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

About 15.9¢ a month, assuming 25 W, 6 hours a day, 45 days a year at 28.29¢/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?

Rhode Island has the 7th most expensive average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs more here than the U.S. average of $1.24 a year.

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

At 28.29¢ per kilowatt-hour — Rhode Island's average residential price in July 2026 — running a string of Christmas lights costs $1.91 a year. That is 55% more than the national average of $1.24. Rhode Island's residential rate is up 8.1% from July 2025, which moves this appliance from $1.77 to $1.91 a year.

Per hour: 0.7¢
Per day of use: 4.2¢
Per month: 15.9¢
Per year: $1.91

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 Rhode Island compares

Rhode Island pays 28.29¢/kWh, the 7th most expensive residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to 67.4¢ more 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.

State	Rate	Per month	Per year
District of Columbia	25.21¢	14.2¢	$1.70
New Hampshire	26.60¢	15.0¢	$1.80
Rhode Island	28.29¢	15.9¢	$1.91
Alaska	28.83¢	16.2¢	$1.95
New York	29.90¢	16.8¢	$2.02

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 Rhode Island

Led bulb$4.65 a year in RI Clothes iron$4.67 a year in RI Smart speaker$7.43 a year in RI

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 Rhode Island?: About 15.9¢ a month, assuming 25 W, 6 hours a day, 45 days a year at 28.29¢/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?: Rhode Island has the 7th most expensive average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs more here than the U.S. average of $1.24 a year.