What does an infrared heater 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 an infrared heater that gives 1,260 kWh a year, or $231.

Often cycles less than a convection heater because people switch it off when they leave rather than letting it hold a room temperature.

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. 1,500 W — what it draws while it is actually drawing. This is the rating on the plate.
2. × 60% — the share of its in-service time it is really pulling that. Often cycles less than a convection heater because people switch it off when they leave rather than letting it hold a room temperature.
   That gives 900 W averaged across the hours it is on.
3. × 6 hours a day × 140 days — Aimed at a seating area for an evening, through winter.
   900 × 6 × 140 ÷ 1,000 = 756 kWh a year.
4. + standby — 1 W for the other 18.0 hours a day, which is 2.5 kWh a year. People leave this out and it is not always small.
5. × 18.34¢ — the US average residential rate for June 2026.
   759 kWh × 18.34¢ = $139 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

Every claim that an infrared heater is more efficient is marketing. Resistance heating is 100% efficient by definition — all the electricity becomes heat, and there is nowhere else for it to go. What infrared genuinely does is warm objects and people directly instead of warming the air first, so you can often be comfortable with the room several degrees cooler. That is a real saving, but it comes from the lower setpoint, not the heater.

Against heat pump (heating)

The saving is in heating people rather than rooms, so use it that way: aimed at where you sit, switched off when you leave, with the whole-house thermostat turned down to match. In numbers: an infrared heater costs $139 a year on these assumptions, and heat pump (heating) doing a comparable job costs $423 — a difference of $284 a year, or $2,839 over ten years at today’s rate.

Both at 18.34¢/kWh, each on its own standard usage assumption. Ten years is roughly the service life of either.

What it costs in your state

The appliance is the same everywhere; the rate is not. Running this infrared heater costs $400 a year in Hawaii and $99 in Nevada — a difference of 4×.

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

Other heating and cooling costs

• Electric furnace

  $1,653 a year

  Whole-home resistance heating in a cold climate.

• Heat pump (heating)

  $423 a year

  Whole-home heating in a mixed climate.

• Central air conditioner

  $421 a year

  A 3-ton system in a hot-summer climate.

• Dehumidifier

  $228 a year

  A 50-pint unit holding a basement at 50% relative humidity.

• Electric baseboard heater

  $218 a year

  One 1,000 W baseboard unit in one room. Most homes have several.

• Heated towel rail

  $193 a year

  Left permanently on, which is how most of them are used.

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