By Alex Reyes, founding editor · Published · Figures from data retrieved
Of the end uses ranked here from the federal residential survey, the largest in the homes that have it is electric space heating: a mean of 3,248 kWh a year. Spread over every home, counting homes that do not have it as zero, the largest is air conditioning instead, at 2,055 kWh a home: 89% of homes have it, against 34% for electric space heating.
| End use | In homes that have it | Middle half of those homes | Homes that have it | Spread over every home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electric space heatinghomes heated mainly by electricity · 5,697 surveyed | 3,248 kWh | 829 kWh to 4,406 kWh | 34% | 1,119 kWh |
| Electric water heaterhomes with an electric water heater · 8,419 surveyed | 2,706 kWh | 1,316 kWh to 3,533 kWh | 47% | 1,264 kWh |
| Pool pumphomes with a pool pump · 1,218 surveyed | 2,384 kWh | 984 kWh to 3,180 kWh | 7% | 156 kWh |
| EV charging at homehomes that charge an electric vehicle · 228 surveyed | 2,363 kWh | 703 kWh to 3,124 kWh | 1% | 26 kWh |
| Air conditioninghomes with air conditioning · 16,166 surveyed | 2,318 kWh | 834 kWh to 3,079 kWh | 89% | 2,055 kWh |
| Hot tub heaterhomes with an electrically heated hot tub · 739 surveyed | 1,479 kWh | 526 kWh to 2,126 kWh | 4% | 53 kWh |
| Dehumidifierhomes with a dehumidifier · 3,468 surveyed | 999 kWh | 367 kWh to 1,556 kWh | 17% | 166 kWh |
| Refrigeratorhomes with a refrigerator · 18,413 surveyed | 839 kWh | 513 kWh to 1,059 kWh | 99% | 835 kWh |
| Electric clothes dryerhomes with an electric clothes dryer · 13,276 surveyed | 680 kWh | 323 kWh to 858 kWh | 67% | 452 kWh |
| Lightingall homes · 18,496 surveyed | 654 kWh | 193 kWh to 781 kWh | 100% | 654 kWh |
| TVs and streaming deviceshomes with a television · 17,972 surveyed | 632 kWh | 279 kWh to 831 kWh | 97% | 612 kWh |
| Separate freezerhomes with a separate freezer · 6,929 surveyed | 570 kWh | 345 kWh to 695 kWh | 33% | 190 kWh |
| Hot tub pumphomes with a hot tub · 1,019 surveyed | 484 kWh | 165 kWh to 716 kWh | 5% | 24 kWh |
| Electric stove and ovenhomes that cook with electricity · 12,385 surveyed | 290 kWh | 137 kWh to 373 kWh | 65% | 189 kWh |
| Ceiling fanshomes with ceiling fans · 13,497 surveyed | 227 kWh | 36 kWh to 339 kWh | 72% | 164 kWh |
| Humidifierhomes with a humidifier · 4,751 surveyed | 139 kWh | 35 kWh to 162 kWh | 24% | 33 kWh |
| Dishwasherhomes with a dishwasher · 13,467 surveyed | 112 kWh | 41 kWh to 163 kWh | 69% | 78 kWh |
| Microwavehomes with a microwave · 17,857 surveyed | 107 kWh | 60 kWh to 136 kWh | 96% | 103 kWh |
| Washing machinehomes with a washing machine · 16,312 surveyed | 69 kWh | 37 kWh to 84 kWh | 84% | 58 kWh |
The first ranking is what an appliance uses in the home that runs it, which is the one that matters for that household’s bill. The second is how much of all home electricity it accounts for, which depends as much on how many homes have it. The two differ most for charging an electric vehicle at home: 4th of 19 in the homes that have it, 18th spread over every home, because homes that charge an electric vehicle are 1% of homes.
Spread over every home, the three largest are air conditioning, an electric water heater, and electric space heating.
For ceiling fans, the middle half of homes with ceiling fans fall between 36 kWh and 339 kWh a year — the top of that range 9.4 times the bottom. For a separate freezer it runs from 345 kWh to 695 kWh, 2.0 times. The wider the range, the less the average says about any one household.
| End use | Lowest state | Highest state | States priced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric space heating | $192Arizona | $1,175Pennsylvania | 17 |
| Air conditioning | $128Ohio | $672Arizona | 18 |
| Pool pump | $284Arizona | $671New Jersey | 9 |
| Electric water heater | $232Illinois | $669Oregon | 18 |
| Hot tub heater | $173Florida | $485California | 5 |
| Refrigerator | $69Ohio | $311California | 18 |
| Dehumidifier | $97Illinois | $287New Jersey | 14 |
| TVs and streaming devices | $56Ohio | $221California | 18 |
| Electric clothes dryer | $56Ohio | $203California | 18 |
| Lighting | $53Ohio | $197California | 18 |
| Separate freezer | $42Ohio | $196California | 18 |
| Hot tub pump | $49Arizona | $166California | 8 |
| Electric stove and oven | $24Ohio | $89California | 18 |
| Ceiling fans | $13Ohio | $53California | 18 |
| Microwave | $9Ohio | $40California | 18 |
| Humidifier | $14Texas | $38New Jersey | 17 |
| Dishwasher | $10Ohio | $36California | 18 |
| Washing machine | $6Ohio | $23California | 18 |
EV charging at home is ranked above but not priced: fewer than 3 states have both enough surveyed homes and published plans to price it in.
Each figure is what the survey’s 2020 edition attributes to one end use, and each end use is counted on its own. Electric space heating covers homes heated mainly by electricity, and the fans and pumps that move the heat around the house are counted separately and not included; a hot tub’s pump and its heater are separate rows. The rows are not every use the survey measures, so they are not meant to be added up into a home’s total — the home electricity guide has that, state by state.
The appliance pages price each end use state by state, at the survey’s lighter and heavier quartiles as well as its mean, and name the plan it costs least on.
Every figure here is computed when the site is built, from the records named below, by the same rate engine that fills the state, utility and appliance pages this guide links to. When those records are refreshed, the figures change with them; the words around them do not, which is why no sentence here states a direction the data has not been checked for.
The text was reviewed by the editor before publication. The methodology page sets out what the rate engine assumes and where its figures stop being reliable.
Estimate — your actual bill may differ.
EIA Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2020 (US public domain), retrieved September 2, 2026.
NREL/OpenEI Utility Rate Database (CC0 1.0), retrieved September 2, 2026.