Prompted by this thread, in which dolphinboy claims to use up to 3,250 kWh per month. I find this to be an astonishing amount! Perhaps he has a 10,000 sq-ft house lit with carbon filament bulbs. At any rate, it made me curious. How much does your household use in a month (averaged out over a year, in case that makes a difference)?
172 KWH last month which is 4.78 per day for which I paid USD$2.07 per day.
I’ve had smaller bills, I run a standing fan, a small fridge with freezer, a TV, a laptop and a few lights either energy savers or flourescent.
507 average over six months, December through May. Low is 371 for May and high is 642 in January.
My electric utility company, because of some state-mandated conservation program, sends an energy efficiency report to customers every three months.
It contains a graph showing electricity usage by month for the last year. The graph contains 3 lines. One line is the average monthly electricity usage for 100 neighbors who have a similar size home. One line is the average usage for the 20 lowest users out of those 100. And a third line is my usage.
The average for the 100 neighbors ranges from a high of about 900 kWH in July to a low of about 500 in October. The average for the 20 most efficient neighbors ranges from 500 in July to 250 in April.
My personal average was somewhere between the two others. But then I got a new refrigerator. And my usage plummeted to below the most efficient neighbors.
I replaced a 30+ year old refrigerator with a new, LARGER, energy-star certified refrigerator and my usage dropped an incredible amount. Don’t get me wrong, the energy savings won’t pay for the new refrigerator, but they make a big difference.
I live alone, with a gas-fired communal heating system, but an all-electric kitchen. Highest usage was around 350kWh in January, lowest was around 150 in May. If they started charging me for 3000-odd, I’d assume either a faulty meter or a faulty connection that was charging me for the street lights!
We’ve been in the low 600s lately. This time last year, we were almost twice that much, thanks to a large saltwater aquarium with a power-sucking pump, heater, lights, fans, and various powered accessories. Now the only spikes we get are if I run my kiln, altho with a/c season here, I expect the average will creep upwards for a few months.
We’ll dip under 500 kWh maybe one month in three, but averaged over a year it’s in the 550-600 range. That’s been pretty consistent over the two years we’ve been in our current house. It’s also probably too high given that we don’t use the AC that much and have natural gas for heat… but it’s not like I’m giving up those electronics.
500-999, depending on the season.
I need to do an energy audit, and have been meaning to for a long time.
836 kWh last month for us.
Two people, gas heat, electric kitchen, one large fridge, a small drinks fridge, an upright freezer and a small hot tub.
3250 kWh a month? I can only assume electric heat in a house with no insulation to use that much juice.
I live in an all-electric one-bedroom apartment.
I do fairly little of my own cooking, and nearly all of that with a microwave oven.
Heating is by far the major expense, but only in the winter months. I suppose that keeping the hot water heater running is a significant part of the year-round usage.
Summer months: 150 to 300 kWh per month.
Winter months: 600 to 850 kWh per month.
Don’t have my bill handy, but I’m the guy who wrecks the curve on the high side. Not too proud of that, actually. I blame my family, who try to heat the great outdoors in winter, and cool it in summer.
I get pretty much the same thing, though it’s on their web site and I can view it any time. I’m usually below average usage, but substantially above “efficient” usage. I use ~350 kWh (for just me).
That said, I am happy I switched to a time-of-use billing model. One reason my use is higher than it would otherwise be is because I’m a late bird, and so use a lot of electric lighting late at night. But that also means that very little of my use is during peak hours (~10% last I checked).
No heat, no A/C, no tv, no freezer, few lights, and the water heater is not on my bill.
525 kWh ( 2 year average). Low 294 kWh/month, high 942 kWh/month. One person.
Electric appliances except for gas furnace.
The water heater is responsible for about 4kWh/day.
I’ve only recently developed an interest in conserving energy in my home, so I hope that average will be a lot lower over the next year.
I, too, get those comparison reports. I’m already quite on the low side of usage for comparable houses in my neighborhood, which I find somewhat depressing.
My kid is in the Peace Corps. Average monthly usage in her country is 16kWh/month.
Over the past year around 300-350, with a spike of 501 in December (XMAS lights, short days).
298 last month. No A/C, gas heating/kitchen/dryer/water heater. I believe the refrigerator is the biggest consumer. When we go on vacation we pull about 5kWh/day, with most of the vampires unplugged.
Looks like summer months anywhere from 300-400. That was last summer’s IIRC mild season. I’m sure it can spike nearly double if I have to run the a/c units for weeks at a time. I didn’t have to do that last year, I sure hope this one’s the same.
Without a/c running, it looks like the average is 225. I’m a night owl and run fans plus the computer constantly. The fridge is old, I’m sure it would drop quite a bit with a different fridge but it’s included with the apartment.
about 300ish during the summer.
200 otherwise.
I live alone, all LED lighting and a 40" flat panel TV, and a small desktop PC.
My electric company’s site is down for maintenance, which is probably for the best - I don’t want to look! I know that it will be on the high side, though: eight people, two refrigerators and a freezer, and it’s south Georgia - already hit 100 degrees twice, and here it is only mid-June with plenty more of these days to come. (Plus, our water is from our own well, so the pump operates on our electricity.) Our central air unit is proving itself to be too small to keep up with daily demands, so we’ll probably have to add at least one window unit, maybe two, until we can afford to replace the heat pump… sigh.
938 per month average over the last year. That’s with electric everything in a ~2500 square foot house.
House was built in 1972, about 1200 sqft and use anywhere from 750 during spring/fall when can leave the windows open and as much as 1200 or so in winter and summer.