Your Electricity Costs per Square Foot

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Whether it's for monthly budgeting, or if you are planning an upcoming renovation or to purchase a new house, knowing how much your electricity costs per square foot can help you estimate your monthly energy bills.

Did you know? The average electricity costs for a single-detatched house in Alberta is about $1710 per year, or about $142.50 per month

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How to Calculate Your Electricity Costs Per Square Foot

You have two options for calculating your average annual energy costs:

  • You can calculcate your annual power costs/square foot yourself, or
  • You can use our guide (see below)

Manually Calculating Your Electricity Costs Per Square Foot

If you have lived in your home for at least one year, you can easily calculate the annual electricity cost/ft2 on your own. To do so, simply:

  1. Add up the costs of your monthly power bills over the course of one year
  2. Divide the total by the square footage of your home (not including unheated/unlit areas)

As electricity prices tend to change over time, we also recommend that you calculate the average kWh consumption per square foot as well. Calculating your own electricity consumption may take a bit of time, but doing so will give you the most accurate estimation of how much power your home uses. To calculate your home's power consumption per square foot, you will need to:

  1. Identify your monthly kWh consumption on your bills
  2. Add up your monthly power consumption
  3. Divide the total by your home's square footage

Use Our Guide

Manually calculating your own power consumption and costs per square foot will provide you with the most accurate estimations for how much power your home consumes and its costs. However, if you don't have the time, or if you don't yet have a year's worth of power bills with which you can make the calculations, you might find our guide helpful. 

Using data from Statistics Canada, the Canadian Home Builders Association and the Alberta Utilities Commission, we've crunched the numbers to help you have a better idea of how much electricity costs to run your home.

We have calculated the cost of electricity based on 2013 prices, taking into account average Alberta costs of electricity supply, distribution, transmission, local access fees, taxes, riders, etc. Keep in mind that electricity costs vary depending on several factors, including:

To estimate your annual electricity costs, simply multiply the square footage of your home by the average annual electricity cost per square foot (or square metre) corresponding to the size category. You can also check out our estimations for the average apartment, condo, or house in Alberta.

Did You Know?
The average Alberta residence uses about 7200 kWh electricity per year

Electricity Costs in Square Feet

Most houses are bought and sold in square feet. Assuming that the average house in Alberta is about 1800 square feet, we estimate average electricity costs for a single-detatched house to be about $1710 per year, or about $142.50 per month.

Cost of Electricity Per ft2
House Size Average Annual Electricity Consumption/ft2 Annual Average Cost/ft2 (at 20.5ยข/kWh - 2013 average total cost)
600 ft2 or less 5.16 kWh/ft2 $ 1.06/ft2
601 to 1,000 ft2 5.07 kWh/ft2 $1.04/ft2
1,001 to 1,500 ft2 5.35 kWh/ft2 $1.10/ft2
1,501 to 2,000 ft2 4.61 kWh/ft2 $0.95/ft2
2,001 to 2,500 ft2 2.88 kWh/ft2 $0.59/ft2
2,501 ft2 or more 3.50 kWh/ft2 $0.72/ft2
Average Alberta House Size: 1800 ft2 4.61 kWh/ft2 $0.95/ft2

Breakdown of Typical Albertan Household Electricity Use

 

Source: ATCO Energy Sense