Guides
A small number of guides, each answering a question that has a real answer — not a list of tips.
- Which appliances use the most electricity?
The household appliances that actually drive your electricity bill, ranked by what they cost to run over a year rather than by their wattage.
- Why is my electric bill so high?
A diagnostic walk through the causes of a high electricity bill, in the order they are actually worth checking.
- Which states have the cheapest and most expensive electricity?
Residential electricity prices across all 50 states and DC, ranked, using the latest monthly figures published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
- Is it cheaper to leave the air conditioning on or turn it off?
The physics behind a genuinely contested question, and the conditions under which each answer is right.
- What is a kilowatt-hour?
The unit your electricity is billed in, what it physically represents, and how it differs from a kilowatt.
- How much does standby power actually cost?
Standby draw is real but small, and the advice built around it is mostly misdirected. What is worth unplugging, and what is not.
- Why do published appliance running costs disagree so much?
Search for what a refrigerator costs to run and you will find answers between $3 and $20 a month. Most of them are defensible. Here is how to tell which one applies to you.
- What are time-of-use electricity rates?
Why the same kilowatt-hour can cost three times more at 6pm than at 2am, how to tell whether you are on such a plan, and what actually changes if you are.
- How do I read my electricity bill?
Which number on the bill is the one that matters, how to separate the cost of electricity from the cost of being connected, and what to compare against what.