How much does a window air conditioner cost per month in North Carolina?

About $8.61 a month, assuming 900 W at a 80% duty cycle, 8 hours a day, 120 days a year at 14.95¢/kWh.

How many kilowatt-hours does a window air conditioner use?

Roughly 691 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.72 kWh for every hour it runs.

Is that expensive compared with other states?

North Carolina has the 14th cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $126 a year.

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Cost to run a window air conditioner in North Carolina (August 2026 rates)

At 14.95¢ per kilowatt-hour — North Carolina's average residential price in August 2026 — running a window air conditioner costs $103 a year. That is 18% less than the national average of $126. North Carolina's residential rate is up 2.5% from August 2025, which moves this appliance from $101 to $103 a year.

Per hour: 10.8¢
Per day of use: 86.1¢
Per month: $8.61
Per year: $103

Assumption: 900 W at a 80% duty cycle, 8 hours a day, 120 days a year — 691 kWh a year. Typical of a 10,000 BTU window unit. Small 5,000 BTU units draw closer to 500 W; 15,000 BTU units closer to 1,400 W. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.

How North Carolina compares

North Carolina pays 14.95¢/kWh, the 14th cheapest residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to $22.19 less a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same window air conditioner costs $87.92 a year in Nevada and $326 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $238 a year.

State	Rate	Per month	Per year
Washington	14.63¢	$8.43	$101
Oklahoma	14.82¢	$8.54	$102
North Carolina	14.95¢	$8.61	$103
Florida	14.99¢	$8.63	$104
Arizona	15.05¢	$8.67	$104

States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for a window air conditioner.

What else costs about the same in North Carolina

Electric clothes dryer$117 a year in NC Aquarium$88.40 a year in NC Gaming pc$87.31 a year in NC

Cutting the number down

Sealing the gaps around the sleeve with foam matters more than the unit's efficiency rating. Warm air leaking back in is load you pay to remove twice.
An inverter model modulates instead of slamming on and off, which shows up as a lower effective duty cycle rather than a lower nameplate watt.
Shading the outdoor half of the unit lowers the temperature it rejects heat into, which lowers the work it has to do.

Questions

How much does a window air conditioner cost per month in North Carolina?: About $8.61 a month, assuming 900 W at a 80% duty cycle, 8 hours a day, 120 days a year at 14.95¢/kWh.
How many kilowatt-hours does a window air conditioner use?: Roughly 691 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.72 kWh for every hour it runs.
Is that expensive compared with other states?: North Carolina has the 14th cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $126 a year.