A. O. Smith HPTU-66N 1 Running Cost (Electric Water Heater)
A. O. Smith HPTU-66N 1: running cost
At 1,381 kWh/yr, the A. O. Smith HPTU-66N 1's ENERGY STAR certification puts it more expensive than most models in its category to run against every other certified electric water heater.
The $260 figure above uses the simple average of all 51 published state rates. Pick your state for the real number.
A. O. Smith HPTU-66N 1 against the category
That's 25% above the electric water heater category average of 1,105 kWh/yr, and ranks 516 of 596 certified electric water heaters for annual running cost, 1 being cheapest. The category average comes from every electric water heater ENERGY STAR currently certifies (596 models), not an outside benchmark, about $52/year above that average at the national rate. See the methodology page.
What sits beside it in the ranking
American HPHE10266H045DVCTA-1 ($260/yr, 1,381 kWh/yr) costs a little more to run than the A. O. Smith HPTU-66N 1. A. O. Smith HPTU-66DR 1 ($260/yr, 1,381 kWh/yr) costs a little less.
Comparing A. O. Smith's own models
A. O. Smith makes 61 ENERGY STAR certified electric water heaters; this one ranks 48 of 61 for running cost, between the brand's cheapest, the HPS10-50H45DV 2 at $156/yr, and its priciest, the HPV10-80H01DV 2 at $311/yr.
What this adds up to over time
NAHB's Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components puts a typical electric water heater's service life at 11 years; run the A. O. Smith HPTU-66N 1 that long and it costs about $2,856 in electricity, on top of whatever it cost to buy.
Weighing a replacement
The A. O. Smith HPTU-66N 1 runs above its category average. If the electric water heater you actually own is older still, likely well past ENERGY STAR's efficiency baseline when it was made, a current certified model could cost meaningfully less than this model's $260/year every year.
Worth comparing a few current certified models before deciding.
Protecting what you have
The A. O. Smith HPTU-66N 1 already costs $260/year to run; a repair bill on top of that is the kind of expense a protection plan exists to smooth out.
Sourcing
At rank 516 of 596 for running cost, see the electric water heater category page for the rest of the field, or the guide to how much your state matters. The 1,381 kWh/yr figure is ENERGY STAR's own certification, not a wattage estimate; exact dataset IDs are on the data sources page.