Why your electric bill depends more on climate than on the price of power

The price of electricity varies almost fourfold across the states. Monthly bills vary far less, because the states with cheap power are usually the ones that use the most of it. To predict your bill after a move, look at the climate and the heating system before the rate.

By statenumbers.com · October 24, 2026 · 8 min read

Every residential electric bill is the product of two numbers: how many kilowatt-hours the home used and what each one cost. The US Energy Information Administration publishes both for every state. In 2024, the average American home used 863 kWh a month at 16.48¢ per kWh, for an average bill of $142.

monthly bill = kWh used × price per kWh

Comparing two states shows why both halves matter. California pays 31.97¢ per kWh, about twice Alabama's 15.18¢. Yet the average Alabama home used 1,143 kWh a month against 503 in California, so its bill came to $174, more than California's $161.

Price and usage cancel each other out

Across the states, the price of electricity runs from 11.5¢ to 42.9¢ per kWh, a 3.7-fold range. Average usage runs from 495 to 1,202 kWh a month, a 2.4-fold range. If the two were unrelated, bills would vary even more than prices. Instead they vary less, from $93 to $212, because price and usage move in opposite directions: their correlation across states is −0.74.

That pattern makes sense. Electricity is cheapest where it is produced cheaply, from hydropower in the Northwest and from natural gas, coal, and wind across the South and Plains, and homes in many of those places are more likely to run everything on it. Where power is expensive, as in New England, California, and Hawaii, households use less of it, helped by mild weather in California and Hawaii and by other heating fuels in the Northeast.

What drives usage: heat, and how homes are heated

Two measures explain most of the difference in how much electricity homes use. The first is the share of homes heated with electricity rather than gas, oil, or propane, from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Across states, its correlation with average usage is 0.80. The second is how much cooling the climate demands, measured by NOAA's cooling degree days: the more hot days, the more air conditioning. Its correlation with usage across the contiguous states is 0.67.

EIA residential electricity (Table 5A) and natural gas prices · Table 5A · 2024 · rel. October 7, 2025 · Official data

US Census ACS 5-Year Estimates (summary file) · B25040 · 2020–2024 · rel. December 2025 · Official data

NOAA NCEI Climate at a Glance (statewide) · nClimDiv · 1991–2020 average · rel. monthly · Official data

The heaviest users are all in the South and Southwest, where long, hot summers run air conditioners for months and most homes also heat with electricity: 90% of homes in Florida, 67% in Alabama. Louisiana uses the most electricity of any state yet pays only 11.7¢ per kWh, so its bill stays below the national average. The lightest users are in New England, New York, California, Alaska, and Hawaii. Cooling degree days are not published for Alaska and Hawaii.

The cold-state catch: the heating bill is somewhere else

A low electric bill in a cold state does not mean low energy costs. In Vermont, only 9% of homes heat with electricity; 39% burn fuel oil or kerosene. In Maine, 55% heat with oil. Those households pay for heating oil, propane, or gas separately, and none of it appears in the electricity figures. Utah has one of the lowest average electric bills in the country, $95, but 79% of its homes heat with piped gas, a second bill that peaks in winter.

The reverse also happens. Washington has cheap hydroelectric power at 11.9¢ per kWh and 59% of homes heat with electricity, so homes there use more power than in most northern states, yet the bill stays low.

Cheap power, big bills, and the reverse

• Below-average price, above-average bill: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Almost all of them are Southern states with hot summers and widespread electric heating.
• Above-average price, below-average bill: District of Columbia, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Mostly Northern states where homes use less electricity and heat with other fuels.

Hawaii is the exception to everything: it pays by far the highest price, 42.9¢ per kWh, because most of its power comes from imported oil, and it has the highest average bill, $212, even though its homes use the least electricity in the country.

Every state

EIA residential averages per customer account for 2024, including apartments as well as houses. Heating shares are the Census ACS 5-year estimates of each home's main heating fuel; propane and other fuels are not shown. Natural gas prices are EIA residential prices per thousand cubic feet.

Estimating your own bill after a move

1. Find out how the home is heated and cooled. An all-electric home with a heat pump in the South will look like the high-usage rows above; a gas-heated apartment in the North will look like the low ones.
2. Ask for 12 months of usage. Landlords, sellers, and many utilities can share past kWh for an address. Multiply it by the local utility's current rate, not the state average.
3. Add the other fuel. In gas-, oil-, or propane-heated homes, budget for a separate winter heating bill.
4. Check the rate structure. Time-of-use pricing, tiered rates, and fixed monthly charges can change the bill as much as the headline price.
5. Size matters. State averages mix apartments with houses. A larger home in the same state will use more.

The electric bill ranking sorts every state, and each state profile shows its bill, price, usage, and natural gas price in the “Bills and spending” section.

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