How Much Power Per Year Does The Average House Use Up?

October 1st, 2009 by Andy Mayer

We are all being advised to be aware of the energy that we use within our household. When we are searching for our household appliances we are given their energy efficiency rating so that we can be sure that this issue is on our agenda. Also when we are buying a house, we are given a report that tells us how energy efficient the house is. But what really constitutes a reduction in energy consumption? Surely we must first know how much power an average house uses up, although this in itself is a complicated question.

Cor, it’s lit up like a Christmas tree!

The power usage within the average household is dependent on many factors. We must take into account how many electrical appliances are being run in the house, how many televisions and computers are on and whether or not they are switched off at night or left on stand by. Then we would need to take into account the appliances that re running on gas, for example cookers or gas heaters. On that note the existence of central heating also must be taken into consideration. It of course also depends what we consider to be an average household in terms of the number of occupants and the size of the house itself.

For the purpose of this question, let’s assume that an average house is between 1600 and 2000 square feet. Within this house there are two adults and two children and the standard appliances: washing machine, cooker, fridge freezer. This standard house also has central heating. On average it is likely that this household uses around 50 kWatt-hours per day which would equate to 1500 kWatt-hours (kWh) per month. This would mean that the yearly energy consumption of this average household would total 18,000 kWatt-hours every year.

How much wattage a year?

I guess if you are looking for the answer to that question, you must be wanting to cut down on your own energy consumption. At the very least you obviously want to compare yourself against the average. I guess it is human nature that we want to have a standard against which to measure ourselves. Whatever you do, don’t give yourself a hard time. We are all trying to do our best and although this is not a new issue in many ways it still feels like a fresh idea that we have to get our heads around. After all, we are changing the way that we live. We were all so used to living fast and not considering the consequences. This change in our thought processes may take some time.

Besides, if you want to make yourself feel better then take a look at Al Gore. You know him, he’s the former Vice President of the United States who made ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ which was a lessen to all of us about the effect our behaviours were having on the world around us. He continues to campaign on the issue of climate change. The truth that he failed to mention was that his mansion (not quite the average house) uses a reported 221,000kWh per year. I guess you are not feeling so bad about the power usage in your average house now. The point that I am trying to make is that it is all proportionate. Mr Gore is likely to use more energy as he is living in a more palatial space than most of us could ever dream of inhabiting. I have no doubt whatsoever that he will have taken every possible step to reduce the energy consumption within his abode. The thing is that he is also in a more fortunate financial position than we could hope to be so he can buy extra wind power and carbon offsets to balance out his large energy consumption. Us mere mortals are just trying to do our best, little by little.

Can we all be a bit like Al Gore?

However, it might actually be more beneficial to look at what appliances and electrical items use in terms of power. Then you can examine the alternatives to take steps towards real change in your energy consumption.

Okay, so let’s look at some specifics then. On average, a household washing machine will perform 186 washes per year. An A-rated washing machine will operate at 0.63kWh for a 2kg load washed at 40 degrees. This results in 51kg CO2 every year for an average household and would cost approximately £11.78 per year. This seems like such a small cost that I was honestly shocked. I am sure it comes as no surprise, however, that the common electric tumble dryer costs us more than three times that amount per year. It is used approximately 148 times per year and uses 2.50kWh for an average load of 4.76kg of dry laundry. This average usage of a tumble dryer emits 159kg CO2 per year. I know this is one of my downfalls as with a toddler in the house it is often more convenient to just pop the laundry in the tumble dryer when it is too wet to hang outside. I should probably try to bear in mind that before I had the dryer I was content to hang the clothes on the clothes horse. I should do this more often.

Washing machines use a lot of juice

You may also want to know the difference in energy consumption with regards to the electric cooker versus the gas cooker. Well, the results are in and the gas cooker is by far the more eco-friendly option as it uses less kWh and produces less CO2 kilograms per year on an average usage of 424 times per year.

Finally, let’s take a look at the televisions we have in our home. If we consider that the main television is a widescreen LCD then on average it will be on power for six and a half hours every day which will cost us around £65 per year and produce 269kg CO2 per year. I know that I need to get better at witching my television off instead of leaving it on standby. If we could all switch our televisions off we could save 5kg CO2 every year. This might not seem like a huge amount individually but if we all followed suit it could make an impact.

If we all cut it down, we’d all be a little happier and healthier