What does it cost
to run?
The government certifies how much electricity your appliances use, and separately publishes what electricity costs in your state. It never puts the two together. This site does.
per year
3,798 kWh certified × 19.41¢ per kWh ÷ 100 — one certified median for each of 9 appliance classes
Default: US residential average, 19.41¢ per kWh, EIA JUL 2026. Overwrite it with the rate printed on your own bill.
SOURCE·ENERGY STAR certified product data·tariff US residential average 19.41¢ — EIA Electric Power Monthly, retrieved 2026-07-28·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How this is worked out
- Take the certified annual consumption for the appliance class off the EPA's ENERGY STAR register — the median of every listed model, not a wattage anyone assumed.
- Take the residential tariff off the EIA's Electric Power Monthly, table 5.6.A. Here that is the US residential average, 19.41¢ per kWh.
- Multiply, then divide by 100 to come out of cents. Nothing is rounded before this line.
- Derive the rest of the schedule from that one figure: ÷ 12 monthly, ÷ 365 daily, × 10 for a ten-year life.
- Overwrite the tariff terminal with the rate printed on your own bill and the register re-reads. The certified consumption does not move — that is the half of the sum nobody gets to opinion their way out of.
annual cost ($) = certified kWh per year × tariff ¢ per kWh ÷ 100
Appliance classes on the register
Tariffs, all 51
Electricity runs from 12.35¢ per kWh in Idaho to 52¢ in Hawaii — a 4.2× difference for exactly the same appliance, doing exactly the same job.
Why every other answer to this question is a guess
Search what it costs to run a dehumidifier and you will get a wattage band someone assumed, multiplied by a national average electricity price someone rounded. Two guesses stacked on each other.
The real figures exist. The EPA certifies annual energy use for every ENERGY STAR product and publishes it as open data — but deliberately never converts it to dollars, because prices vary. The EIA publishes what a kilowatt-hour actually costs in every state, updated monthly. Neither agency joins them up.
That join is this entire site: certified kWh × your state's real price, with both sources named on every page and the arithmetic shown. Nothing here is estimated, and the one number you are allowed to change — the tariff — is the one printed on your own bill.
SOURCE·ENERGY STAR certified product data·tariffs: EIA Electric Power Monthly, retrieved 2026-07-28·REVIEWED JUL 2026
