What air conditioning costs to run in Oregon

What air conditioning costs here

Across 8 plans priced in Oregon, air conditioning adds $115.12 to $195.00 a year — $9.59 to $16.25 a month. The median plan puts air conditioning at $172.86 a year.

Cheapest for air conditioning: Residential Time-Of-Use Service (Rate 7-TOU), Portland General Electric Co. Dearest: Residential Service (Rate 7), Portland General Electric Co.

Those 1,020 kWh are billed at 11.3¢–19.1¢, against a 18.7¢ whole-bill average on the median plan: they land in the last tier the household reaches, so the average rate understates them by up to 0.4¢ per kWh.

What Oregon homes use

EIA's 2020 residential survey found 1,020 kWh a year across 241 sampled homes that run one, 56% under the national 2,318 kWh. The middle half spans 420 kWh to 1,328 kWh, so air conditioning varies by 908 kWh between one household and another.

All electricity used for cooling — central systems, heat pumps in cooling mode, and window or wall units — plus the air handler that runs with them. That average covers homes with air conditioning — 76% of homes here, against 89% nationally.

That makes air conditioning about 9% of the electricity an Oregon home uses. The remaining 10,112 kWh is what air conditioning is billed on top of, and on a tiered or time-of-use plan that is what sets the rate it meets.

Light and heavy use of air conditioning

A household in the lighter quarter runs air conditioning for 420 kWh a year and pays $47.42 on the cheapest plan. One in the heavier quarter runs it for 1,328 kWh and pays $149.86 — $102.44 more for air conditioning on the same tariff.

Limits

A 2020 survey average for Oregon, not a measurement of any one home, priced against the 8 Oregon tariffs WattClear has ingested — not every plan sold there.