The cost of standby power
Short answer. Standby cost equals idle watts divided by 1,000, times hours left plugged in, times your energy rate. For a load that never switches off, hours are 8,760 a year. The result is a dollar figure you can compare with a heating fix. Most single chargers are small. A houseful of always-on electronics is a line item, not the whole bill.
Worked structure, with your numbers
Measure watts with a meter. Do not use the nameplate maximum, which is the ceiling, not the idle draw. Multiply by hours. Divide by 1,000 to get kWh. Multiply by the supply-plus-delivery energy rate from your bill if you want the full cost, or by the supply rate alone if you are only judging a supplier. Label the example as yours.
A device at 5 idle watts all year is about 44 kWh. Ten such devices are about 440 kWh. EIA’s 2024 average residential use was 865 kWh a month, so 440 kWh is roughly half of one average month, not half of the year. That scale check stops the exaggerated claims.
What to do with the number
If the dollars are small, stop and work on HVAC or the water heater. If the dollars are large, use a strip or replace the device. Do not buy a whole-home energy monitor solely to find a five-watt load.
The companion page lists the usual devices. Keep the measurement on this page so the two articles are not copies.
Questions people ask
Should I include delivery charges in the cost?
Yes, if you want the effect on the total bill. Standby kWh incur delivery as well as supply.
Does standby power affect demand charges?
On a residential bill, almost never. On a commercial demand tariff, a small idle load rarely sets the peak. The peak is the big equipment.
Is the 8,760-hour assumption fair?
Only for loads that truly stay energized. A printer that sleeps at a lower wattage needs the sleeping measurement, not the printing wattage.
Use the bill, not a stale screenshot
The cost of standby power comes down to documents you can keep: the utility name on the bill, the supply price or default price, the kWh or demand that drove the charges, and the term and fees in any contract. National average prices from the Energy Information Administration are context. For 2024, EIA put average residential use at 865 kWh a month and the average residential price at 16.5 cents per kWh. For June 2026, EIA reported 18.34 cents per kWh of residential revenue. Those figures mix supply and delivery for the whole country. They are not a price to compare, and they are not an offer in this territory.
If a salesperson’s number and the bill disagree, keep the bill. Shop Energy Prices does not rank suppliers and does not publish a live rate table. Re-check the official shopping site or the utility tariff on the day you enroll, because offers and default prices change.
Going further on The cost of standby power
The cost of standby power is a contract or bill-literacy question. The document that controls is the one you can download for your account, not a summary on a comparison site.
Supply is the part a choice customer can shop. Delivery is the utility’s wires, metering, and outage response. Fees, credits, and the end-of-term rule decide whether a low cents figure is actually low at your usage.
A fixed price holds the contracted supply rate for the term. A variable price follows the supplier’s posted rule. An early termination fee is the cost of leaving a fixed term early. Rescission is a short window at the start, where state rules give you one. They are not the same right.
Switches take effect on a meter read, not the hour you click. Until the utility confirms the date, the old arrangement remains. Keep paying undisputed delivery charges. Two supply charges for the same dates are a billing dispute with the utility.
An illustration, not an offer: 820 kilowatt-hours times a 1 cent gap is 8 dollars before any monthly fee. If the fee is larger, the gap is not a reason to switch.
When the term ends, many contracts roll to a price you did not re-shop. Put a reminder 30 to 60 days ahead. Default service is a legitimate choice if the new offers are worse.
What to verify before you act
Write down the utility name, the account name, the supply price or default price, and a typical month of use. The cost of standby power does not change those four facts. If a contractor, a supplier, or a city page disagrees with the bill, the bill wins. Shop Energy Prices does not sell electricity and does not keep a live rate table.
Use one official source for the benchmark: the price to compare or default service on the bill, the state shopping site if your state publishes one, or the commission docket that sets the default. EIA’s national averages are context for scale. They are the wrong number to beat.
Keep the contract PDF. Circle the term, the fee to leave, the renewal rule, and any pass-through that is not fixed. A verbal match to a competitor is not the product. If you are inside a cancellation window, follow the written notice method the same day and keep a copy.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions The cost of standby power and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions The cost of standby power and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions The cost of standby power and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.
A worksheet for The cost of standby power
Write the utility, the rate class, the current supply or default price, the end date, and a recent month of kilowatt-hours. Beside them write the alternative and every fee. The cost of standby power is finished only when those two columns can be subtracted. If you cannot name the fee to leave, you do not yet have a decision.
Ask, in writing, which bill lines change and which stay. Delivery, franchise fees, and gross-receipts taxes usually stay. Supply, a voluntary green attribute, or an equipment runtime can change. A seller who will not point at the line is not ready for your signature.
Set one reminder for 60 days before the contract ends and one for the day a commission usually resets default service, if you know that month. The cost of standby power does not require weekly shopping. It requires one careful comparison at the moment the price can actually change.