Work out your lawnmower power consumption in seconds: enter the wattage on your lawnmower's label, its hours of use per day and your electricity rate, then click Calculate. You get your daily, monthly and yearly cost and total kWh consumption straight away. Those same results also cover lawnmower electricity consumption.
Wondering what your mowing habit does to the power bill? Lawnmower electricity consumption comes down to two numbers, the watts your machine draws and the hours it runs, and a typical corded mower costs only a few dollars per season to run. Below you will find the formulas, real worked numbers for corded, cordless and robot models, and the factors that push usage up or down.
A lawn mower converts watts into cutting time, so a corded electric lawn mower uses about 1 kWh for a 45-minute cut of a mid-size lawn. The same energy usage varies by design, and the table shows how lawn mower electricity needs differ from one type to the next.
| Mower type | Typical draw | Energy per mowing session | Electricity per season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corded electric mower | 1,350 watts | 1.01 kWh | 28.35 kWh |
| Cordless battery-powered mower | 40-volt, 5.0 Ah pack | 0.28 kWh | 7.91 kWh |
| Robot mower | 62 watts | 0.28 kWh per day on the lawn | 41.85 kWh |
| Gas push mower | 0.35 gallons per hour | 0.26 gallons | 7.35 gallons of gasoline |
These figures use a 45-minute cut, 28 mowing sessions a season and a robot that works 4.5 hours a day, five days a week, for 30 weeks. Treat them as a starting point and swap in your own numbers using the formulas below.
The rating plate on a corded machine lists the watts or amps it pulls at full load. Most corded push models land between 1,000 and 1,800 watts, and a heavy patch of grass pushes a mower toward the top of that range because the motor works harder. A robot machine sips far less, because its small drive motors and cutting blade are built for frequent, light passes.
Your utility bills charge for kilowatt-hours, usually written as kWh, not watts. One kWh is 1,000 watts running for one hour. To convert, divide the draw by 1,000 and multiply by the hours of use:
$$\text{Energy (kWh)} = \frac{\text{Power (W)}}{1000} \times \text{Hours}$$
Then multiply by your local electricity price to get money:
$$\text{Cost} = \text{Energy (kWh)} \times \text{Price per kWh}$$
For a 1,350-watt corded mower running 0.75 hours, \(\frac{1350}{1000} \times 0.75 = 1.01\) kWh. At $0.172 per kWh that is about $0.17 for the whole lawn.
People ask how much electricity robot mowers really draw, since they seem to run constantly. The answer is surprisingly little. A robot mower drawing 62 watts for 4.5 hours a day over five days uses \(0.062 \times 4.5 \times 5 = 1.40\) kWh per week, which is only about $0.24 per week at $0.172 per kWh. Across a 30-week season that is 41.85 kWh, or roughly $7.20.
The reason is the work pattern: robotic lawn mowers cut in short, regular sessions, then return to the dock, so each session adds only a fraction of a kWh. Once the pack is full, the charging station drops into standby mode, drawing very little. Newer models add smart mapping and adaptive scheduling so they only run when the grass has actually grown, which trims power consumption further. Even on large lawns, robot mowers tend to stay under 2 kWh a week, and a basic model sits near the bottom of the energy consumption range. A wire-free setup needs no boundary wires, and the guide wire does not change the draw.
Corded electric mowers pull power straight from the wall while you cut. Cordless models store it first in a pack, then spend it as you mow, so the meter registers the charging session rather than the mowing itself. Both are cheap to run, and the right choice usually depends on yard size and convenience.
A 40-volt, 5.0 Ah pack holds 200 watt-hours. Because the charger loses some energy as heat (assume about 85 percent efficiency), one full charging session takes roughly 0.235 kWh from the wall. A 45-minute cut on a mid-size yard uses about 1.2 packs, which works out to 0.28 kWh per mow. Brands often sell a 24-volt pack for small to medium lawns and a 36-volt option for larger ones, and the bigger battery capacity takes longer for recharging, sometimes more than half a day.
Almost every current battery-powered mower relies on lithium-ion batteries, which store more energy per pound than older chemistries and charge faster. As a pack ages over its three-to-five-year lifespan, its usable capacity shrinks, so each mow needs more charge and a little more electricity from the wall. A newer pack also raises the upfront cost, but it keeps that charging energy low; most newer electric models stop drawing once the pack is full.
Once you know the kWh, electricity costs are simple to project. With a price of $0.172 per kWh, the corded mower from the example costs about $0.23 per hour of running time. If you mow once a week, that is roughly $0.17 per week, and over 28 mowing sessions the operating cost reaches $4.88 per year. The cordless mower comes in at about $0.05 per mowing session, which is $1.36 over the same season.
Your own number moves with local rates, so check the price printed on your latest bill. A lower rate of $0.12 per kWh trims that corded season total to about $3.40, while $0.30 raises it to about $8.51. Even at the high end, the energy costs remain a rounding error next to the price of the machine.
Compare the running bill with gas-powered mowers and the gap is large. A gas push mower burning 0.35 gallons an hour uses 0.26 gallons in a 45-minute cut. At $3.68 a gallon, that is roughly $0.97 of fuel per session and $27.05 of fuel costs across 28 sessions, versus $4.88 for the corded electric lawn mower and $1.36 for the cordless one. Since the gasoline cost per mow is about five to twenty times the electric cost, it is easy to see where the savings come from.
The energy efficiency difference is as striking. Fuels can be compared by their British thermal units, or Btus: electricity holds 3,413 Btus per kWh, while a gallon of gas holds around 114,000. An electric motor converts most of its input into motion, while a small gas engine wastes most of it as heat and exhaust, so electric mowers get far more cutting done from each unit of energy.
Your result will not match a table exactly, because several variables shift the draw. Understanding them helps you tune the efficiency of your routine. Related: how much electricity does a mainframe computer use.
Temperature matters too: batteries charge less efficiently in extreme heat or cold, so a garage that stays mild helps. Even so, none of these factors turn mowing into a big electricity expense.
Each kWh a mower draws is tied to how the grid makes it, but the machine itself produces no tailpipe emissions, so it avoids the carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and unburned hydrocarbons that a gas engine releases right where you stand. Electric models are also about 75 percent quieter, and the lower noise level is something neighbors appreciate. Because many models also use mulching, grass clippings return to the soil rather than being bagged. Also see how much electricity does a table fan use.
The picture is not perfect. The power source matters: only a share of grid electricity is renewable, and the rest comes largely from fossil fuels, so a nonrenewable mix softens the benefit. At end of life, a dead pack may end up in a landfill unless you recycle it. Still, for most homeowners, the environment comes out ahead, and the efficiency gain supports broader sustainability goals, making the machines environmentally friendly compared with gas.
Professional landscapers face a different energy load from a typical household. A homeowner might mow for 30 minutes a week, while commercial crews work many hours a day, and swapping packs repeatedly is less practical than refilling a gas tank. Large riding mowers and zero-turn machines draw far more kWh per charge than a push model and cost more than similar gas models, though electric versions are closing the gap. Typical run time on one charge covers around a quarter to a third of an acre, or roughly 10,000 to 14,500 square feet, depending on cutting speed and how tall the grass is.
A corded mower draws its full load through the outlet you plug into, so use one protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter and keep kids and pets clear of the cable. Cordless users should charge the pack indoors with the manufacturer's charger, so the energy figures above hold. Consumer Reports has repeatedly ranked electric models among its top performers on run time per charge. You can also check how much energy does a laser engraving machine use.