About What It Costs To Run

What It Costs To Run is an independent website that answers one question as clearly as possible: what does it cost to run the things you plug in?

Why this site exists

Electricity prices in the United States have risen in most states, and a bill that only shows a single total makes it hard to know what is responsible. The arithmetic for finding out is simple, but it requires three things most people do not have to hand: the appliance's wattage, a realistic estimate of how long it runs, and the local price per kilowatt-hour. What It Costs To Run puts those together so that anyone can get a reasonable answer in a few seconds.

Who runs this site

What It Costs To Run is written and maintained by Juan Molina, an independent publisher based in Spain. The site is not run by a utility, an energy supplier or an appliance manufacturer. Juan builds the calculators, checks the figures against the published sources and updates the price tables when new official data is released. You can reach him directly through the contact page.

What we publish

We publish free calculators for individual appliances, a table of current electricity prices for every state, and short guides on understanding and reducing an electric bill. Every calculator lets you replace our default assumptions with your own numbers.

Where our data comes from

State electricity prices come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a federal statistical agency. Typical wattages are based on manufacturer nameplate ratings, EnergyGuide labels and U.S. Department of Energy guidance. Our methodology page lists the assumptions in full.

Editorial independence and funding

What It Costs To Run is free to use and is supported by advertising. Advertisers have no influence over our figures or our content. We do not sell electricity plans and we are not affiliated with any utility or energy supplier.

Corrections

If you find an error, please tell us through the contact page. We review every report and correct mistakes promptly.