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Cost to run a string of Christmas lights in Iowa (July 2026 rates)

At 15.99¢ per kilowatt-hour — Iowa's average residential price in July 2026 — running a string of Christmas lights costs $1.08 a year. That is 13% less than the national average of $1.24. Iowa's residential rate is up 4.4% from July 2025, which moves this appliance from $1.03 to $1.08 a year.

Assumption: 25 W, 6 hours a day, 45 days a year — 7 kWh a year. Per 100-count LED string. A 100-count incandescent string draws roughly 40 W, and older C9 bulbs far more. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.

How Iowa compares

Iowa pays 15.99¢/kWh, the 24th cheapest residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to 15.7¢ less a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same string of Christmas lights costs 85.9¢ a year in Louisiana and $3.24 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $2.38 a year.

States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for a string of Christmas lights.

What else costs about the same in Iowa

Cutting the number down

• A timer that runs the display six hours instead of twelve halves the season's cost with nobody noticing.
• Incandescent strings are where holiday bills come from; LED strings of the same length are a fraction of the draw.

Questions

How much does a string of Christmas lights cost per month in Iowa?

About 9.0¢ a month, assuming 25 W, 6 hours a day, 45 days a year at 15.99¢/kWh.

How many kilowatt-hours does a string of Christmas lights use?

Roughly 7 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.03 kWh for every hour it runs.

Is that expensive compared with other states?

Iowa has the 24th cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $1.24 a year.