You're not running a microwave all day long, and you don't run much at all at night. I'm not sure what usage is like in Portland, but where I'm from (outside t

You're not running a microwave all day long, and you don't run much at all at night. I'm not sure what usage is like in Portland, but where I'm from (outside the USA, but still first world) I'm probably running about 200 W at night, a couple of energy efficient bulbs, and standby power. During the day, when nobody is home, I probably use about the same. So that leaves about 1800 W for 8 hours a day that you're at home. Judging roughly by what my power bill is, divided by the hours in the month, I use about that amount of power, at least in summer. This is for an uninsulated house in a temperate climate with 4 students in it. The power consumption in winter is significantly higher, which is in part due to the fact that 70 year old houses with no insulation at all leak heat like a sieve, and due to regulations, we can only use electric heating. Central AC pulls 3.5 kW when it's running, but it doesn't run all day long, it only runs for maybe 10 minutes per hour or so, if you have a well insulated house.