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Window air conditioners are a great, cost-efficient way to cool a central living space. But how much will it cost you to run one? On average, you a window air conditioner costs between $40 and $100 per year to run. This mostly depends on the aircon’s power (in BTU) and wattage. The air conditioner running cost also depends on how efficiently the ac is used, and the cooling demand placed on it. See our calculator for more. In my research to answer this question, I studied the running costs of over 40 window air conditioners. Below are the results.
Comparing 43 air conditioners to find the average cost per year, and watts. Data sourced from EnergyGuide ratings for 43 unique window air conditioners, based on an example case of 8 hours a day, at $0.12 per kWh, for 3 months of the year. Even though I can only show data and averages on this article, I’ve also created a calculator to give you a way to gauge any window air conditioner you’re considering. It’s basic. But by estimating your air conditioner’s power and hours of use, we can estimate how much energy that actual model may use. Want to validate the calculator? Check it against the EnergyGuide estimates above! If you don’t know your actual tarriff in $/kWh, here’s the 2019 US averages from Choose Energy. What Factors Affect Your Electricity Usage?The reason it’s so tricky to give you an exact cost is the different factors that affect your final energy bill. By understanding these factors, we can better understand how to save on costs. As well as your specific rate per unit of electricity, there’s four things that determine how much power your air conditioner uses:
Understanding Watts vs Actual UseLet’s think about the numbers.. Among all the other factors, the reason air conditioners are hard to manage is that the amount of power they use varies a lot. When your air conditioner is cooling your room at max power, it’s using a ton of electricity. When it’s oscillating on and off to maintain the temperature? It’s uses much less. This is where Watts and Usage come in. Wattage is how much electricity the AC uses at maximum power. But it doesn’t tell us how much it uses to maintain temperature. For example. A 900W AC uses less electricity per hour than a 1000W AC, right? But a 1000W AC might cool your room in 20 minutes, while a 900W takes 30 minutes. And they may both use the same average of 400W to keep your room at that cool temperature. Gets tricky pretty quick, doesn’t it! I’ve tried a lot of ways to try and measure the exact usage, but in the end everything is so variable. The only way to know is to run the air conditioner in your own space. That said, there’s plenty of ways to help your AC’s efficiency.. How to Improve Your Window Air ConditionerOn top of buying an efficient model, there’s a few actions you can take to really get the most out of any model. Here’s a few of the best ways to improve the performance of a window ac:
For more tips, see our full 21-tip list of tips to Get The Most Out Of Your Air Conditioner. Can You EER The Savings?Efficiency is one of the first things to look for if you’re looking to find a window air conditioner that won’t skyrocket your energy bills. Thankfully, you only need to pay attention to a simple number rating: CEER. CEER stands for Combined Energy Efficiency Ratio. CEER is used for window air conditioners while SEER (Seasonal EER) is used for central ac units. EER on its own is mostly outdated now. It’s important to only compare like and like – because they all measure different things. The higher the rating, the better the efficiency. The better the efficiency, the less you’ll pay for the same amount of cooling. For reference, below are the minimum efficiency ratings advised by the Department of Energy for window air conditioners:
ConclusionWindow air conditioners are a fantastic way to cool your space on a budget. I hope this guide has helped clear things up on how much you can expect your window AC to cost you over the summer months. Remember that the only exact answer is going to be the one your electric bill tells you. And the best way to keep that number down? Buy efficient, and follow our best-practice tips above. If this content has helped you, please consider supporting us by joining the mailing list or checking out some related articles. Thank you for reading. And have a great day! -Craig Does a window air conditioner use a lot of electricity?How Much Electricity Does a Window AC Use? On average, a window AC unit can use between 500 to 1,500 watts of electricity to run. A midsize window air conditioner that uses 900 watts of electricity will consume approximately 200 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month if operated 8 hours per day.
How much does it cost to run an AC window unit all day?The cost to run a window air conditioner is $0.06 to $0.88 per hour at $0.13 kWh. Unit size, location, hourly usage, and EER will impact the actual average cost. Formula to calculate an accurate estimate: Watts * (hours used) / 1,000 * (Local kWh) = daily cost of running a window unit.
How much does it cost to run a window air conditioner per hour?How Much Does It Cost to Run a Window Air Conditioner. Is it cheaper to run a window air conditioner or central air?Windows AC units are very energy efficient. They consume way lesser energy than the Central units. It would be not wrong to say Windows AC use one-eighth the amount of electricity compared to central air systems. On the other hand, central air conditioning units are big and require time and money for installation.
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