How to Calculate Your Electric Bill

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Being able to predict your electricity bill makes it easy for you to plan for your electricity usage, avoid unwanted surprises on your electric bill, and even determine the approximate cost of your electricity deposit. By calculating your electricity bill, you can compare the prices of different electricity plans and identify the one with the cheapest rate, helping you make an informed choice and avoid guesswork. All you need to do is to enter your electricity usage in kilowatt-hour (kWh) to get the estimated cost.

Calculating Your Electric Bill

Knowing how to calculate electricity cost goes far beyond learning how to read your electric meter. While using the meter is a good step towards saving on electricity costs, understanding how much each of your appliances costs you to run is also important.

Once you know this, it is just a matter of learning how to calculate the electricity cost for each appliance. By following the simple steps outlined below to calculate your electricity bill, you’ll get a better idea of what in your home is costing you each month and where you can reduce your electricity bill.

Step 1: Check the Appliance

To begin calculating electricity cost, examine your appliances. You’ll want to look at the back or bottom of each to see if you can spot an energy unit listing. In the best-case scenario, your appliance will have the wattage listed there. (Sometimes the listing uses amperes instead, which is fine but will require an extra step to calculating cost.)

Step 2: Calculating with Wattage

In the event the wattage is listed on your appliance, you are in luck! Simply divide the wattage number by 1000, which is the same as moving the decimal left three spaces. This will give you the appliance’s kWh usage. 

When you have this number, you can either go online or check your bill to find your electric company’s rates. Multiply the appliance’s kWh by the company’s rate, and you will know how much each appliance costs to run per hour.

Step 3: Calculating with Amperes

If the electrical usage is listed with an A after it, that denotes amperes. To determine the cost of electricity for that appliance, you’ll need to convert the amperes to wattage. This is done by multiplying the amps by the voltage used (usually 120, sometimes 240), and then divide that number by 1000 to determine the kWh. 

From there, you’ll look up the rates online and multiply the appliance’s kWh by the company’s rate to get  the cost of running the appliance.

Electricity Calculator Example

Here’s an example demonstrating how to go about calculating electricity costs.

Wattage Example

Consider a kitchen blender that is labeled as using 1500 watts. The first step is to calculate the kWhs of the appliance, so you’ll divide 1500 watts by 1000.

• 1500/1000 = 1.5 kWh

From there, you’ll take your electricity rate and multiply it by the kWh amount. For this example, imagine your rate is 11.7 cents/kWh.

• 1.5 kWh x 11.7 cents/kWH = 17.55 cents

And that is the cost of running your kitchen blender per hour.

Ampere Example

Instead of beginning with wattage units, imagine that your blender was instead listed in amperes. For this example, your blender amperes are 15. 

You’ll multiply the 15 amperes by the voltage of 120.

• 15 amperes x 120 volts = 1800 watts

Once you have this answer, you can divide it by 1000 and then multiply by your electricity rate (11.7 cents/kWh in our example) to determine the cost.

• 1800 watts / 1000 = 1.8 kWh

• 1.8 kWh x 11.7 cents/kWh = 21.06 cents

In this example, the cost of the kitchen blender per hour is 21.06 cents.

Knowing how to calculate electricity costs can be extremely helpful in deciding how and when to use your appliances. For example, if your electric company charges more for certain hours of the day, you can choose not to use high kWh appliances during those hours. Once you know how to calculate the electricity cost of an appliance, you can also be a more informed consumer, because you’ll know what all the numbers on the appliances mean, in terms of dollars and cents.

How Much is Your Energy Bill?

Now that you know how to convert amperes to watts and watts to kWh, and you also know how to determine the electricity usage of your electrical appliances, the next step is to calculate your total electricity charges.

Calculating your total electric bill is rather easy, as you only need to sum up the energy usage in kWh of all your appliances and then multiply them by the electricity rate. For example:

1. If you have a 150W TV that you watch for 5 hours every day, the TV consumes 750 watt-hoar per day (150 X5). 
2. To convert it to kWh, you divide it by 1000 to get 0.75kWh per day. 
3. If we take an electricity rate of 12 cents per kwh, the charges for electricity usage per day for this device will be (0.75X 0.12 = 0.09). 
4. This means that the TV accounts for $2.7 per month (0.09 X 30), that is if you use the TV every day for the same number of hours for 30 days. 

Do the same for all the appliances and then add them up to come up with your monthly electric bill.

Tools to Help You Calculate Your Electricity Bill

As you can see, this involves a lot of calculations and number crunching if you were to do it for every appliance, bulbs, and all the other devices. If you have an electrical usage monitor, you do not have to know how to manually calculate your electricity costs. This device assesses the efficiency of appliances and will tell you the kWh of your devices. With that information, you can multiply the value by the rates charged per kWh by your energy provider and determine the cost of your devices.

Using an Electric Bill Calculator to Find the Right Plan

Below are some of the ways you can use the electric bill calculator to identify the right electricity plan.

• Compare electric plan attributes: There are some electricity bill calculators that allow you to compare features in different electricity plans. All you need to do is enter your electricity usage in kWh and then filter the results by selecting the features that you want in an electricity plan. It will then give you all the plans based on the feature you selected and their prices within your location.
• Map out the best plans based on your electricity usage history. It sounds complicated, but it is doable. You only need to insert your lowest electricity usage and note the three cheapest plans, then do the same for your highest usage. Lastly, calculate and insert your average usage into the calculator and note down the three cheapest plans. Choose the plan that gives you the best price in all of the three levels.
• Shop tiered rates/bill credits: You can use the bill calculator to determine whether or not your usage level qualifies for tiered rates offers or special bill credits. To do this, you will need to insert your electricity usage in the calculator and choose “tiered rates and bill credits” on the plan feature section. Tiered rates and bill credits electricity plans are meant for certain specific electricity usage levels. If you are within that bracket you’ll get a rate. If your usage level doesn’t fall under this category, don’t sweat it––you can still choose the basic electricity plan. Note that not all electricity bill calculators have this feature.
• Shop for free electricity rates: You can also use the electricity bill calculator to shop for free electricity. You will just need to enter your usage and choose the feature ‘free electricity weekends and night’ under the plan feature section. This will give you all the electricity plans with this offer and their prices.

Advanced electricity bill calculators give you more than just an estimated monthly bill. Rather, they will give you a more detailed breakdown of the bills indicating cost per service and both the total energy usage and cost per month as well as per year. Moreover, they can also analyze the bill and categorize it into monthly costs using the electricity providers’ seasonality curve. This will give you an idea of what your electricity bill will be in August (summer period) versus the bill in November. This is a crucial feature particularly for those customers who prefer electricity plans with a variable rate.

Shopping for Electricity Plans in Texas

Finding an electricity plan in Texas can be quite difficult. And here are three main reasons why.

1. Texas electricity rates are displayed in terms of usage levels i.e., 2000 kWh, 1000 kWh, and 500 kWh, and this may not be exactly what you use.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) requires all energy providers to categorize their plans based on the usage levels of 2000 kWh, 1000 kWh, and 500 kWh. The reason for this requirement by PUCT is to enable consumers to do an ‘apples to apples’ comparison of energy rates including monthly base charges, bill credits, delivery, and energy fees. However, consumers may not use exactly the above stipulated electricity levels. For example, the average home usage rate in Texas is approximately 1200 kWh per month, although every household usage needs are different and may use more or less.

2. Complicated electricity plans

Some electricity companies have complicated electricity plans with hidden clauses that make it more expensive than it appears to be. For example, you might find an electricity plan that offers a great rate for 1000 kWh usage level but if your consumption goes higher than that, the rate changes significantly. There are also the tiered rates, flat bills, bill credits, and freebies which on the face value appear attractive but can be costly if one doesn’t clearly understand the terms.

3. Calculations are not for everyone

The calculation of electricity prices quickly becomes a math problem and not everyone has the time to solve them. Therefore, most people don’t read through the terms. 

Because of the three issues mentioned above, most electricity consumers are at risk of being victims to gimmicks, tricks or even genuine plans with tough conditions. By using an electricity bill calculator you are able to get the prices of each plan and compare them without so much hustle.

So in brief, an electricity calculator will enable you to compute your Texas electricity bill before you subscribe to any electricity plan. You can also compare different electricity plans based on their prices and features and use that information to make the right decision.

The greatest thing about using an electricity calculator is that you get the peace of mind knowing that you’ve made an informed decision. You won’t worry about shocking prices––instead, you will feel relaxed knowing how much you are going to pay and how much you need to budget for your electricity usage.

Payless Power offers a range of prepaid plan options with no deposit, no credit check, and instant approval, so you can turn your lights on same-day. Find your plan today!

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