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The Home Energy Cost Workbook

One state, worked out properly: every appliance costed at that state's own electricity rate, ten changes ranked by what they save there, and worksheets for auditing your house, tracking the meter and checking whether a replacement pays for itself. Nine pages, printable, no signup.

Take the California edition, free

Not a preview — the complete edition, all nine pages, costed at 34.74¢/kWh. If it is useful, the other 50 states are the same workbook at their own rates.

Download the California workbook (PDF)

What is inside

• Your state at a glance — the rate, last year's rate, the national average, where the state ranks, and the five largest loads with their share of the total.
• Every appliance, costed — all 50, per month and per year, with the usage assumption printed beside each figure so you can check it or change it.
• Ten changes, ranked for your state — each with the kilowatt-hours it avoids and what that is worth locally. The order genuinely differs: at 34¢ the big thermal loads dominate, at 12¢ the cheap habit changes climb the list.
• An audit worksheet — 22 ruled rows, room by room.
• A twelve-month meter log — because the meter is the only proof a change worked.
• A replacement payback worksheet with the arithmetic already set up.
• Sources and formulas, including what these numbers are not.

Why one state at a time

Because the advice changes. The cheapest and most expensive states differ by a factor of 4.0, so a change that repays itself quickly in one place is not worth doing in another. A national average hides exactly the thing you need to know.

Everything in it is computed from the same public data as the rest of this site — EIA's Electric Power Monthly for prices, and the usage assumptions published on every page. See the methodology.

The other 50 states

Every state has an edition, rebuilt each month when new rate data is published. They are not for sale yet — if you want one before then, ask and I will send it.

Questions

Is the free edition a sample or the whole thing?

The whole thing. All nine pages of the California edition, complete, at the current published rate.

How current are the figures?

They carry the edition month on the cover — currently June 2026. The workbooks are regenerated whenever EIA publishes new rate data.

Can I print it?

Yes. It is laid out for US Letter with the worksheets ruled for a pen, and there is no DRM.