What a dishwasher costs to run in Colorado

What a dishwasher costs here

Across 5 plans priced in Colorado, a dishwasher adds $9.38 to $20.60 a year — $0.78 to $1.72 a month. The median plan puts a dishwasher at $19.40 a year.

Cheapest for a dishwasher: Residential Demand - Time Differentiated Rates (Schedule RD-TDR), Public Service Co of Colorado. Dearest: Residential General Service Opt-Out (Schedule R-OO), Public Service Co of Colorado.

Those 126 kWh are billed at 7.4¢–16.3¢, against a 16.6¢ whole-bill average on the median plan, so on these plans the two rates are close.

What Colorado homes use

EIA's 2020 residential survey found 126 kWh a year across 298 sampled homes that run one, near the national 112 kWh. The middle half spans 57 kWh to 166 kWh, so a dishwasher varies by 110 kWh between one household and another.

The dishwasher's motor, controls and internal heater, including the heated dry cycle where one is used. That average covers homes with a dishwasher — 80% of homes here, against 69% nationally.

That makes a dishwasher about 2% of the electricity a Colorado home uses. The remaining 8,018 kWh is what a dishwasher 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 a dishwasher

A household in the lighter quarter runs a dishwasher for 57 kWh a year and pays $4.28 on the cheapest plan. One in the heavier quarter runs it for 166 kWh and pays $12.42 — $8.14 more for a dishwasher on the same tariff.

Limits

A 2020 survey average for Colorado, not a measurement of any one home, priced against the 5 Colorado tariffs WattClear has ingested — not every plan sold there.