jQuery .height will return you the height of the element. It doesn’t need CSS definition as it determines the computed height.
DEMO
You can use .height(), .innerHeight() or outerHeight() based on what you need.

.height() – returns the height of element excludes padding, border and margin.
.innerHeight() – returns the height of element includes padding but excludes border and margin.
.outerHeight() – returns the height of the div including border but excludes margin.
.outerHeight(true) – returns the height of the div including margin.
Check below code snippet for live demo. 🙂
$(function() {
var $heightTest = $('#heightTest');
$heightTest.html('Div style set as "height: 180px; padding: 10px; margin: 10px; border: 2px solid blue;"')
.append('<p>Height (.height() returns) : ' + $heightTest.height() + ' [Just Height]</p>')
.append('<p>Inner Height (.innerHeight() returns): ' + $heightTest.innerHeight() + ' [Height + Padding (without border)]</p>')
.append('<p>Outer Height (.outerHeight() returns): ' + $heightTest.outerHeight() + ' [Height + Padding + Border]</p>')
.append('<p>Outer Height (.outerHeight(true) returns): ' + $heightTest.outerHeight(true) + ' [Height + Padding + Border + Margin]</p>')
});
div { font-size: 0.9em; }
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="heightTest" style="height: 150px; padding: 10px; margin: 10px; border: 2px solid blue; overflow: hidden; ">
</div>