Washing machine electricity cost

The motor in a washing machine is cheap to run. The expensive part of a wash is heating the water — which is why the wash temperature matters more than the machine.

Short answer at the example rate of $0.17/kWh: a typical 500 W washing machine running 1 hours a day, 15 days a month uses about 7.50 kWh and costs $1.28 a month. Put in your own wattage, schedule and rate below — a modern efficient machine averages around 300–500 W across a cycle, and an older or larger machine around 1,000 W. Machines that heat their own water spike well above their average while the heater runs.

The $0.17/kWh default is a rough example rate — about the US residential average on EIA figures, and it moves over time. Type in the rate from your own electricity bill for numbers that mean anything for your home.

Low, typical and high — side by side

The default schedule is one roughly hour-long load, 15 days a month — about a load every other day. Read 'per day' in the results as 'per load'. All three rows use that same schedule and the $0.17/kWh example rate; only the wattage changes.

Motor vs hot water: two different bills

A wash cycle's electricity splits into two parts. The motor, pump and controls average a few hundred watts — pennies per load. Heating water is the heavy lift: warming 40 litres by 30 °C takes about 1.4 kWh of heat, more than the motor uses in the whole cycle. In a machine with an internal heater you pay for that as electricity; with a hot-fill machine you pay for it at the water heater. Either way, a 60 °C wash costs several times what a 30 °C wash costs, and a cold wash nearly eliminates the heating term entirely.

So the wattage tiers on this page describe the machine's own draw, and the honest way to read them is: cold washes land at or below the typical row whatever your machine; hot washes in a self-heating machine can push a load toward the high row and beyond while the heater is on.

Questions

How much does one load of laundry cost in electricity?

At the typical 500 W average, one hour-long load uses 0.5 kWh — about $0.09 at $0.17/kWh for the machine itself. A hot wash in a machine that heats its own water can use two to three times that.

Is it cheaper to wash at night?

Only on a time-of-use tariff, where off-peak hours carry a lower per-kWh rate — and then the saving is real: the same load at an off-peak $0.10 instead of a peak $0.30 costs a third as much. On a flat rate the clock changes nothing. Try the time-of-use calculator on the home page with your plan’s rates.

What actually saves money on laundry?

Washing cold (modern detergents are formulated for it), running full loads rather than half loads, and using the highest spin speed your fabrics tolerate so the dryer — the genuinely expensive machine — works less. The dryer typically uses five times the energy of the wash.

How much of my bill is laundry, really?

For most households the washer alone is a few dollars a month. Add an electric dryer at roughly $0.50–0.85 a load and the pair becomes noticeable — see the clothes dryer page for its numbers.

More appliances: the main calculator and whole-home list · every preset on one chart · how the formula works