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When purchasing a new appliance, read the information on the Energy Guide stickers. Black Hills Power offers rebates on high-efficiency heat pumps with a SEER rating of 13 or more. Black Hills Power also offers cash rebates for electric hot water heaters. Check out the available rebate programs.

How much am I paying to run this appliance*?
As you may have learned in our "What is a kWh?" section, when we measure electricity usage with an electric meter, we measure both the amount of electricity being used as well as the length of time it is used. For example, a 1500 watt hair dryer used on the high setting by two people for five minutes every day for a month would cost: 1500 watts / 1000 = 1.5 kilowatts

2 people x 5 min/day used = 10 min/day
10 min/day x 30 days/month = 300 minutes or 5 hours/month
1.5 kWh x 5 hours/month = 7.5 kWh/month
If a kWh costs 6 cents, your total operating cost for this appliance would be calculated as follows:

7.5 kWh/month x $.06 cents/kWh = $.45 cents/month*