drives cost in this category
Short bursts of high power. A steam mop draws over a kilowatt and a vacuum close to one, but for minutes at a time, which keeps the annual total small however powerful the motor sounds.
The change with the most leverage
An air purifier is the exception and deserves the attention. It is the only appliance here that runs continuously, so its modest 50 W matters far more than the vacuum's 900 W. Auto mode rather than a fixed high setting is the saving.
What people get wrong
Vacuum wattage is not suction. Modern machines clean better at lower wattage through airflow design, so the higher number on the box is a worse machine as often as a better one.
Home & cleaning ranked by yearly cost
| Appliance | Typical W | Duty | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air purifier | 50 | — | $40.16 |
| Hair dryer | 1,600 | — | $18.21 |
| Steam mop | 1,300 | 70% | $15.23 |
| Vacuum cleaner | 900 | — | $15.06 |
| Robot vacuum | 40 | — | $4.02 |