Home › Space heater › Maine
Cost to run a space heater in Maine (August 2026 rates)
At 32.11¢ per kilowatt-hour — Maine's average residential price in August 2026 — running a space heater costs $277 a year. That is 77% more than the national average of $157. Maine's residential rate is up 14.1% from August 2025, which moves this appliance from $243 to $277 a year.
- Per hour
- 28.9¢
- Per day of use
- $2.31
- Per month
- $23.12
- Per year
- $277
Assumption: 1,500 W at a 60% duty cycle, 8 hours a day, 120 days a year — 864 kWh a year. 1,500 W is the ceiling for a 120 V plug-in heater, and nearly every model sold hits it on high. A thermostat changes how often it runs, not how hard. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.
Related calculators: cost whole-house electric heating instead of one room.
How Maine compares
Maine pays 32.11¢/kWh, the 2nd most expensive residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to $121 more a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same space heater costs $110 a year in Nevada and $408 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $298 a year.
| State | Rate | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | 29.41¢ | $21.18 | $254 |
| California | 29.75¢ | $21.42 | $257 |
| Massachusetts | 30.48¢ | $21.95 | $263 |
| Maine | 32.11¢ | $23.12 | $277 |
| Hawaii | 47.18¢ | $33.97 | $408 |
States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for a space heater.
What else costs about the same in Maine
Cutting the number down
- Heating one occupied room and letting the rest of the house sit cooler is the whole case for a space heater. Running one in every room costs more than central heat.
- Ceramic, oil-filled and infrared heaters all convert essentially 100% of the electricity to heat. At the same wattage the running cost is identical, whatever the box claims.
- The cheapest watt is the one you skip: closing the door to the room you are heating does more than any model upgrade.
Questions
- How much does a space heater cost per month in Maine?
- About $23.12 a month, assuming 1,500 W at a 60% duty cycle, 8 hours a day, 120 days a year at 32.11¢/kWh.
- How many kilowatt-hours does a space heater use?
- Roughly 864 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.90 kWh for every hour it runs.
- Is that expensive compared with other states?
- Maine has the 2nd most expensive average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs more here than the U.S. average of $157 a year.