What Uses the Most Electricity in a House? (2026 Data)

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The bill arrives, it’s higher than last month, and the whole family starts guessing. Is it the new TV? The teenager’s gaming PC? The old fridge in the garage? Most of us have never seen a list of what uses the most electricity in a house, so we blame the wrong thing. The government measures this, and the answer is less mysterious than it looks.

The short answer: heating and cooling. In the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest home energy survey, air conditioning was the biggest single use of household electricity (about 19%), followed by space heating and water heating (about 12% each). Refrigerators, lighting and TVs come next. Anything that makes heat or moves heat uses the most.

Where U.S. home electricity goes

The numbers below come from the EIA’s Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), the largest study of home energy use in the country. Its newest edition covers 2020 and surveyed 18,496 households, then matched their answers with utility billing data. The shares are of all electricity used in U.S. homes. One caveat: 2020 was the first pandemic year, with more people at home, and the EIA notes that the shares move from year to year with the weather.

End use	Share of home electricity (2020)	Average per home that has it (kWh a year)
Air conditioning	About 19%	2,318
Space heating (electric)	About 12%	2,484
Water heating (electric)	About 12%	2,706
Refrigerators (all)	About 8%	839
Lighting	About 6%	654
TVs and related gear (cable boxes, consoles, streamers)	About 6%	632
Furnace and AC fans (air handlers)	About 5%	233 heating + 457 cooling
Clothes dryers (electric)	About 4%	680
Separate freezers	About 2%	570
Cooking (range, cooktop, oven)	About 2%	290
Dehumidifiers	About 2%	999
Ceiling fans	About 1.5%	226
Pool pumps	About 1.5%	2,384
Everything else (computers, small appliances, chargers, microwaves, dishwashers, washers and more)	About 19%	varies

Shares are our calculation from the EIA’s 2020 RECS tables (each end use ÷ total home electricity, rounded). The kWh column is the EIA’s average for homes that have that end use, so an electric water heater averages 2,706 kWh a year in homes that heat water with electricity, not across all homes. Microwaves (about 1%), dishwashers, clothes washers and EV charging (each under 1% of the national total in 2020) are in “everything else.”

What each one costs you

The EIA puts the average U.S. home at about 10,500 kWh a year, which is close to the 1,000 kWh a month that the Department of Energy’s Energy Saver uses as the national average. The average residential price was 18.31 cents per kWh in July 2026 (EIA). At that price, here is roughly what the big uses cost in a home that has them. These are our estimates; your rate and your climate change them a lot.

• Electric water heater: 2,706 kWh, about $495 a year.
• Electric space heating: 2,484 kWh, about $455 a year on average, and far more in cold climates.
• Pool pump: 2,384 kWh, about $435 a year.
• EV charging at home: 2,363 kWh, about $435 a year (homes with an EV in 2020).
• Air conditioning: 2,318 kWh, about $425 a year, plus the fan that pushes the air.
• Dehumidifier: 999 kWh, about $185 a year.
• Refrigerators: 839 kWh for all the fridges in an average home, about $155 a year. A second fridge alone averages 494 kWh, about $90.
• Clothes dryer: 680 kWh, about $125. Lighting: 654 kWh, about $120. TVs and boxes: 632 kWh, about $115.

Why heating and cooling win

Making heat with electricity takes a lot of it. A plain electric water heater, baseboard heater or space heater turns each kilowatt-hour into about one kilowatt-hour of heat, and a home needs a lot of heat. Air conditioners and heat pumps don’t make heat; they move it, which is why they get more heating or cooling out of each kWh. But they run for hours on hot or cold days, so they still top the list. The EIA notes that air conditioning is used in 87% of U.S. homes, and that summer home demand peaks around 5 or 6 p.m., when everyone comes home and the house is hottest.

Your own list depends on how your home is heated. If you have a gas furnace and a gas water heater, those two big items don’t show up on your electric bill at all (only the furnace fan does), and the fridge, lights, AC and electronics make up most of it. In an all-electric home in a cold state, heating can be the largest line by far.

Things people blame that use less than they think

• Phone chargers: Berkeley Lab’s measurements put a typical electronics charger at about half a watt when nothing is plugged in. That’s roughly 4–5 kWh a year, less than a dollar.
• The microwave: powerful for a few minutes, so its yearly total is small; RECS puts microwaves at about 1% of home electricity.
• LED lights: a 60-watt-equivalent LED bulb uses about 8.5 W. Lighting’s 6% share is shrinking as old bulbs are replaced.

What surprises people instead: the second fridge in the garage, the dehumidifier running all summer in the basement, the pool pump, a hot tub (heaters average 1,479 kWh a year in homes that have one, per RECS) and the “always-on” load of everything that never fully switches off. Our phantom power guide covers that last one.

How to find what uses the most in your house

1. Read your bill and your utility’s app. Compare a mild month (spring or fall) with your peak month. The difference is mostly heating or cooling.
2. Check your 3 a.m. use. The Department of Energy suggests that if you have a smart meter with hourly data, your use at 3 a.m. should be well below your use at 7 p.m. If it isn’t, something is running all the time.
3. Measure single appliances. A plug-in meter shows the watts and kWh of anything on a normal 120-volt outlet. DOE notes these meters can’t measure 240-volt appliances such as dryers, central AC and water heaters.
4. See the whole house. A whole-home monitor in the breaker panel shows every circuit, including the 240-volt ones. Most people should have an electrician install it.
5. Do the math for the rest. DOE’s formula: watts × hours used per day ÷ 1,000 = kWh per day. Multiply by days used per year and by your price per kWh.

Tools and upgrades that go after the big users

Prices change often. The prices below are what we saw at the maker or a major retailer in October 2026; check the current price before you buy.

Emporia Vue 3 (about $199.99 with 16 sensors, maker’s price, October 2026) shows your whole home and each circuit in an app, including the 240-volt ones a plug meter can’t read. It mounts inside the breaker panel, so most people should hire a licensed electrician. Kill A Watt P4400 (about $33 on the maker’s store) is the simple way to learn what your old fridge or dehumidifier really uses. The ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced (about $164.99 on ecobee.com, on sale) is ENERGY STAR certified; a good schedule is the cheapest way to cut the biggest line on most bills. If you heat water with electricity, an ENERGY STAR heat pump water heater such as the A.O. Smith Signature 900 (UEF 3.8, about $1,550 at Lowe’s) delivers roughly 3–4 units of hot-water energy per unit of electricity by its rating, against about one for a standard electric tank; it needs a 240-volt circuit, a plumber or licensed installer, and a space that ENERGY STAR says should stay between 40°F and 90°F. LED bulbs like the GE Relax pack cost little and pay back fast where lights burn for hours.

Check the Emporia Vue 3 price on Amazon

Check the Kill A Watt P4400 price on Amazon

See it at A.O. Smith

Where to start, in order

1. Heating and cooling: set back the thermostat when you’re asleep or away, clean or change filters, seal air leaks and add attic insulation. See our smart thermostat guide and heat pumps.
2. Hot water: fix drips, use a low-flow showerhead, and when the old electric tank dies, look at a heat pump water heater.
3. The extras: unplug the garage fridge if it’s mostly empty, put the pool pump on a timer, and run the dehumidifier only when the room needs it.
4. Timing: on a time-of-use plan, when you run the dryer, dishwasher and EV charger changes the bill. See time-of-use rates explained.

And skip the “plug it in and save 50%” gadgets: they go after none of the items above. We explain why in electricity-saving device scams.

Keep exploring

Our how to lower your electric bill guide puts all of this into one plan. Compare tools in the best energy monitors and energy monitoring smart plugs, or read how watts and kilowatt-hours work in electrical energy and how heat moves in thermal energy. More tips are in the energy saving tips category.

Electricity use questions

What uses the most electricity in a house?

Across U.S. homes, air conditioning is the largest single use, about 19% of home electricity in the EIA’s 2020 survey. Electric space heating and electric water heating follow at about 12% each. In a home with gas heat and gas hot water, the AC, refrigerator, lighting and electronics make up most of the electric bill instead.

How many kWh does an average house use?

About 10,500 kWh a year in the EIA’s 2020 survey, or roughly 880 kWh a month. The Department of Energy rounds it to about 1,000 kWh a month. Homes in hot southern states with electric heat use much more; small apartments with gas heat use much less.

Does a refrigerator use a lot of electricity?

More than most appliances, because it runs all day, every day. The EIA’s average is 839 kWh a year for all the refrigerators in a home, about $155 at July 2026’s average price by our math. A second, older fridge is often the easiest saving in the house: it averages 494 kWh a year on its own.

Do TVs and gaming consoles use much power?

TVs and everything connected to them, such as cable boxes, consoles and streamers, were about 6% of home electricity in 2020, around 632 kWh a year per home. Cable and satellite boxes stand out because many draw several watts even when “off”; Berkeley Lab’s median for set-top boxes is 8 watts in standby.

How can I see what’s using electricity right now?

Check your utility’s app for hourly or 15-minute data from your smart meter, then switch things off one at a time and watch the meter. A plug-in meter like the Kill A Watt measures single 120-volt devices, and a whole-home monitor installed in your breaker panel shows every circuit live.

Is it cheaper to leave the AC on all day?

Usually not. The Department of Energy’s Energy Saver advises keeping the house warmer than normal in summer while you’re away, and says turning the thermostat back 7–10°F for 8 hours a day can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling. The exception is a time-of-use plan, where pre-cooling before the expensive afternoon hours can cost less than running hard during them.