How Many Homes Could a Data Center Power?

A data center rated at 100 megawatts (MW) and running at full capacity uses about 876,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity a year. That is roughly 66,606 average homes in Texas, or 84,589 average homes in the United States (US). The answer to how many homes a data center can power depends on three inputs: the facility's megawatts, the share of that capacity in use, and the state you compare against.

At Ban the Bots, we list capacity figures for AI data centers on our data center map, and the calculator on this page turns those megawatts into a count of homes. Capacity figures come from public utility filings, state permit records and news reports, and they are estimates.

How Many Homes a Data Center Equals

The conversion takes two steps. First, turn megawatts into a yearly amount of energy, measured in megawatt-hours. Then divide that amount by the yearly electricity use of one average home. A megawatt measures a rate of power. A megawatt-hour measures an amount of energy: one megawatt running for one hour.

The Formula, in Words

Multiply the megawatts by the 8,760 hours in a year (365 × 24), then by the share of capacity in use. The result is the facility's yearly electricity use in megawatt-hours. Convert that to kilowatt-hours (kWh) by multiplying by 1,000, since 1 MWh equals 1,000 kWh. Next, multiply one average home's monthly use in kilowatt-hours by 12 to get its yearly use. Divide the facility's yearly kilowatt-hours by that home's yearly kilowatt-hours. The result is the number of homes.

The 100 MW Worked Example

• 100 MW × 8,760 hours × 100% = 876,000 MWh a year, which is 876,000,000 kWh.
• Average Texas home: 1,096 kWh a month × 12 = 13,152 kWh a year.
• 876,000,000 kWh ÷ 13,152 kWh = about 66,606 homes.
• Average US home: 863 kWh a month × 12 = 10,356 kWh a year.
• 876,000,000 kWh ÷ 10,356 kWh = about 84,589 homes.

At 50% of capacity, the same facility uses 438,000 MWh a year, which is about 33,303 average Texas homes. The count halves because the share in use halves. The source reports averages per residential customer, so read the home count as a rough equivalent, not as a count of buildings.

How to Use the Calculator

The calculator has four inputs and two results. Work through the inputs in this order.

1. Pick a facility from "Start from a tracked facility (optional)" if you want to start from one. The list shows US facilities on the Ban the Bots map that have a published capacity. Picking one fills in its megawatts and its state.
2. Or type a number into "Capacity (megawatts)". The default is 100.
3. Choose a place in "Compare with homes in". The list holds the US average, every state, and the District of Columbia, and each entry shows its average monthly use.
4. Set "Share of capacity in use (%)". The default is 100%, which gives the upper bound.
5. Read the two results. The first is the electricity used in megawatt-hours a year. The second is the number of average homes in the chosen place that use the same amount. The page also gives one plain sentence and shows the arithmetic line by line.
6. Use "Copy result" to copy the numbers, "Copy share link" to get a link that reopens the same inputs, or "Print" to print the page. The calculator runs in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Data centers do not publish their real average draw facility by facility, so start at 100% for the upper bound. Try a lower share to see a range, and say that the lower figure is your assumption rather than a published one.

Why the State Changes the Answer

The number of homes depends on the state you compare against, because average household use differs by state. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that the average US residential customer used 863 kWh a month in 2024, across 143,144,185 residential customers. State averages run from 495 kWh a month in Hawaii, the lowest, to 1,202 kWh a month in Louisiana, the highest.

• Louisiana: 1,202 kWh a month (the highest of any state)
• Texas: 1,096 kWh a month
• Arizona: 1,075 kWh a month
• Georgia: 1,074 kWh a month
• Virginia: 1,032 kWh a month
• Indiana: 901 kWh a month
• Ohio: 846 kWh a month
• California: 503 kWh a month
• Hawaii: 495 kWh a month (the lowest)

Because the range runs from 495 to 1,202 kWh a month, the same data center equals more than twice as many homes in Hawaii as in Louisiana. The arithmetic is 876,000,000 kWh ÷ 5,940 kWh a year for Hawaii, and 876,000,000 kWh ÷ 14,424 kWh a year for Louisiana.

The full state list is in the EIA table of 2024 average monthly residential electricity consumption by state. It is Table 5A of the EIA publication "2024 Average Monthly Bill - Residential," which uses data from Forms EIA-861, EIA-861S and EIA-861U.

When the Number Is Wrong for Your Situation

The result is built from the stated capacity, the share in use, and average household use. It does not describe what a facility draws on a given day. Four limits apply.

• Capacity is a maximum. The megawatts on the map describe the most a facility can draw. They do not describe what it draws on average.
• Real draw is not published. Data centers do not publish their real average draw facility by facility, so this page does not know any facility's share in use. A lower share gives a lower number, and the page does not suggest a typical percentage.
• Announced megawatts may mean different things. Some announcements describe the facility's total power and others describe its computing load. An announcement does not always say which.
• The result covers electricity use only. It says nothing about bills, electric rates, or strain on the grid. For the grid, read our AI grid impact page. For bills, read our explainer on whether data centers raise electric bills.

Using the Number at a Public Meeting

If you bring this number to a meeting, say what it measures and what it leaves out. Digital Realty's planned "Project Bunkhouse" campus in Georgia is listed at 1,830 MW. At full capacity, the campus would use 16,030,800 MWh a year, which equals about 1,243,855 average Georgia homes at 1,074 kWh a month.

That figure is an upper bound. It is not a forecast of what the campus will draw. The arithmetic is 1,830 MW × 8,760 hours = 16,030,800 MWh, and 16,030,800,000 kWh ÷ 12,888 kWh a year (1,074 × 12) = about 1,243,855 homes.

A phrasing that stays within the numbers is: "At full capacity, the planned campus could use up to about 1,243,855 average Georgia homes' worth of electricity, based on its listed 1,830 megawatts." Say that the megawatts are a capacity estimate, not measured use. Ask whether the announced figure is total facility power or computing load, because the announcement may not say. If someone argues the campus will run at half capacity, the same arithmetic gives about half the homes, and the page cannot say which share is right.

For written comments, see our data center comment letter page. To find facilities with published capacity, start from the data center map. Then pick one and run it at 100% to get the upper bound in homes.