How Much Does 500 Watts Cost Per Hour? ($0.05 – $0.22/h)

500 watts hourly cost is pretty simple to calculate. To help you out, we will explain exactly how to calculate how much does 500 watts cost per hour. On top of that, you will also find the 500 Watts Cost Per Hour Calculator (input electricity price, get US dollars per hour exact to 1 USD cent) and State-By-State 500 Watt Hourly Cost Chart.

In most cases, people have a 500 watt space heater and want to know how much does it cost per running hour. This will give you an answer to that; it also applies to all other electric devices that run on 500 watts, such as dehumidifiers, fans, laptops, and so on.

In short, 500 watts cost per hour ranges anywhere from $0.05 to $0.22.

The key metric the 500 watt cost per hour depends on is your electricity rate (price of electricity per kWh or $/kWh).

Namely, every 500 watt device will consume 0.5 kWh of electricity per hour. Here is the formula for how to calculate the 500 watt cost per hour, based on the set electricity price:

500 Watt Cost Per Hour = 0.5 kWh × Electricity Price ($/kWh)

Quick Example: In New York, the average price of electricity is $0.24/kWh. How much does it cost to run a 500 watt space heater in New York? Here’s how we can use the above equation:

500 Watt Cost Per Hour = 0.5 kWh × $0.24/kWh = $0.12 Per Hour

As we can see, it costs $0.12 to run a 500 watt heater in New York. You will likely pay more for running the same heater in California (due to higher electricity prices). In lower electricity rates states like Idaho, Utah, and North Dakota, you will pay only $0.05 to run a 500 watt heater per hour.

Here is a helpful calculator that does this calculation automatically. You only need to insert your electricity price (check your bill for $/kWh or consult this EIA average residential electricity prices for your state). Further on, you will also find a chart that specifies how much you will pay for 500 watt device per hour for all US states from Alabama to Wyoming:

500 Watt Cost Per Hour Calculator

Alright, let’s say that you live in an area with an average electricity price of $0.24/kWh. How much will you pay for 500 watts per hour? Just slide the slider to ‘0.24’ and you get the answer: At a $0.24/kWh electricity rate, running a 500 watts device for 1 hour will cost exactly $0.12.

Electricity prices and thereby 500 watt hourly cost varies state by state. To help you out, we have used the EIA’s electricity data from November 2022 to calculate the 500W hourly costs for each state, and summarized all the results in this chart (accurate to 1 USD cent):

State-By-State 500 Watt Hourly Cost Chart

As you can see, most American pay less than $0.15 for 500 watts per hour. The states with the lowest electricity rates will pay only 5 US cents to run a 500 watt device for 1 hour.

We hope that this illustrates well how to go about calculating 500 watts per hour costs. Using the calculator and the state-by-state chart, you now have a good insight into how much you should be paying for 500 watts per hour.