Cost to run an LED bulb in Wisconsin (August 2026 rates)
At 19.41¢ per kilowatt-hour — Wisconsin's average residential price in August 2026 — running an LED bulb costs $3.19 a year. That is 7% more than the national average of $2.98. Wisconsin's residential rate is up 5.3% from August 2025, which moves this appliance from $3.03 to $3.19 a year.
- Per hour
- 0.2¢
- Per day of use
- 0.9¢
- Per month
- 26.6¢
- Per year
- $3.19
Assumption: 9 W, 5 hours a day, 365 days a year — 16 kWh a year. A 9 W LED producing about 800 lumens, the equivalent of an old 60 W incandescent. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.
How Wisconsin compares
Wisconsin pays 19.41¢/kWh, the 16th most expensive residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to 20.5¢ more a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same LED bulb costs $2.09 a year in Nevada and $7.75 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $5.66 a year.
| State | Rate | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | 19.32¢ | 26.4¢ | $3.17 |
| Ohio | 19.38¢ | 26.5¢ | $3.18 |
| Wisconsin | 19.41¢ | 26.6¢ | $3.19 |
| Maryland | 21.40¢ | 29.3¢ | $3.51 |
| Pennsylvania | 21.77¢ | 29.8¢ | $3.58 |
States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for an LED bulb.
What else costs about the same in Wisconsin
Cutting the number down
- Per bulb the cost is trivial; a house has 40 of them, and that is the number that matters.
- Dimming an LED does cut power draw, though not perfectly in proportion to the light output.
Questions
- How much does an LED bulb cost per month in Wisconsin?
- About 26.6¢ a month, assuming 9 W, 5 hours a day, 365 days a year at 19.41¢/kWh.
- How many kilowatt-hours does an LED bulb use?
- Roughly 16 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.01 kWh for every hour it runs.
- Is that expensive compared with other states?
- Wisconsin has the 16th most expensive average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs more here than the U.S. average of $2.98 a year.