How Much Does It Cost to Run a Garage Door Opener in British Columbia? (2026)
A garage door opener runs for about 15 seconds per cycle, so the motor uses almost nothing. Its standby draw of 3 to 8 watts, waiting for the remote, is the real cost.
A typical garage door opener (500 W) costs C$0.063 per hour, or about C$0.038 per month at 0.02 hours a day in British Columbia. Cheap to run
| Wattage | Per hour | Per day | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low 300 W | C$0.038 | C$0.001 | C$0.023 | C$0.28 |
| Typical 500 W | C$0.063 | C$0.001 | C$0.038 | C$0.46 |
| High 800 W | C$0.10 | C$0.002 | C$0.060 | C$0.74 |
Formula: watts ÷ 1000 × hours × price per kWh. Typical use is 0.02 h/day ≈ 4 kWh per year.
One hour of a garage door opener (0.50 kWh) is the same electricity as
- 2.8km in an electric car
- 5.0hours of TV
- 11hours of a laptop
- 56hours of an LED bulb
In British Columbia, with electricity at 12.6¢ per kWh (source: Hydro-Québec 2025 comparison, 2025-04), a typical garage door opener costs C$0.063 per hour and about C$0.46 per year at 0.02 hours a day. That is about 10% less than the national average for Canada (C$0.042 per month), because electricity in British Columbia costs 12.6¢ per kWh against 14.0¢ nationally. Each C$1.00 of electricity buys roughly 15.9 hours of use.
How to lower the cost of running a garage door opener
- Choose an opener with a low standby rating when replacing.
- Replace the incandescent bulbs in the opener with LED.
- Nothing else. The motor cost is negligible.
In standby it draws about 5 W, which adds roughly 44 kWh (C$5.52) per year if it is never unplugged.
Frequently asked questions
How much electricity does a garage door opener use?
Around 30 to 70 kWh a year, nearly all of it standby.
Does a garage door opener use power when idle?
Yes, 3 to 8 watts continuously.
How much does one open and close cost?
A fraction of a cent. Fifteen seconds at 500 watts is 0.002 kWh.
Cost by region
US states
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Canadian provinces
Related appliances
Use the generic electricity cost calculator · Which uses more? Take the quiz