TCL H12W4KW-CA Running Cost (Room Air Conditioner)
What the TCL H12W4KW-CA costs to run
The TCL H12W4KW-CA is certified by ENERGY STAR at 600 kWh a year, about average for its category to run among room air conditioners currently certified.
That $113 is priced at 18.8¢/kWh, the average of all 51 state rates this site tracks. Your own state's rate is one click away.
Efficient, or not, for a room air conditioner
Against the category average of 603 kWh/yr, this model uses 0.5% less, ranking 314 of 447 room air conditioners tracked here for running cost. That average is drawn from all 447 room air conditioners ENERGY STAR currently certifies, not an outside number, a $1/year gap from this model at the national rate. Full sourcing is in the sourcing notes.
Right next to it on the list
A rank or two either side of the TCL H12W4KW-CA: TCL H12W4KW ($113/yr, 600 kWh/yr), then TCL H12W4MW ($113/yr, 600 kWh/yr).
Same brand, different models
Ranked 44 of TCL's 59 certified room air conditioners, this sits between the T05WV9M ($51/yr, the brand's cheapest) and the T24WQ2S ($266/yr, its priciest).
TCL H12W4KW-CA over 10 years
NAHB's Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components puts a typical room air conditioner's service life at 10 years; run the TCL H12W4KW-CA that long and it costs about $1,128 in electricity, on top of whatever it cost to buy.
Shopping for a new one
Efficient as certified room air conditioners go, $113/year is a reasonable baseline if you're comparing what else is on the market.
Worth comparing a few current certified models before deciding.
If you're keeping it
The TCL H12W4KW-CA already costs $113/year to run; a repair bill on top of that is the kind of expense a protection plan exists to smooth out.
Where this number comes from
At rank 314 of 447 for running cost, see the room air conditioner category page for the rest of the field, or the guide to how much your state matters. The 600 kWh/yr figure is ENERGY STAR's own certification, not a wattage estimate; exact dataset IDs are on the data sources page.