Average Home Energy Usage ?

[MikeM]

Can someone possibly point me to figures for average home energy consumption ? Now that I am taking energy readings I would be interested to see how my consumption compares to the average ?

I know that this is the very point of imeasure and by collecting real data a better measure can be made but I am curious and eager to see how I am doing ?

[thackie]

Hi,

I am not sure the figures you (we) want are easily available. However the best source of data I have found is on the DEFRA web site (http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/globatmos/alltables.htm)

Hope this helps

Kevin

[Jon]

I read some where that the avrage energy use for electicity was 3,300 kw a year.

[cloudy.thoughts]

A pedant would mutter something about there are the three main types of average, mean, mode and median, to consider.

3300 kwh a year sound about right I guess for the the UK.  I'm at about 2900 kwh per year.

[ricbake]

According to the British Gas web site the average consuption for its millions of customers is 3,300 kWh per year of electricity with 20,500 kWh of gas

[marktime20]

Interesting topic, as Cloudy says averages can be tricky.

I would like to think of myself as Mr average but my annual electric is above average at 4,500Kwh and gas is well below average at 12,500Kwh. We heat with gas.

I would imagine that British Gas's millions of customers (households) would include significant numbers of empty or seldom used properties (holiday homes), small single occupier dwellings (flats etc.) as well as (hopefully for their own benefit) low consuming pensioner households.  This is before we get to the stereotypical 3/4 bed semi that most would think of as average.  That might explain why electric usage is lower than I would expect but it worries me that gas use is so high.
There will of course by those who wont get out of bed until the the whole house is a toasty 25C to bump that up.

MarkTime

[DdraigGoch]

I too would be very interested in discovering the "average" family and what they're up to!  I've joined a group called Riot for Austerity - it's not grim, honest - and it's American, mostly, families trying to reduce their carbon footprint and, with any luck, financial outgoings by 90% from the average American.  I've got the American data, if anyone is interested.  It's a Yahoo Group, by the way. 

I think that having a percentage target to work to is probably the easiest way to go, but a bit heavy on the maths front.  I'm happy with that - I like spreadsheets, despite getting a grade 9 O level [a convincing FAIL ] - but it's just finding some figures to start with which stay the same from one source to another that's the difficulty at the moment.  I'm going to raid the National Office of Statistics [lies, damned lies and.... ] to see what's out there.  Should I report back?  I'd be delighted if anyone could post anything at all, so, in grateful anticipation, thanks everyone!

[jamesingram]

Domestic energy factfile - energy efficiency of the British housing stock.
http://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/pdf/rpts/Fact_File_2008.pdf
http://www.bre.co.uk/page.jsp?id=879

More info than you can wont in your wildest dreams !

I had the figure of 20,000 Kw gas , 5000 Kw electric in my head , haven't check the above doc. yet

[dbm44]

Try the web site www.energyaverage.co.uk to compare your gas and electricity against other similar homes. Site is still labeled as Beta, so I assume it is new.

Not sure how much data the site has yet, but comparing my home's latest bills, gas usage was about average but electricity usage was a fair bit higher. Time to have another word with 2 teenagers who seem to think they need to have both their TV and laptop on at all times !

[Obsessive]

Perhaps I'm being thick here (answers on a postcard ...) but from what I can see, the only difference between www.energyaverage.co.uk and imeasure (not having signed-up for the energyaverage site but having read the bumpf) is that www.energyaverage.co.uk possibly has a different number of users? Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to any possible advantage in using this other site?

[black-dog]

Energy average seems to want you to enter details from bills whereas imeasure shows trends by taking weekly readings.

I did wonder if imeaurers were a self selecting group, but I'm informed that our results tend to be very similar to the national average. And of course, national average figures are not available until some time has passsed.

[Carbon Comrade 001]

What is average though? If you say live in a flat, alone, what's the point comparing yourself to the national average, which maybe a family of 4, living in a 3 bedroom house? You are simply better to work out a personal average, or compare yourself to your previous self. It is good to have some form of comparison, many people don't know their consumption is excessive until they have a point of reference. National average data is good to know, but does anyone know what average is then, i mean house size and occupants?

[Carbon Comrade 001]

I see this post has been going for over a year now, but still there is no exact answer backed up by a source. According to the University of Strathclyde:


"Listed below are some examples of the varying levels of electricity consumption from household to household.

1. Working Couple - 4,117 kWh electricity
2. Single Person - 3,084 kWh electricity
3. Family with two children - 5,480 kWh electricity
(Parents working, children at school)"

"Throughout this website it is intended to take an average annual electricity consumption of 3,880kWh."

[DavidC]

I did hear once that the national domestic averages were to be taken as 3500 kWh for electricity and 20,500kWh for gas. I haven't a clue as to what data was used to arrive at these figures. I suppose i Measure should be the perfect vehicle for producing some meaningful up to date data, but perhaps the site isn't subscribed enough to be able to produce it. However it would be useful to have some feedback ie annual consumption against type of dwelling and occupancy.

For my own part I languish in the C and D range constantly and I don't find that very comforting. I don't know whether or not this is because my fellow i Measurers are 'doing things better' than me. What I do know is that my consumption and carbon emissions have reduced dramatically over the last 2 years, and my current annual averages are well below the above figures.

[brig001]

This is from BERR for 2004/5 in the West Midlands.

Specific domestic heat consumption based on dwelling type and age

House type	Specific heating consumption (MWh/household/year)
Flat new-build	9
Flat - post 1980	11
Flat - pre 1980	13
Mid-terraced new-built	13
Mid-terraced - post 1980	16
Mid-terraced - pre 1980	18
Semi-detached new-built	17
Semi-detached - post 1980	19
Semi-detached - pre 1980	21
Detached new-built	22
Detached - post 1980	25
Detached - pre 1980	27

Specific domestic electricity consumption based on dwelling type

House type	Specific electricity consumption (MWh/household/year)
Flat	2.75
Mid-terraced	3.5
Semi-detached	4.5
Detached	5.5

TBH, it's all a bit meaningless because there is not enough detail.  Even though our house type is listed, I don't know if having two teenagers in the house makes it better or worse than these figures and by how much, so I have no idea if I'm doing well or not.  I think we are doing OK because our bills have come down even though prices have gone up.

DavidC there is no shame in a C or D - remember you are comparing yourself with people who care and are trying to reduce what they use.