How much does an LED bulb cost per month in North Carolina?

About 20.2¢ a month, assuming 9 W, 5 hours a day, 365 days a year at 14.74¢/kWh.

How many kilowatt-hours does an LED bulb use?

Roughly 16 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.01 kWh for every hour it runs.

Is that expensive compared with other states?

North Carolina has the 11th cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $3.01 a year.

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Cost to run an LED bulb in North Carolina (June 2026 rates)

At 14.74¢ per kilowatt-hour — North Carolina's average residential price in June 2026 — running an LED bulb costs $2.42 a year. That is 20% less than the national average of $3.01. North Carolina's residential rate is up 10.2% from June 2025, which moves this appliance from $2.20 to $2.42 a year.

Per hour: 0.1¢
Per day of use: 0.7¢
Per month: 20.2¢
Per year: $2.42

Assumption: 9 W, 5 hours a day, 365 days a year — 16 kWh a year. A 9 W LED producing about 800 lumens, the equivalent of an old 60 W incandescent. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.

How North Carolina compares

North Carolina pays 14.74¢/kWh, the 11th cheapest residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to 59.1¢ less a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same LED bulb costs $2.15 a year in Nevada and $8.66 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $6.51 a year.

State	Rate	Per month	Per year
Oklahoma	14.33¢	19.6¢	$2.35
Idaho	14.37¢	19.7¢	$2.36
North Carolina	14.74¢	20.2¢	$2.42
Mississippi	14.88¢	20.4¢	$2.44
Washington	14.91¢	20.4¢	$2.45

States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for an LED bulb.

What else costs about the same in North Carolina

Clothes iron$2.43 a year in NC String of christmas lights99.5¢ a year in NC Smart speaker$3.87 a year in NC

Cutting the number down

Per bulb the cost is trivial; a house has 40 of them, and that is the number that matters.
Dimming an LED does cut power draw, though not perfectly in proportion to the light output.

Questions

How much does an LED bulb cost per month in North Carolina?: About 20.2¢ a month, assuming 9 W, 5 hours a day, 365 days a year at 14.74¢/kWh.
How many kilowatt-hours does an LED bulb use?: Roughly 16 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.01 kWh for every hour it runs.
Is that expensive compared with other states?: North Carolina has the 11th cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $3.01 a year.