About WattCost
WattCost answers one question for U.S. households: what does it cost to run this?
Most answers online use a single national rate or skip the math. We start from two things you can check yourself: the wattage printed on the appliance and the average price per kWh that homes in your state paid, as published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Then we show the arithmetic.
What's here
- 2 appliance pages, each with a calculator, a cost table and its sources. A new appliance is added most nights.
- 51 state pages for space heaters (50 states and DC).
- A monthly electricity price tracker with a free CSV.
- A calculator other sites can embed.
How we make money
We sell one thing: the Winter Bill Survival Kit, a $10 PDF. There are no ads, no affiliate links and no sponsored placements on this site, and no tracking cookies. Product names that appear on a page (for example a heater model used to show typical wattage) are there because the manufacturer publishes the spec, not because anyone paid.
How we work
- Every dollar figure is calculated from the inputs on the page. Nothing is estimated by eye.
- Wattage and savings claims come from federal agencies (EIA, DOE, CPSC, ENERGY STAR) or from manufacturer spec sheets, and each page lists them.
- Prices are refreshed after each EIA monthly release. Pages show the data month and the date they were last updated.
Full details: methodology and sources.
Corrections and contact
If a number looks wrong, tell us and we will check it against the source and fix it. Reporters and researchers can ask for a custom cut of the data (another appliance, different hours, a region).
WattCost is an independent project. It is not affiliated with the EIA, DOE or any utility.