Typical electric usage in kWh?

Just paid my electric bill.  Power company had some sort of leaflet touting green energy or some such, and it noted that the average monthly usage in VA is 1000 kWh.  Well, that piqued my curiosity, since that would be a very low usage month indeed, never mind average.  Since they are nice enough to show numbers for the last 12 months, I took the time to average our usage and came up with a number just above 2200 kWh per month, with a high of 3200 (in January) and a low of 1300 (in May).  House is all-electric, relying on heat pumps to heat and cool.  We are good about keeping a moderate setting on the A/C in Summer, but my wife does like it toasty in winter (warmer than I'd like, but whatcha gonna do?).

So our family of four is using over twice the state average?  Seems unlikely, although my teenagers do take lengthy hot showers.  We are fortunate here in VA to pay just over 9 cents per kWh, so the bill isn't bad.  In fact, it's often less than the cable bill, which of course infuriates me.  LOL.

So,

How many kWh does your household use?

We average about 500/month. But we have gas furnace, water heater, and drier.

I'm sure the average is including houses with gas.

The electric and gas companies are both always telling us we use way more power and gas than "comparable homes." I'm always mystified by these "comparable homes," because they claim we use 2-3x the utilities and we keep the AC and heat at very reasonable settings, and don't waste utilities, but we're heating over 6000sf and have 7 people in the house. Are they comparing us to the houses that are 1/3 the size nearby?

This is interesting! I went and pulled my data!

All electric house.

Avg 1,470.5 kWh, low was 742, high was 2950.

Heat in the winter is the obvious big draw.

Charges are based on useage here. First 600Kwh is .09/kWh, after 600 .109/Kwh

Central Mississippi.  Gas heat, stove and hot water.

That's a bit! 

Even in Oklahoma, keeping the thermostat at 70/71, our highest energy usage in the last year was June 2018 at 1,607kWh. But I'm only working with an 1800sq ft house with tall vaulted ceilings in the living/master area. Winter time it falls to around 400-500-ish.

But we have natural gas for heat and hot water.   

I have gas heat.  Electric stove & hot water.  I expect that the june and july #s will be much lower this year.  My average for the past year was 726.  Would love to get that down below 500.

Wow, I just checked mine... 361 KWh last month.    Seems kinda low.     The gas was only 5 mcf for last month.

dculberson said:

The electric and gas companies are both always telling us we use way more power and gas than "comparable homes." I'm always mystified by these "comparable homes," because they claim we use 2-3x the utilities and we keep the AC and heat at very reasonable settings, and don't waste utilities, but we're heating over 6000sf and have 7 people in the house. Are they comparing us to the houses that are 1/3 the size nearby?

I called and asked if there might be something wrong because we are always double the "comparable homes" and they told me you can’t go off the neighbors usage because of lot placement, trees, insulation, etc. so I asked why do you send me the stupid thing in the first place?

All electric house:

Gas stove, heat and water.  About 2500 square feet.

In reply to cdowd :

Your address is showing on that bill.

Fueled by Caffeine said:

In reply to cdowd :

Your address is showing on that bill.

Is that a bad thing? It's probably also showing on the front of his house, and in Google Street view, and in zillions of address databases and public records all over the place.

In reply to Robbie :

I think it's different in this case. Connecting a username with an actual name and address could lead to bad things. With the info in that pic, I could dig up a bunch of information that is publicly available that cdowd might not necessarily want a random stranger to have even if it's not overtly malicious. It could go further than that but I don't want to give anybody worse ideas.

There's a more personal and interlinked connection than driving by a stranger's house and seeing their street number, or seeing a name/address associated with each other in some database, and it's at least possible to lead to worse things as a result. No reason to open yourself up to things like that unnecessarily.

Poconos Pennsylvania. 2300 sqft Cape Cod style house, 4 people, electric stove, dryer, and a pool.

Big drop in January/February was getting rid of the oil furnace for a pellet furnace. Uptick in May is opening the pool earlier this year.

June bill is ~147 dollars at 1159 KWh.

Looks like my peak is January/Feburary:

But they don't give you a graph with numbers, which is annoying:

And I have to dig through each month to find out what my actual usage was..  For this past month, I used 553 kWh, that's a home with electric baseboards as a supplement (only used in winter), no AC and a heat exchanger water heater, electric oven/stove and a pool.

In January I used about 1,400 it looks like.

Even though nothing changes usage wise month to month, my bill randomly fluctuates between $175 and $250. Oddly the only months we aren't using more than double the "similar homes nearby" are the months we really use the power, like February with the pellet stove and multiple small heaters, or July when there are 2 ACs and multiple fans running around the clock.

There also rally aren't any similar homes nearby so I don't know where they're getting that average. 1000 square feet, electric everything, originally a 1 story block cabin turned into a 2 story house in the 60s. A lot of the old houses have been replaced in the last 15 years, and if you go more than a 1/4 Mike in either direction there's gas service available.

Of interesting note to me, our bill made no changes positive or negative when I replaced all of the 30+ year old appliances. Hot water tank, stove, freezer, fridge, eager, dryer, all fancy new "energy star" stuff, hasn't changed my bill at all. Putting plastic over the Windows in winter seems to have helped though, compared to years past.

I am curious to see what happens when we get the new roof in July, supposedly.

In reply to Slippery :

Clearly, there is something wrong with the "average temperature" data on that graph.  It's showing a delta of less than 20 degrees between low and high which of course is ludicrous.  Realistically, that's much closer to 100 degrees, or at least it is here.

^The appliances thing doesn't seem like a fair assessment if your bill already regularly fluctuates that much. I'm guess it's based on the going rate for the fuel used at your closet power station?

I have both my electricity bill and my natural gas bill on the average payment plan. I didn't like that in the winter my electricity bill could drop down to as much as $65-70, then spike to $~200 in June/July/August. Now it's just right around $95/month.

Same for the natural gas, instead of being $40-45 through the summer, and spiking up similarly in the winter, it just sits around $70/month.

1988RedT2 said:

In reply to Slippery :

Clearly, there is something wrong with the "average temperature" data on that graph.  It's showing a delta of less than 20 degrees between low and high which of course is ludicrous.  Realistically, that's much closer to 100 degrees, or at least it is here.

That's monthly average.  Its correct.

https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/west-palm-beach/florida/united-states/usfl0512

Where you are is more like a 45 deg swing.

We made a few big changes late last year. we added 8-10" of insulation in the attic, changed to a modern efficient heat pump ac/heat unit. With the old electric furnace and collapsed insulation we could see a month over 3200kWh usage. This winter was milder, and we were a high of 2300 this winter with the upgrades. Mild "spring" has us around 700-1000 and now that summer is here I expect to be higher.

But we're also adding insulated siding in another week so that will have an effect as well. 

Gas heat and water, electric AC in a 1500 sq ft. house with four people. We keep the AC on about 75- our usage goes WAY up in July and August, but I work from home most of the time, so we have to cool it all day.

Our usage is a bit higher than the "average" but it isn't that bad. I could make my house more energy efficient- it was built in 1942, and we still have glazed single pane windows. I replaced our heat/ac pack in 2008, so it's not ancient but it isn't new. We've got insulation in the attic and under the hardwood floors.

What is irking me is that the power company calls me about once a week and tries to install a gateway device that would allow them to cut usage during "peak" draw times for a one time credit of $25.  Nah, pass. 

Gas heat and hot water. Electric stove.  Average kWh runs in the 350 range.   Highest was Feb. at 550 due to extra heaters.  July hit 440 due to A/C.  This was last year.

 A lot depends on if we get a Polar Vortex or a heat wave (days over 90 F).

I'm on a budget plan so a high use month averages out.

In may I used 740kWh. Gas heat and water heater, everything else electric. 

I usually used 700-900kWh in my 800sq ft apartment in Houston. Peak being in the summer of course. I think we breached 1000kWh's once. 

My next apartment was 400 sqft and I used 800-1000kWh because the AC unit was very old and the building was not well insulated. 

Age of the home and efficiency of appliances makes a huge difference. 

I imagine your heat pumps are not very efficient..