How much does leaving things on standby cost?
Work out what any appliance costs to run per use, per month and per year on your own electricity rate — including what it draws on standby. Rates for all 50 states.
Using the US average of 18.44¢/kWh — the U.S. Energy Information Administration, May 2026.
Nothing is switched on here at all. This is a whole household's standby load — televisions, consoles, chargers and set-top boxes drawing power around the clock while doing nothing.
Common cases
What drives the cost
Nothing on this page is switched on. The figure comes entirely from devices drawing power around the clock while doing nothing — the set-top box, the console in rest mode, the soundbar, the printer, the microwave clock, the phone chargers left in the wall. Individually each is trivial, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed; the household total is typically 30 to 60 W, running 8,760 hours a year.
Two details make the number worth knowing. It is charged at the full unit rate every hour of every day, including the expensive ones, so it is one of the few costs on the bill with no cheap hours at all. And the composition is lopsided: modern televisions and chargers are limited by regulation to around half a watt, while a games console left in rest mode, an old set-top box, or a desktop PC asleep can each draw ten to twenty watts on their own. Finding the two or three worst offenders removes most of it, and a plug-in energy monitor identifies them in an evening.
How this is worked out
Electricity is billed per kilowatt hour. An appliance's kilowatt hours are its power in kilowatts multiplied by the hours it runs — so a 2,000 W appliance running for 30 minutes uses 1 kWh. Multiply that by your rate and you have the cost. The fixed monthly customer charge your utility adds is not included, because you pay it whether or not you switch anything on.
What this assumes
- The appliance draws its rated power for the whole time it is on. Anything thermostatically controlled — ovens, heaters, refrigerators, air conditioners — cycles on and off, so the real figure is lower.
- Your rate is flat all day. On a time-of-use plan the same appliance costs materially different amounts depending on when you run it, and peak rates can be several times the off-peak rate.
- State averages come from the EIA and blend every utility in that state. Your own utility may be meaningfully above or below it, so use your bill where you can.
- A year is 52 weeks of identical use, which overstates seasonal appliances and understates ones you use in bursts.
- The rate filled in for you is an average that spreads fixed charges across a year's usage, so it sits above what one extra unit really costs. Entering the unit rate from your own bill gives a closer answer.
Questions
Is standby power actually worth worrying about?
It is worth an evening's attention once, not ongoing anxiety. The total is real money over a year, but it is concentrated in a handful of devices rather than spread evenly. Switching off a games console's rest mode and unplugging an old set-top box typically removes most of the cost; going round the house unplugging phone chargers achieves almost nothing.
Do phone chargers use power when nothing is plugged in?
Almost none. A modern charger left in the socket with no phone attached draws in the region of a tenth of a watt — pennies a year. The advice to unplug them dates from an era of much cruder power supplies. The devices worth chasing are the ones doing something in standby: recording, updating, staying on the network.
How do I find what is using standby power in my house?
A plug-in energy monitor costing a few pounds tells you in seconds per device, and is the only reliable way — the numbers are too small and too varied to guess. Work through the entertainment stack, the home office and anything with a clock or a network light, and you will usually find the whole standby load sitting in two or three items.
Does this include the monthly service charge?
No, deliberately. The fixed customer charge is billed for being connected at all, so it does not change when you run an appliance more or less. Including it would make every appliance look more expensive than it is.
Why is the default rate different from what I pay?
The figure filled in is the EIA state average across all utilities in your state. Rates inside a single state can vary widely between a municipal utility and an investor-owned one, so your bill is always the better number.
Where do I find the wattage?
On the nameplate — usually a label on the back, base or inside the door — or in the manual. It is written as W or kW. If it only lists amps, multiply amps by 120 for a standard outlet, or 240 for a large appliance circuit.
Sources
- U.S. EIA — Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A — checked 2026-08-21
- U.S. EIA — Frequently asked questions, electricity — checked 2026-08-21
Rates from U.S. EIA for May 2026. Last reviewed September 3, 2026.