Home Energy Use

[iPlug]

It’s enlightening to look at personal, State, and national household energy consumption.*


The average U.S. household consumes ~22,500 kWh/yr (76.8 million Btu).
Here in California it's ~15,700 kWh/yr. To get more granular in CA: ~10.5 kWh/yr per sq ft and ~5,900 kWh/yr per household member.

For most, heating air/water accounts for much more energy use in the U.S. than cooling, so those who heat with fossil fuels would need to tally that into their household energy consumption.

This data is from 2020. Now that charging vehicles at home is becoming more common, this will tend to push home energy use up. On the flip side, heat pumps are becoming more common in homes for heating air/water, and because of their large efficiency gains this will (of itself) decrease home energy use.


*referred to as “site energy”, this includes the amount of energy that enters a home, including grid fed electricity, electricity from onsite solar panels, natural gas, propane, and fuel oil; does not include biomass (wood), coal, district steam, and solar thermal




https://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/data/2020/state/pdf/State totals and intensities.pdf

 

[David_Cary]

17 MWH for me. 2 EVs, All electric house except cooking.
LEDs will push energy use down. Replacing fridges with newer tech will push energy use down. Plasma TVs dying will also help.
A reasonable goal is to balance EV use with efficiency elsewhere and stay flat on consumption. Overall the trend has been down.

The EIA says closer to 10 MWH - why the discrepancy? Does your number include FF with a conversion?
Also, the US decline in electricity use per household was 6% from 2015 to 2020. Probably LEDs mostly. Not amazing but at least the right direction.

 

[iPlug]

...The EIA says closer to 10 MWH - why the discrepancy? Does your number include FF with a conversion?...

10.6 MWh reported by EIA is just average U.S. household annual electricity consumption. The EIA more inclusive data in the thread topic starter link includes the other major components - fossil fuels burnt at home: natural gas, propane, and fuel oil/kerosene.

Here is a breakdown by energy consumption type (electricity, natural gas, propane, and fuel oil/kerosene):
https://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/data/2020/c&e/pdf/ce2.1.pdf


EIA likes to post in BTU, but electricity is reported in kWh and natural gas typically in therms, so I just converted everything to kWh since that is becoming a more uniform standard of reporting energy.