With energy demand rising across the United States and costs remaining high, understanding which appliances use the most energy in your home is essential for keeping your household utility costs in check.

While the national residential electricity rate has stabilized since its significant year-over-year increase in 2023, at 16.26 cents per kilowatt-hour, it is still important to be mindful of how much electricity you’re using and the impact it has on your budget, in addition to other energy sources. Let’s take a look at which appliances use the most energy—and where you can focus to see the greatest cost savings in 2025.

Heaters
Heating is the largest contributor to high energy consumption across most U.S. homes. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), space heating was a significant energy drain, accounting for 42% of energy consumption. While heating contributes significantly to energy use, it is important to note that not all of this energy comes from electricity, with other fuel sources like natural gas and propane also in the mix. However, households that relied on electricity for their heating spent less on average than those who used other fuel sources.

When it comes to heating, how much energy you use depends on how often the heat is running, what setting it is on, and how well-insulated your home is. If your home is well insulated, heating efficiency is optimized and you can use less energy to achieve the same comfortable temperature.

If you notice any cold air flowing through your home, chances are there’s a breach in your insulation or a window/door has a crack in it. Proper insulation will enable you to run your heating at a lower setting for shorter periods of time to maintain a comfortable temperature. Older homes often use loose-fill insulation due to the ease of installation. Newer homes are often built using spray foam. Consider conducting an energy audit to assess your own home insulation needs and heat your space more efficiently.

Water Heaters
Hot water is essential to any home—nobody likes a freezing cold shower. Yet that water heater may be putting the heat on your bank account as well. In fact, water heating accounts for approximately 18% of household energy usage. As the second-biggest consumer of electricity in the home, choosing an energy-efficient solution is pivotal to reducing electricity bills. But don’t worry—you don’t need to start taking cold showers every day to reduce your energy consumption. A great way to manage water heater energy use is to invest in a tankless water heater. Tankless water heaters are designed to only heat water as and when required, rather than heating the whole tank and letting hot water go cold again.

Central Air Conditioners

Coming home on a hot summer day and cranking the AC can feel great in the moment, but a higher energy bill at the end of the month can hurt. A single two-ton central air conditioner can consume 1,450 kWh per month, which is a significant amount. If you live in a warmer state, you may find that this is what uses the most energy at home in the summer. If you run an energy audit to find out what uses the most electricity in a house, you will likely find that your air conditioner is a significant contributor. Luckily, cooling a house requires far less energy than heating it. Like with your heating systems, insulation will help to keep cool air inside, so ensure your home is well insulated. You can also weather-strip your home to seal up those cracks and gaps.

Furthermore, there are plenty of modern HVAC and AC units that are surprisingly efficient, with many reaching 98% efficiency. If you’re buying an air-conditioning unit, look for the ENERGY STAR certification to ensure you’re getting a unit that will use energy efficiently and, therefore, help you save!

Refrigerators
Some appliances can just never be turned off, and that’s that. The refrigerator is the best example of this type of appliance. That’s why, when it comes to which appliances use the most electricity, it’s important to invest in energy-efficient models for the ones you simply can’t turn off.

Older units will always consume more than newer units. Smart refrigerators are highly recommended for this problem because they will automatically alert the owner if something is wrong, such as if the appliance is consuming more electricity than expected.

Generally speaking, refrigerators consume 7% of all electricity in the average residential home, so it pays to make the switch to a more energy-efficient model.

Washers & Dryers
Your washer and dryer are among the appliances that use the most electricity in a home. What uses the most electricity out of the two? The dryer is by far the least efficient because it uses a lot of heat while it’s working. While everybody needs to wash their clothes, there are steps you can take to reduce consumption. For example, try line-drying your clothes outside or buying an indoor air-drying rack instead of using the dryer.

Naturally, your washing machine is a bit harder to limit the usage of. However, you can reduce the energy consumption of your washing machine by operating it at lower temperatures or opting for a cold wash.

Lighting

Your lighting choices can also help reduce your energy usage and, as a result, save you money. According to the EPA, lighting covers 15% of an average home’s electricity usage. The cost of lighting your home will vary wildly depending on your habits and your lightbulb choices.

It can feel overwhelming with all the lighting options out there, so let’s break it down. Generally, the most inefficient light bulbs are incandescent. These are the traditional bulbs you might be most familiar with. While the cost-per-bulb is lower, they don’t last nearly as long as other options and use more energy to boot. LED lightbulbs are going to be the most energy-efficient choice. Coming at a slightly higher upfront cost, they don’t use as much energy as incandescent bulbs and last significantly longer, leading to long-term cost savings.

Dishwashers
Dishwashers are often marketed as low-energy appliances, but this isn’t necessarily true. They conceal their true energy consumption because the machine itself uses very little in the way of direct electricity. For example, the average dishwasher will use an estimated 1,200 watts of electricity per load through its pump and control system, which is roughly the same as a blow dryer.

However, most of a dishwasher’s energy consumption comes from piggybacking off the hot water heater. How much energy it harnesses from the hot water heater depends on the model of your dishwasher, how often you run it, which cycle you choose, and so on.

For example, a 1994 dishwasher used 10 to 15 gallons of water per load, whereas today’s dishwashers use less than four gallons per load if they’re certified by ENERGY STAR. Consider upgrading to an ENERGY STAR appliance for optimal energy efficiency.

Televisions

Who doesn’t love a day of binging TV on the couch? But does having this appliance running all day ever make you wonder how much energy it’s actually using? Well, the answer depends! Modern TVs will use an average of 58.6 watts when switched on and just 1.3 watts when on standby. Overall, throughout the year TVs will consume an average of 106.9 kWh, which translates to just under $20.

All in all, your day of TV isn’t going to have a tremendous impact on your energy use or costs, but you can still make small changes to further reduce your costs. Upgrade to a modern smart TV, limit the amount of time you watch, and unplug the TV when you’re not using it. Every little bit helps!

Discovering what appliances use the most energy in your home is a great way to help you start saving on your utility bills. Reducing your energy usage may require some initial upfront investment in new energy-efficient appliances or home insulation upgrades, but these costs will ultimately help lead to long-term savings.