Kitchen running costs
EIA data · June 202625 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 $1,060 a year.
15 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
Kitchen appliances split cleanly into things that heat and things that spin. Heating elements draw 1,000–3,000 W; motors draw a few hundred. The heaters dominate the category so completely that the entire motor half is a rounding error on a bill.
The change with the most leverage
Match the cavity to the food. A toaster oven or air fryer heats a fraction of the space a full oven does and reaches temperature in a fraction of the time, so for one or two portions it costs noticeably less despite a similar wattage on the label.
What people get wrong
The refrigerator is the most expensive appliance in most kitchens and the only one nobody chooses to run. Everything else here is used in minutes; the fridge is billed every hour of every day, and its compressor cycling is why it does not cost three times what it does.
Kitchen ranked by yearly cost
| Appliance | Typical W | Duty | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ice maker | 350 | 30% | $169 |
| Slow cooker | 250 | — | $134 |
| Refrigerator | 150 | 35% | $84.35 |
| Electric oven | 3,000 | 40% | $80.33 |
| Dishwasher | 1,800 | 45% | $77.46 |
| Electric stove | 2,000 | 50% | $66.94 |
| Wine fridge | 100 | 35% | $56.23 |
| Induction cooktop | 1,800 | 45% | $54.22 |
| Chest freezer | 100 | 30% | $48.20 |
| Bread maker | 600 | 35% | $42.17 |
| Water cooler | 100 | 25% | $40.16 |
| Air fryer | 1,500 | 70% | $35.14 |
| Deep fryer | 1,700 | 60% | $34.14 |
| Toaster oven | 1,400 | 70% | $32.80 |
| Electric pressure cooker | 1,000 | 40% | $20.08 |
| Microwave | 1,200 | — | $20.08 |
| Coffee maker | 900 | — | $15.06 |
| Electric kettle | 1,500 | — | $15.06 |
| Rice cooker | 700 | 50% | $11.71 |
| Range hood | 150 | — | $10.04 |
| Toaster | 1,100 | — | $3.68 |
| Stand mixer | 325 | — | $3.26 |
| Food processor | 600 | — | $3.21 |
| Blender | 500 | — | $1.67 |
| Garbage disposal | 500 | — | $1.00 |