What the TCL H8W4KW costs to run
ENERGY STAR certifies the TCL H8W4KW at 400 kWh/yr, one of the cheaper models in its category to run for its category.
That $75 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 33.7% less, ranking 110 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 $38/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 H8W4KW: ROVSUN TIWC-08CRD1 ($75/yr, 400 kWh/yr), then TCL H8W4KW-CA ($75/yr, 400 kWh/yr).
Same brand, different models
Ranked 22 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).
What this adds up to over time
10 years is NAHB's typical service life for this category; at $75/year, the TCL H8W4KW adds up to about $752 in electricity over that span.
Shopping for a new one
Efficient as certified room air conditioners go, $75/year is a reasonable baseline if you're comparing what else is on the market.
See what else is certified in this category before you decide.
If you're keeping it
The TCL H8W4KW already costs $75/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
The full Room Air Conditioner category page shows all 447 room air conditioners ranked by cost; the state-rate guide covers the half of this number that isn't the appliance. The 400 kWh/yr figure is ENERGY STAR's own certification, not a wattage estimate; exact dataset IDs are on the data sources page.