What a microwave costs to run in Michigan

What a microwave costs here

Across 7 plans priced in Michigan, a microwave adds $14.52 to $25.60 a year — $1.21 to $2.13 a month. The median plan puts a microwave at $23.79 a year.

Cheapest for a microwave: Residential Service Secondary Non-Transmitting Meter Rate (RSM), Consumers Energy Co. Dearest: Residential Service Secondary Non-Transmitting Meter Rate (RSM), Consumers Energy Co.

Those 104 kWh are billed at 14.0¢–24.7¢, against a 24.2¢ 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 0.5¢ per kWh.

What Michigan homes use

EIA's 2020 residential survey found 104 kWh a year across 373 sampled homes that run one, near the national 107 kWh. The middle half spans 54 kWh to 131 kWh, so a microwave varies by 77 kWh between one household and another.

Cooking and reheating, plus the standby draw of the clock and panel. That average covers homes with a microwave — 96% of homes here.

That makes a microwave about 1% of the electricity a Michigan home uses. The remaining 8,267 kWh is what a microwave 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 microwave

A household in the lighter quarter runs a microwave for 54 kWh a year and pays $7.56 on the cheapest plan. One in the heavier quarter runs it for 131 kWh and pays $18.48 — $10.92 more for a microwave on the same tariff.

Limits

A 2020 survey average for Michigan, not a measurement of any one home, priced against the 7 Michigan tariffs WattClear has ingested — not every plan sold there.