How Much Does It Cost to Run a Space Heater Each Month?

Source: Planning watts of 1,500 and 8 hours a day, hours of running time a day in cold weather. Price: 17.23 cents per kWh, the 2025 US residential average from EIA Form EIA-861.

The monthly cost is 42% of the $150.68 average US electric bill. Because it runs only about 4 months a year, the yearly cost is 4 times the monthly figure, not twelve.

One figure cannot fit every home. These three cases show how much the answer moves with the equipment and the hours.

The lowest case costs $24 a month and the highest $110. Use the calculator above to match your own.

The same space heater costs different amounts depending on the state, because the price per kWh differs. Here are the three cheapest states, the US average and the three costliest, for the same 365 kWh a month.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data). Price is residential revenue divided by sales and includes fixed charges.

See electricity rates in every state to find your own.

A plug-in space heater is a resistance heater. Every kWh it draws becomes one kWh of heat in the room, with nothing lost, so the cost depends only on watts, hours and your price per kWh.

Most plug-in heaters top out at 1,500 watts, the usual limit for a heater on a standard household circuit. The thermostat decides how many hours the element actually runs, and a small, closed room needs far fewer hours than an open one.

For scale, the EIA Residential Energy Consumption Survey found the average US home used about 109 kWh a month on space heating in 2020, and the average detached house about 119 kWh. These averages include homes with no such equipment, so a home that has it uses more.

The range for this kind of appliance runs from about 750 to 1,500 watts. At 8 hours a day that is $31 to $63 a month, which is why checking the label on yours is worth the minute.

• Heat only the room you are in and keep the door closed.
• Use a model with a thermostat and a tip-over switch.
• Compare with the cost of heating the whole house if you only need a small area warm.

Next step: Electricity cost calculator. For general ideas, read how to lower your electric bill.

Other appliances in the heating group: Electric Furnace, Baseboard Heater, Heat Pump, Electric Blanket, Electric Fireplace.

The cost is watts divided by 1,000, times hours, times your price per kWh. The 1,500 watts is a planning figure for this kind of appliance, set from typical product ratings, and the 8 hours is an assumed day of use. Neither is copied from a federal table. Federal guidance describes the method and warns that real wattage varies, so we publish our own typical ranges and label them as such. Prices come from EIA Form EIA-861 for 2025.

The calculation is the standard one used in the U.S. Department of Energy's consumer guidance on estimating appliance energy use. Wattage varies by product age and features, so the label on your own appliance beats any average. Read more in our methodology.