Home › Laptop › North Carolina
Cost to run a laptop in North Carolina (July 2026 rates)
At 15.16¢ per kilowatt-hour — North Carolina's average residential price in July 2026 — running a laptop costs $18.19 a year. That is 17% less than the national average of $21.97. North Carolina's residential rate is up 13.4% from July 2025, which moves this appliance from $16.04 to $18.19 a year.
- Per hour
- 0.9¢
- Per day of use
- 7.3¢
- Per month
- $1.52
- Per year
- $18.19
Assumption: 60 W, 8 hours a day, 250 days a year — 120 kWh a year. Charging and working. Once the battery is full, draw drops toward 20 to 30 W for light work. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.
How North Carolina compares
North Carolina pays 15.16¢/kWh, the 16th cheapest residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to $3.78 less a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same laptop costs $15.26 a year in Louisiana and $57.60 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $42.34 a year.
| State | Rate | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montana | 14.99¢ | $1.50 | $17.99 |
| Florida | 15.03¢ | $1.50 | $18.04 |
| North Carolina | 15.16¢ | $1.52 | $18.19 |
| Kansas | 15.27¢ | $1.53 | $18.32 |
| South Dakota | 15.37¢ | $1.54 | $18.44 |
States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for a laptop.
What else costs about the same in North Carolina
Cutting the number down
- A laptop typically uses a fifth to a tenth of what a comparable desktop does for ordinary work.
- The charger left plugged in with no laptop attached draws almost nothing on modern units.
Questions
- How much does a laptop cost per month in North Carolina?
- About $1.52 a month, assuming 60 W, 8 hours a day, 250 days a year at 15.16¢/kWh.
- How many kilowatt-hours does a laptop use?
- Roughly 120 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.06 kWh for every hour it runs.
- Is that expensive compared with other states?
- North Carolina has the 16th cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $21.97 a year.