Every UK source I can find puts it at around 8-10 kWh/day. E.g.,

https://smarterbusiness.co.uk/blogs/average-gas-electricity-...

https://www.electriciancourses4u.co.uk/useful-resources/how-...

https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/how-much-elec...

3kWh seems way too low. We consumed on average 7.3kWh/day. According to our energy supplier this was on the low side for our house type and family size.

Really? Houses in the US draw 10x on average relative to the UK? That seems unlikely.

ADDED: I can believe there's some difference because of AC but I basically don't have AC (just one window unit I run a few days a year), have oil heat, and have a somewhat smaller than average house but I still use about 20kWh/day.

The delta does seem to be real though.

My highest months come out to less than 10 kWh per day. This is work from home + running the furnace (blower and pumps) and running a humidifier. Lots of months will be less than 200 KWh total.

This is a medium size house in a colder region of the US.

Do you have an electric hot water heater? That would probably boost my use a lot.

I wonder if your house is smaller than the world average or even the UK average? It probably has less thermal mass than the UK average. What are you spending your 800 watts on?

No way. 90kWh/month?

My Silicon Valley house consumed ~450kWh/month (15kWh/day) (before we bought an EV) which is very much on the low side from what I see here. 1100sqft. No A/C. Rarely run the heat. Every single light in the house is an LED. Gas appliances. 2 people, not home during the day.

Your neighbour is stealing power. 15kwh/day means you are permanently using 600 Watts. Do you have a stationary (desktop) computer? Or do you underestimate heating. You can burn through your whole years budget easily in less than two month. What about the oven, I mean do you bake?

Sounds about right. My house, at idle, uses 300w last time I measured it, probably more now. Most of that would be electronics. A rack in the garage with a 24 port PoE switch powering a couple of APs, and a router, a NAS, a handful of small devices, plus whatever drain is used by the various laptops and iMac at sleep, and the clocks on the various appliances, the small aquarium pump on the cat fountain.

The appliances, as I mentioned, are all gas, but still a clothes dryer and a washing machine consume some electricity, as does the pump on my furnace, as do ceiling fans in use when necessary.

And of course, the devices that cycle on and off all the time; the refrigerator, instant hot tap under the sink.

And then there's the actual electricity we consume during the times we're home to do things like light the house, watch television or use computers, listen to music, etc. It is quite easy to use 2000-2500w when home and active in the evenings.

He did say gas appliances which I assume would include the oven and might include a dryer. Presumably not the refrigerator though (there are propane refrigerators but you wouldn't normally get one if you have electricity). I probably draw 400-500 watts even if I'm traveling.

Ever heard of a refrigerators and freezers?

A decent refrigerator should consume less than a kWh per day, perhaps 1.5 kWh/day for refrigerator + standalone freezer - this is something that has changed over the last couple decades, at least in the EU there has been a strong push towards more efficient appliances and refrigerators consume much less power than older models.

This does not make it more likely that someone is stealing their electricity than they have a refrigerator and/or freezer making up the rest of their unspoken for electrical bill.

> Average US household .. 29kWh/day

> houses in the UK .. 3kWh/day

Seems believable from what I've heard.

The 3kWh figure for UK is just electricity - add 12kWH for heating energy from gas to get a more reasonable number given that people in the UK generally don't live in shacks.

https://www.theenergyshop.com/guides/average-gas-and-electri...

Yes, although the 30 kWh US figure doesn't include a lot of gas/oil heat in the North/mountains either. (It does include a lot of AC but average electricity consumption is still a lot higher apparently in the US even taking that into account. I assume bigger houses is one reason.)

I think in the US it's common to heat and cool badly insulated houses with electricity, whereas in europe almost nobody cools, heat comes from other sources and insulation is taking way more seriously, especially for anything built recently.

The best way to reduce your energy bill (whichever source) is to live in the right climate zone I guess.

Electric heat isn't super common, especially in standalone houses, in areas where you need a lot of heat in the US. I don't know the numbers off the top of my head but electricity costs a lot more than gas or oil. You're right about the AC but I still use 20 kWh even with no AC (and no electric heat).

Thanks for the insight. I vaguely remembered that people run the ac in reverse for heat, but that is probably only in paces that almost need no heating.

Do you know why you use that much?

Do you heat your water with electricity?

Fridge, freezer, tv, WiFi, Desktop PC, charging phones and laptop, ligths.

- AC is a very common consumer of large amounts of electricity (depending on the region, many regions will have almost no AC while other regions will have it in every building running almost constantly)

- Electrical heat is not the most common form of heating, but it's been growing a lot and is also a big consumer when it is used

- Laundry Washer/Dryer are pretty large consumers (mostly the dryer)

- Water heaters are often electrical

- Electrical ovens and stove ranges are pretty common, which can pull quite a bit depending on how much use they receive

- Microwaves pull a bit, but not huge

AC is a big one. Where I live in New England, we usually have a couple spells where I really need to turn on my office window unit for a week or so. Those months can drive my electricity consumption up by 200 kWH or more for the month--and that's just one small window unit run intermittently during the day to cool one small room.

(electric tumble) dryers are an interesting point. They're getting more common, but most people I know in the UK either don't have one, or have one but don't use it for normal washes (they use a washing line or a clothes horse).

AC is extremely efficient for what it's doing, but it only works because the temperature difference is relatively minor. Where they can get away with it, they use something similar to AC for heating in the US.

But it doesn't work everywhere for heating. Consider that even in the hottest climates in the US, you're cooling your air by 30 degrees. But in the coolest climates, you're heating your air by 60 degrees.

My sister has this system in Philadelphia, but when it gets cold enough the more inefficient raw electric heating kicks in, and that really chews through electricity like no other.

Not really. My electricity usage is considered normal so I've never really looked into it.

Additional freezer, washer & dryer, oven (I have a propane range but many do not), microwave, there's some additional water heating in the dishwasher as well as for drying, TVs, other electronics like printer stereo etc., furnace/water heater are oil but still have pumps etc.

That's fascinating as it's not really that different from myself.

I'm alone in a flat tough, I guess you are a family?

Nope. 1800 sqft house. re: the freezers, I just like to cook a lot.

"AC in reverse" I'm assuming means a heat pump, which is very common in the US except for the parts that get really cold like the Northeast and Midwest. They are very efficient down to a bit below freezing, but will result in higher electricity usage since you are using electricity instead of a different fuel.

Do you have any idea what that is going on? Just really inefficient appliances?

I don't think anything is "going on" given that my consumption is about average for my area. I do have 3 fridges which are all pretty old at this point which is certainly some ongoing load. I also have at least the usual number of electronic devices consuming at least standby loads. Then there are the usual intermittent things like electric dryer, dishwasher, etc.

1 KWh/day for Fridge. Lights should do less than 0.5KWh/day. Washing machine is maybe 0.3KWh/day. Maybe, other electronics might add up to 1-2KWh/day. Cooling is not required most of the year. Maybe fans for a couple of months. Heating is separate (EDIT: UK figure), as others have noted.

What else are you using electricity on?

Heating, which can easily be 5 kW, 120 kWh/day; many US houses are heated electrically, so it's not always separate. Air conditioning can easily be 3 kW, or 72 kWh/day, although it's usually only on during the daytime, so figure 30 kWh/day; it's common to run a 240 VAC circuit in the US for the air conditioner because the 2.4 kW of a standard 120 VAC 20 A circuit is insufficient. Incandescent lights could easily be 1 kW (which you get to offset against the heating part of the year), which is another 24 kWh/day. A household stove is usually about 4 kW if you're cooking on two burners, but you're probably only cooking about 2 hours a day, so that's 8 kWh/day if you cook at home. (Some people cook with other fuels, but others use electric stoves.) Hot water heaters are also a few hundred watts, I think; an on-demand tankless hot-water heater is on the order of 3 kW, but in the US hot-water tanks are far more common, constantly leaking heat through their fiberglass insulation.

In Arizona and New Mexico, where I grew up, common inefficient houses need air conditioning during the day and heating at night much of the year.

So it's easy to see how, even if cooling is not required most of the year, you could easily use 50 kWh/day of electrical energy in the kinds of huge houses people have in the US.

I think AC is usually 440v around here. It is the largest consumer.

> Heating is separate, as others have noted.

Heating isn't separate for me. For me, cooling isn't required most of the year (probably similar to UK weather), but for many parts of the US cooling is required almost year-round.

3kWh/day so around 1100 kwh/a seems to me on the low side. Two person household in Germany uses 3600kwh/a electricity. Do you have sources?