Your bill went up: divide dollars by kWh before you blame the heater

Put this month's electric bill beside the same month last year and divide each bill's dollars by its kWh. If the kWh barely moved and the cents per kWh went up, the price raised the bill: EIA's Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A puts the US residential average at 18.31 cents per kWh in July 2026, up from 17.45 in July 2025 (preliminary). If the kWh rose, check the weather before you blame the heater or the air conditioner. The check is free, and anyone who pays the electric bill, renter or owner, can do it.

Divide each bill's dollars by its kWh

Compare the same month a year apart, not this month with last month, so the season matches. Take two numbers from each bill: total kWh used and total dollars. Dollars divided by kWh, times 100, is the effective rate in cents per kWh. If the two billing periods cover a different number of days, divide each kWh total by its days before you compare use.

Then check your own bill for a fixed monthly customer charge, a line that stays the same however many kWh you use. A higher fixed charge is a price change, not usage. It also lifts the effective rate most in a month with few kWh.

Your state's average shows whether the price moved

EIA publishes each state's average residential price every month, and from July 2025 to July 2026 those averages moved both ways. These rows come from the same Table 5.6.A, preliminary values, with July 2026 the latest month EIA had published on 15 October 2026:

Scroll sideways to see the full table →

If your effective rate rose by about as much as your state's average, the price rise is statewide. A rise well above it points to your own plan: a new rate, a higher fixed charge or a time-based rate. DOE's 2022 Energy Saver guide says time-based programs might charge the actual cost of power at any one time, from high prices at peak demand to low prices off-peak, so on such a plan more use in peak hours raises the cents per kWh at the same kWh. In Louisiana, where the July average fell, look at the kWh first.

Weather comes first when kWh rose

EIA puts air conditioning at 19% and space heating at 12% of residential electricity use in 2020, and says those shares can change from year to year based on the weather. Degree days measure that weather. On EIA's degree-day page, a day whose mean temperature sits above 65°F counts the difference as cooling degree days, a measure of how much air conditioning a building needs; a day below 65°F counts heating degree days. The same page says some utilities publish degree days on their websites and some print them on customer bills, so check yours, and it points to Tables 1.11 (heating) and 1.12 (cooling) of the Monthly Energy Review, by census division.

Nationally, July 2026 brought 393 cooling degree days against 391 in July 2025, almost the same heat, according to EIA's Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.12. In the West South Central states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas), the same table shows a rise from 566 to 603. More kWh with more degree days points to weather. More kWh with the same or fewer degree days points to something in the house.

Example, with published figures and one assumption. The assumption is the household: a Texas home that used 899 kWh in July 2025, the monthly average per customer in EIA's 2022 figures, and 950 kWh in July 2026, billed at the state averages in Table 5.6.A. Last July: 899 × 15.36 cents = $138.09. This July: 950 × 15.88 cents = $150.86, a rise of $12.77. The price part is last July's kWh times the rate change: 899 × 0.52 cents = $4.67. The usage part is the extra 51 kWh at this July's rate: 51 × 15.88 cents = $8.10. Together, $4.67 + $8.10 = $12.77. The verdict is both, and with 37 more cooling degree days in the region in Table 1.12, the extra kWh points to a hotter July before it points to a device.

More kWh in the same weather means a device to find

If the kWh rose and the degree days did not, something in the house uses more. With a smart meter, DOE's 2022 guide says there is most likely a customer web portal showing hourly consumption on a nearly real-time basis. Compare a recent week with an older one. A rise that starts on one day points to whatever started running that day.

Price each suspect with its label watts and your effective rate, the method in pricing any appliance. A spare refrigerator plugged in since last year counts; unplugging the second fridge covers that decision. A rise that shows up every night, with the house asleep, points to devices that stay on.

When the verdict is price, kWh are the part you control, and each kWh you cut is worth more at this year's rate than at last year's. On a time-based plan, the same DOE guide says shifting use to off-peak times can save you money, if you are able to shift it.