Electricity consumption calculation is an essential thing to do for saving on monthly energy bills. Air-conditioners absorb heat from their surroundings, other equipment, and any other heat-emitting product.
After that, it throws out heat, and coolant makes your indoor cozy. This entire process takes power, therefore higher the heat more will be power consumption and eventually increased power bills.
There are two significant ways to reduce the running cost of an air conditioner. First, you can reduce the number of AC running hours. Second, buy a unit with higher SEER ratings.
If you decide to save electricity by reducing hours of usage, there is a need to calculate power consumption hourly, daily, and weekly to plan your power savings.
Generally, the average running cost of an air conditioner cost around $0.06 to $0.88 in an hour. If the machines run 8 hours a day, the monthly cost will range between $14.40 to $211.20 per month.
This huge difference in monthly cost is because of different types of air conditioners. You can find small portable AC units with 5,000 BTU and also large mini-split units with up to 50,000 BTU.
To get the exact idea about electricity consumption and cost, you can use an air conditioner cost calculator.
Air conditioners come with a unique energy-efficiency profile. To calculate the energy consumption and cost, let us start with the cost per hour according to BTU.
AC Running Cost Per Hour Table
Before beginning with our table for AC running costs, the following are the three most common HVAC units and BTUs.
1) Portable Air Conditioners: 5,000 to 15,000 BTU
2) Window Air Conditioners: 5,000 to 20,000 BTU
3) Mini Split Air Conditioners: 1 Tonnage AC with 12,000 BTU to 4-Tonnage AC with 48,000 BTU
We will share the estimated cost of electricity in the table below with assumptions that all the AC units have EER ratings of 10, and an average cost of energy consumption in the USA is $0.1319 per kWh.
Mini Split Air Conditioner Running Cost
| Mini Split AC Unit (BTU) | Estimated Running Cost Per Hour |
| 12,000 BTU (1 ton) Mini Split AC | Costs $0.16 per hour |
| 24,000 BTU (2 ton) Mini Split AC | Costs $0.32 per hour |
| 36,000 BTU (3 ton) Mini Split AC | Costs $0.48 per hour |
| 48,000 BTU (4 ton) Mini Split AC | Costs $0.64 per hour |
Portable Air Conditioner Unit Running Cost
| Portable Air Conditioner Unit (BTU) | Estimated Running Cost Per Hour |
| 5,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner | Costs $0.07 per hour |
| 8,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner | Costs $0.11 per hour |
| 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner | Costs $0.16 per hour |
| 15,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner | Costs $0.20 per hour |
Windows Air Conditioner Unit Running Cost
| Window AC Unit (BTU) | Estimated Running Cost Per Hour |
| 5,000 BTU Window Air Conditioner | Costs $0.07 per hour |
| 10,000 BTU Window Air Conditioner | Costs $0.14 per hour |
| 15,000 BTU Window Air Conditioner | Costs $0.20 per hour |
| 20,000 BTU Window Air Conditioner | Costs $0.26 per hour |
Formula to Calculate Cost of Electricity per Hour
Determinants for the formula
1) Maximum power of the HVAC unit (measured in W). You can find this in the specification section of the machine and user manual
2) Cost of electricity in your locality (denoted in price per kWh)
*Here kWh is kilowatt-hours, a unit to measure usage of the electricity. IN simple words, 1 kWh means 1 hour of AC run time.
Cost in different States of the USA ranges from $0.095 in Louisiana to $0.3277 in Hawaii for every kWh.
- The Formula: Cost per hour= Power of air conditioner (W) x Power cost per kWh/1,000
- Take an example with a unit of 15,000 BTU, powered by 1,500 W in Louisiana. Apply this and get the cost of running electricity.
- Cost per hour=1500W x $0.3277/1,000=$0.49155 per hour
*It is only to understand. AC can use less energy and generally does not function at 100% capacity.
Once we calculate the cost of electricity for running an air conditioner for an hour, the results can be multiplied by days, weeks, and months to have clarity about seasonal expenses on the energy bills.
Let us take the same vitals that we used for the hourly calculation to calculate others in the following table with 8 hours of AC run time in a day (8 hours is an average ac runtime around the US per day).
| 15,000 British Thermal Unit BTU AC Unit | Estimated Cost (Per Hour) | Estimated Cost (Per Day) | Estimated Cost (Per Week) | Estimated Cost (Per Month) |
| Cost-> | $0.49155 | $3.9324 | $27.52 | $117.97 |
Related: You can also Use This Energy calculator For Running Cost Access Calculator
Conclusion
In this article, we covered the purpose of calculating energy consumption and how to calculate power consumption through BTU and mathematical formulas.
You can apply this according to your unit specification and get the exact results for an hour, day, week, and month. It will help in optimum utilization of energy and savings on the energy bills.
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