Air conditioner Electricity Cost & Wattage
What an air conditioner costs to run: typical 1200 W, about $110 a year. Adjust the figures to your own usage and electricity price.
Your Air conditioner running cost
Costs about
/ year
- Per day
- Energy this season
Assumes ~90 days of use a year — adjust it for your climate and habits.
Typical wattage
| Low | 500 W |
|---|---|
| Typical | 1200 W |
| High | 3500 W |
| Typical use | 6 h/day, ~90 days/year |
Air conditioning is often the single biggest driver of a summer electricity bill, because it combines high power with long daily hours during a heatwave. Power draw depends on the unit's cooling capacity: a small portable or window unit might draw 500–900 W, a typical room split around 1,000–1,500 W, and a large or multi-room system considerably more. This page uses an hours-per-day approach across the cooling season; enter your unit's power, realistic daily hours and your price to see what a summer of cooling really costs.
The biggest lever is the thermostat. Each degree cooler makes the compressor run longer, so setting a sensible target and letting fans move the air makes you feel cooler for far less energy. Inverter units, which vary compressor speed instead of switching fully on and off, use less on average once a room reaches temperature. Good insulation, closed blinds during the day and clean filters all cut the hours the compressor has to run — which is exactly what shows up in the yearly total.
It also helps to think about where and when you cool. Cooling a single occupied room with the door shut is far cheaper than trying to chill a whole open-plan home, and pre-cooling earlier in the day, before the heat peaks, can be gentler on both comfort and the compressor than a sudden blast in the afternoon. Because air conditioning stacks high power on top of long summer hours, these habits move the yearly number more than almost anything else you can adjust.
How to cut air conditioner running costs
- Set the thermostat a couple of degrees higher and use fans to feel cooler for less.
- Close blinds and curtains during the hottest hours to keep heat out.
- Clean or replace filters regularly so airflow stays strong and the unit works less.
- Cool only the rooms you use, and shut doors to keep the cold in.
- Choose an inverter model if buying — it varies its power instead of cycling fully on and off.
Frequently asked questions
How much does air conditioning cost to run?
A 1,200 W unit running 6 hours a day costs about $1.22 a day at $0.17/kWh — roughly $110 over a 90-day season. Larger units or longer hours cost proportionally more.
Does raising the thermostat really save much?
Yes. Each degree cooler makes the compressor run noticeably longer. Raising the set point a few degrees and using fans is one of the biggest single savings on a summer bill.
Are inverter air conditioners cheaper to run?
Usually. Instead of switching fully on and off, they vary compressor speed to match demand, so they draw less on average once the room is at temperature, especially over long sessions.