About Plugtally
Plugtally answers one question as precisely as possible: what does this thing cost to run?
It exists because that question is badly served online. Search almost any appliance running cost and you get pages built by energy suppliers and appliance retailers, quoting a national average rate that is often years out of date, doing the arithmetic with nameplate wattage that no appliance actually sustains, and ending in a quote form.
What we do differently
- Current rate data. Every figure uses the most recent EIA Electric Power Monthly release — currently EIA Electric Power Monthly, May 2026 data (released August 2026). At the time of writing, the US average is 18.44¢/kWh. Many competing pages are still calculating with 15¢ or 16¢, which understates every cost by 15–20%.
- Duty cycles, not just watts. A hot tub heater is rated 5,000 W but runs perhaps 7% of the time. Ignoring that produces numbers off by an order of magnitude. Every appliance in our dataset carries a duty cycle.
- Your state, not the average. US rates range from 12.35¢ to 52.00¢. A national average is wrong for almost everybody.
- Nothing to sell. We do not sell electricity, appliances, solar panels or leads. We are not an affiliate for any manufacturer.
How the site is funded
Plugtally is supported by display advertising. Advertisers have no involvement in what we publish, no advance sight of it, and no ability to change a figure. If the honest answer to "should I buy this" is no, that is what the page says.
Corrections
If a number here is wrong, we want to know — email hello@plugtallycalc.com and tell us which figure and what you think it should be. Corrections are made promptly and the update date on the page changes when they are.
Our full calculation assumptions are public on the methodology page.