U.S. residential electricity EIA data: July 2026 US average 18.3¢/kWh Updated
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Home Office · Louisiana

How Much Does It Cost to Run a Desktop Computer in Louisiana?

The short answer

A typical 150W desktop computer costs about $0.02 per hour to run in Louisiana, or $4.64 a month at 8 hours a day.

The estimate uses Louisiana’s average residential electricity price of 12.7¢/kWh from EIA (July 2026) — 31% below the national average.

Source: U.S. EIA, July 2026 data · Updated

Desktop Computer cost by daily use in Louisiana

Cost at 12.7¢/kWh, the Louisiana average (EIA, Jul 2026)
Daily usekWh/monthPer dayPer monthPer year
1 hour/day 4.6 $0.02 $0.58 $6.96
2 hours/day 9.1 $0.04 $1.16 $13.93
4 hours/day 18.3 $0.08 $2.32 $27.86
8 hours/day 36.5 $0.15 $4.64 $55.71
12 hours/day 54.8 $0.23 $6.96 $83.57
24 hours/day 109.5 $0.46 $13.93 $167

Louisiana vs other states

Louisiana has the cheapest electricity in the country — the same desktop computer would cost $155 more a year in Hawaii.

Louisiana has the cheapest residential electricity of the 50 states and DC. Louisiana price per kWh · all states ranked

Electricity price trend in Louisiana

12.7¢/kWh in July 2026 — ▼ −3.0% from a year earlier.

How to lower the cost of running a desktop computer

Everyday desktop use — browsing, documents, video calls — is light work for a modern PC, so most office desktops plus a monitor draw around 100–200W. Workstations rendering video or running heavy software use more. Sleep mode drops consumption to just a few watts, so letting the computer sleep when you step away makes a real difference over a year.

  • Set the computer to sleep after 15–30 minutes and the display after 5–10 minutes.
  • Turn off the whole setup with a power strip at the end of the day.
  • Lower monitor brightness — it often accounts for a big share of the total.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to run a desktop computer for 24 hours in Louisiana?

Running a 150W desktop computer for 24 hours uses about 3.60 kWh, which costs about $0.46 at Louisiana’s average rate of 12.7¢/kWh.

How many kWh does a desktop computer use per month?

At 8 hours a day, a typical desktop computer uses about 36.5 kWh a month. In Louisiana that costs $4.64.

Is it expensive to run a desktop computer in Louisiana?

Louisiana has the cheapest residential electricity of the 50 states and DC at 12.7¢/kWh — one of the cheapest. Running a desktop computer here costs about $55.71 a year at typical use, compared with $80.20 at the national average rate.

What is the electricity rate in Louisiana right now?

The average residential electricity rate in Louisiana was 12.7¢ per kWh in July 2026, according to the latest EIA data — down 3.0% from a year earlier.

Desktop Computer costs in nearby states

Cheapest and priciest states

Comparisons

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