How much does a string of Christmas lights cost per month in Iowa?

About 9.0¢ a month, assuming 25 W, 6 hours a day, 45 days a year at 15.93¢/kWh.

How many kilowatt-hours does a string of Christmas lights use?

Roughly 7 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.03 kWh for every hour it runs.

Is that expensive compared with other states?

Iowa has the 23rd cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $1.24 a year.

Home › String of christmas lights › Iowa

Cost to run a string of Christmas lights in Iowa (June 2026 rates)

At 15.93¢ per kilowatt-hour — Iowa's average residential price in June 2026 — running a string of Christmas lights costs $1.08 a year. That is 13% less than the national average of $1.24. Iowa's residential rate is up 3.9% from June 2025, which moves this appliance from $1.03 to $1.08 a year.

Per hour: 0.4¢
Per day of use: 2.4¢
Per month: 9.0¢
Per year: $1.08

Assumption: 25 W, 6 hours a day, 45 days a year — 7 kWh a year. Per 100-count LED string. A 100-count incandescent string draws roughly 40 W, and older C9 bulbs far more. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.

How Iowa compares

Iowa pays 15.93¢/kWh, the 23rd cheapest residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to 16.3¢ less a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same string of Christmas lights costs 88.5¢ a year in Nevada and $3.56 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $2.67 a year.

State	Rate	Per month	Per year
South Carolina	15.55¢	8.7¢	$1.05
Kansas	15.71¢	8.8¢	$1.06
Iowa	15.93¢	9.0¢	$1.08
Texas	15.94¢	9.0¢	$1.08
Missouri	16.22¢	9.1¢	$1.09

States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for a string of Christmas lights.

What else costs about the same in Iowa

Led bulb$2.62 a year in IA Clothes iron$2.63 a year in IA Smart speaker$4.19 a year in IA

Cutting the number down

A timer that runs the display six hours instead of twelve halves the season's cost with nobody noticing.
Incandescent strings are where holiday bills come from; LED strings of the same length are a fraction of the draw.

Questions

How much does a string of Christmas lights cost per month in Iowa?: About 9.0¢ a month, assuming 25 W, 6 hours a day, 45 days a year at 15.93¢/kWh.
How many kilowatt-hours does a string of Christmas lights use?: Roughly 7 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.03 kWh for every hour it runs.
Is that expensive compared with other states?: Iowa has the 23rd cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $1.24 a year.