Water & outdoor running costs
EIA data · June 202613 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 $4,333 a year.
10 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
This category is defined by duty cycle more than by wattage. A well pump is 1,000 W but runs for minutes a day. A pool pump is 1,500 W and runs for eight hours. The pump that costs the most is rarely the one with the biggest motor.
The change with the most leverage
For a pool, the timer. Power rises roughly with the cube of flow rate, so a variable-speed pump at half speed for twice as long uses a small fraction of the electricity for the same water turnover. Most pools are also pumped for more hours than filtration requires.
What people get wrong
Water heating is second only to heating and cooling in a typical home, and it is invisible — there is no screen, no noise and no obvious moment of use. A tank heater's elements fire for roughly three hours a day spread across every hour of it.
Water & outdoor ranked by yearly cost
| Appliance | Typical W | Duty | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric vehicle charging | 7,200 | — | $1,239 |
| Electric water heater | 4,500 | 13% | $940 |
| Pool pump | 1,500 | — | $803 |
| Hot tub | 1,500 | 25% | $602 |
| Heated floor | 1,200 | 40% | $257 |
| Electric sauna | 6,000 | 60% | $241 |
| Well pump | 1,000 | 5% | $80.33 |
| Sump pump | 800 | 4% | $51.41 |
| Pressure washer | 1,800 | 70% | $42.17 |
| Electric lawn mower | 1,400 | 90% | $42.17 |
| Leaf blower | 1,000 | — | $20.08 |
| Garage door opener | 550 | 1% | $8.84 |
| Water softener | 100 | 3% | $4.82 |