How much does an LED bulb cost per month in South Carolina?

About 21.3¢ a month, assuming 9 W, 5 hours a day, 365 days a year at 15.55¢/kWh.

How many kilowatt-hours does an LED bulb use?

Roughly 16 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.01 kWh for every hour it runs.

Is that expensive compared with other states?

South Carolina has the 21st cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $3.01 a year.

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Cost to run an LED bulb in South Carolina (June 2026 rates)

At 15.55¢ per kilowatt-hour — South Carolina's average residential price in June 2026 — running an LED bulb costs $2.55 a year. That is 15% less than the national average of $3.01. South Carolina's residential rate is up 5.1% from June 2025, which moves this appliance from $2.43 to $2.55 a year.

Per hour: 0.1¢
Per day of use: 0.7¢
Per month: 21.3¢
Per year: $2.55

Assumption: 9 W, 5 hours a day, 365 days a year — 16 kWh a year. A 9 W LED producing about 800 lumens, the equivalent of an old 60 W incandescent. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.

How South Carolina compares

South Carolina pays 15.55¢/kWh, the 21st cheapest residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to 45.8¢ less a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same LED bulb costs $2.15 a year in Nevada and $8.66 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $6.51 a year.

State	Rate	Per month	Per year
South Dakota	15.36¢	21.0¢	$2.52
West Virginia	15.45¢	21.1¢	$2.54
South Carolina	15.55¢	21.3¢	$2.55
Kansas	15.71¢	21.5¢	$2.58
Iowa	15.93¢	21.8¢	$2.62

States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for an LED bulb.

What else costs about the same in South Carolina

Clothes iron$2.57 a year in SC String of christmas lights$1.05 a year in SC Smart speaker$4.09 a year in SC

Cutting the number down

Per bulb the cost is trivial; a house has 40 of them, and that is the number that matters.
Dimming an LED does cut power draw, though not perfectly in proportion to the light output.

Questions

How much does an LED bulb cost per month in South Carolina?: About 21.3¢ a month, assuming 9 W, 5 hours a day, 365 days a year at 15.55¢/kWh.
How many kilowatt-hours does an LED bulb use?: Roughly 16 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.01 kWh for every hour it runs.
Is that expensive compared with other states?: South Carolina has the 21st cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $3.01 a year.