Working From Home in Texas: Which Electricity Plan Fits a House That Is Never Empty

Working from home changes when your Texas household uses electricity. Instead of using most of your power before and after work, you are also running air conditioning, computers, lights, and appliances throughout the weekday. That added daytime usage can make some electricity plans a poor fit, especially plans designed around free nights or other pricing that assumes your home is empty during the day.

The total increase may be modest — about 5%, or roughly $105 per year before any added air conditioning, based on Power Wizard’s analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration data — but it still matters when it comes to choosing an electricity plan structure. This guide explains how remote work affects your electricity use and what to look for in a plan for a home with a remote worker.

Working from home adds an estimated 5% to a Texas household’s electricity bill, or about $105 per year. Power Wizard calculated this estimate using U.S. Energy Information Administration residential electricity price and consumption data. It reflects the added electricity a typical household uses when someone is home during the workday instead of away at an office. The estimate covers devices, lighting, and appliances only. It does not include added heating or cooling, which is typically the largest source of extra usage, so households that cool the home during the workday should expect a larger increase.

Texas’ average residential electricity price of 15.94 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) is less than the national average of 18.34 cents per kWh. The state’s higher bills are largely tied to how much electricity homes use: Texas households average 1,096 kWh per month, with air conditioning accounting for a major share during long, hot summers. Extra daytime cooling and other at-home electricity use add to an already substantial monthly total. For the full state-by-state analysis, see how much working from home adds to an electricity bill.

The annual increase is useful context, but it should not be the only number you consider. A plan with pricing that does not fit your weekday schedule can have a larger effect on your bill than the additional electricity you use while working at home.

Your laptop is not what drives up a work-from-home electric bill. A laptop and external monitor used for a full 40-hour workweek consume about 25 kWh per month. At typical Texas electricity rates, that adds only a few dollars to your bill.

The thermostat is the bigger expense. When a home is empty during the day, many households let the temperature rise and cool the house again before they return. Working from home changes that routine. Air conditioning now has to keep your home comfortable through the hottest hours of the day, when it has to work the hardest.

That added cooling load is especially noticeable during a Texas summer. Larger homes, older HVAC systems, and poorly insulated rooms can require even more electricity to maintain a comfortable temperature. Working in a room that would normally go unused can also mean cooling more of the home throughout the day.

Other habits contribute, too. Cooking lunch at home, running the dishwasher or laundry during the day, and using office equipment all add to electricity use. But for most remote workers, those items are a small part of the difference. The biggest change is simply keeping an occupied home cool when it would otherwise be empty.

If you want to see the math for your own setup, multiply the device’s wattage by the hours you run it, divide by 1,000 to get kWh, and multiply by the electricity rate on your bill. Our kWh calculator does it for you.

Texas electricity plans do not all charge for power in the same way. Some plans offer free or discounted electricity during specific hours, then make up for that discount with higher rates at other times. That trade can work well when most of a household’s electricity use falls inside the discounted window. For a household with someone working from home all day, it often does not.

A free-nights plan, for example, typically discounts electricity overnight and charges a higher rate during the day. That can be a good match for a household that is empty from morning to evening, especially if it charges an electric vehicle or runs major appliances at night. But a remote worker uses more electricity during the hours that the plan is likely to charge the most. Air conditioning, computer equipment, lights, and daytime appliance use all happen outside the free window.

There are a few things to keep in mind:

• Fixed-rate plans don’t mean your bill stays the same each month. Your rate stays more stable, but your bill can still fluctuate based on your usage, taxes, and other built-in fees.
• Free usage hours aren’t always completely free. Some time-of-use plans still charge delivery fees and taxes during free electricity windows.
• Pay attention to bill credit thresholds. Every bill credit plan sets its own kWh threshold for when a bill credit applies. If you use too little electricity in a month, you will not receive the credit.

The Electricity Facts Label (EFL) is where the plan’s real pricing structure becomes clear. It shows the energy charge, delivery charges, recurring fees, bill credits, and the usage levels used to estimate monthly costs. Compare those estimates with your average monthly kWh use, then consider when that use occurs.

• • Review your electricity use. Check the last 12 months of bills or sign in to your provider’s online account. Note your monthly kWh use and, if it is available, when you use the most electricity during the day.
  • Find your plan’s Electricity Facts Label. Your EFL is the standardized disclosure for your plan. It lists the energy rate, contract term, time-of-use periods, bill-credit thresholds, recurring charges, early termination fee (ETF), and additional details.
  • Compare the plan’s pricing to your workday. If your plan includes free or discounted hours, check when those hours begin and end. A free-nights plan may not fit if most of your added electricity use happens while you are working during the day.
  • Check your contract end date. Knowing when your term ends helps you decide when to shop. You can switch providers without an ETF when your contract ends. An ETF may apply if you switch earlier, unless you’re moving (with proof of forwarding address) or are within the final 14 days of your contract.
  • Compare plans available to your home. Enter your ZIP code into Power Wizard to compare plans in your area and review estimated costs based on your typical electricity use.

Working from home changed when your household uses electricity, so it’s worth checking whether your plan kept up. Enter your Texas ZIP code into Power Wizard’s plan comparison tool to view the rates, plans, and providers available in your area, and find an option that works for your home.

The 5 percent and $105 per year estimates on this page apply the per-device usage estimates from Power Wizard’s analysis of remote work energy costs, which used U.S. Energy Information Administration state-level data on residential electricity sales and average retail price per kilowatt-hour to estimate the additional electricity a household uses when someone is home during the workday instead of at an office. That analysis models the increase across five categories of added at-home use: a laptop and external monitor (24.64 kWh per month), entertainment devices (12.32 kWh), ceiling fans (8.8 kWh), midday kitchen appliance use (5.5 kWh), and desk and room lighting (3.52 kWh). Together these total 54.78 kWh per month, which is 5.0 percent of the 1,096 kWh Texas average cited below. At the current Texas average price of 15.94 cents per kWh, that is about $8.73 a month, or roughly $105 a year. The original analysis used earlier EIA figures (1,146 kWh per month and 15.32 cents per kWh), which produced its 4.7 percent and $100 figures; this page recalculates the same usage estimates with current data. The estimate does not include added heating or cooling, which is typically the largest source of extra usage for a household occupied during the workday. The per-device figures in this article are those estimates rounded to the nearest kilowatt-hour. Texas price and consumption figures are cited from current EIA data below.

Sources:

• Power Wizard, “How Much Does Working from Home Raise Your Energy Bill?” Last updated August 8, 2025. Source of the 6.8 percent national increase and the per-device monthly kWh estimates. https://www.powerwizard.com/blog/the-extra-cost-of-remote-work/
• U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State. June 2026 data, released August 26, 2026. Source of the 15.94 cents Texas and 18.34 cents national average residential price figures. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a
• U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Sales, Revenue, and Average Price, Table 5.A, Average Monthly Bill, Residential. 2024 data, released October 7, 2025. Source of the 1,096 kWh average monthly consumption figure for Texas households. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/sales_revenue_price/pdf/table_5A.pdf