What does a clothes iron cost to run?

Run the numbers on your own use

Change any of these and the figures update. The defaults are the typical case described above; your rate is the input that moves the answer most.

Why this is lower than the number you will see elsewhere

Almost every published answer to this question multiplies the rating on the label by the hours the appliance is switched on. For a clothes iron that gives 52 kWh a year, or $9.54.

The element cycles hard once at temperature; a steam iron works harder because it is also boiling water.

The arithmetic, step by step

Nothing here is hidden, so you can check it or change it. Working in the order the formula runs:

1. 1,300 W — what it draws while it is actually drawing. This is the rating on the plate.
2. × 40% — the share of its in-service time it is really pulling that. The element cycles hard once at temperature; a steam iron works harder because it is also boiling water.
   That gives 520 W averaged across the hours it is on.
3. × 0.5 hours a day × 80 days — Half an hour, about twice a week.
   520 × 0.5 × 80 ÷ 1,000 = 21 kWh a year.
4. × 18.34¢ — the US average residential rate for June 2026.
   21 kWh × 18.34¢ = $3.81 a year.

Change any assumption in the calculator above and every figure on this page moves with it. The two that matter most are your rate, which varies 4× across the country, and the hours — the duty cycle is a property of the appliance, but the hours are a property of you.

How sensitive is that number?

A single figure invites more confidence than it deserves. Here is the same appliance under assumptions either side of the default, so you can see how much of the answer is the appliance and how much is the guess about how you use it.

Everything else held at the default. The spread here is the honest error bar on the headline figure.

What it costs per hour, day and month

At 18.34¢ per kWh, the US residential average for June 2026.

The thing worth knowing

An iron reaches temperature in under a minute and then spends most of its time switched off internally, which is why a high-wattage appliance produces a small annual figure. Steam is the expensive setting — turning water to vapour takes far more energy than warming the plate — so ironing damp clothes without the steam function costs noticeably less.

What it costs in your state

The appliance is the same everywhere; the rate is not. Running this clothes iron costs $11 a year in Hawaii and $2.73 in Nevada — a difference of 4×.

Cost of running one clothes iron for a year, by state. Residential average price, EIA June 2026.

Other laundry costs

• Electric clothes dryer

  $125 a year

  One load most days.

• Heat pump clothes dryer

  $73 a year

  One load most days. Cycles take roughly half again as long as a vented dryer.

• Washing machine

  $18 a year

  One cold-water load most days.

Questions

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, June 2026. U.S. Government work, public domain.

How every figure on this page is computed · Where the data comes from