Home Energy Lab

Interactive homes, US edition

Every watt has a story.

Explore 10 homes in 3D and see what every appliance, bill and room costs to run.

Step inside the house

Preparing the house

Interactive 3D homes with individually modelled rooms and appliances. Choose from 10 homes: Modern Townhouse (Three floors, open cutaway; Rooms, furniture & appliances), Private Family House (Detached family home with a yard; Everyday family life, room by room), Urban Apartment (Compact all-electric city flat; Bathroom, laundry & tankless water heater), Grand Estate Mansion (Palace-like luxury mansion; Gourmet kitchen, gym, garage & advanced energy systems), Cold Climate House (Winter home with gas heating; Gas furnace, water heater & basement), Solar Smart Home (All-electric home with rooftop solar; Heat pump, EV charger & smart plugs), New York Brick Mid-Rise (Classic brick mid-rise apartment; Split AC, electric water heater & in-unit laundry), American Manufactured Home (Compact, budget-friendly manufactured home; Heating, cooling, laundry & everyday appliances), Mid-Century Walk-Up Apartment (Modest low-rise rental building; Heating, cooling, lighting & shared laundry), Urban Rooftop Penthouse (Top-floor penthouse with a rooftop terrace; Cooling, lighting & outdoor living spaces).

Understand your home.
Understand your energy.

  1. 01

    Explore

    Step inside ten different homes, from a city apartment to a family house, and see where electricity is actually used.

  2. 02

    Understand

    Learn what everyday appliances draw, and what that means for a typical household bill.

  3. 03

    Compare

    Put devices side by side to see which choices make a real difference over a year.

Calculate what your home costs to run

Explore 12 free calculators for electricity, heating, cooling, water, appliances, and everyday household expenses. Enter your own numbers to get estimates based on your usage and utility rates.

All 12 calculators

From the blog

Guides that explain the numbers behind your bills.

All articles

How Home Energy Lab works

From everyday energy use to real-world utility costs.

Electricity is a good place to start. Most electrical appliances follow a simple calculation: how much power they use, how long they run, and what you pay for electricity.

  1. 01 — Power

    Watts

    How much electrical power a device uses while running. Find its wattage on the label, in the specifications, or with an energy-monitoring plug.

    1,500 W space heater

  2. 02 — Energy

    Kilowatt-hours

    Power multiplied by running time. Kilowatt-hours (kWh) measure electrical energy consumption and are commonly used to calculate electricity charges.

    1,500 W × 1 hour = 1.5 kWh

  3. 03 — Cost

    Dollars

    Multiply the energy consumed by your electricity rate to estimate the usage cost.

    1.5 kWh × $0.175/kWh ≈ $0.26

More than electricity

Not every household expense is measured in kilowatt-hours.

Home Energy Lab also helps estimate natural gas costs using therms or CCF, water and sewer charges using gallons or CCF, and heating expenses based on fuel prices and equipment efficiency.

Our calculators account for relevant factors such as thermostat cycling, appliance efficiency, fixed utility charges, and usage patterns.

Different utilities. Different formulas. One goal: clearer household costs.

Explore all 12 calculators See an example calculation