Average electric bill in Iowa
A typical Iowa household pays
$119a month · $1428 a year
That is 20% below the national average of $149, the 43rd highest bill of the 51 states we track. It covers 850 kilowatt hours a month at 14.14¢ each.
Nobody pays the average
Dearest — July 2025
$173
Cheapest — November 2025
$90
The dearest month costs $83 more than the cheapest — 92% higher and it is air conditioning that does it. Iowa runs about 1,000 cooling degree days a year, so the summer bill is where any efficiency gain shows up.
Why the bill is what it is
A bill is a rate multiplied by a quantity, and in Iowa the price per kilowatt hour is doing most of the work. Comparing your own bill to this figure only tells you something once you know which of the two you could actually change — the rate is largely fixed, the quantity is not.
Heating and cooling are usually the largest movable part. Whether that means a heat pump, a more efficient air conditioner, or neither depends on Iowa's prices rather than on general advice.
Figures are twelve-month averages across 1,483,723 residential accounts in Iowa, from the US Energy Information Administration. They describe the state, not your house — square footage, insulation and what you keep the thermostat at move an individual bill a long way. See the Iowa rate page for the underlying prices.