8 ms·

Not sure where this number comes from. Statistisches Bundesamt says it's 1,958 kwh. https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Environment/Environme

Not sure where this number comes from. Statistisches Bundesamt says it's 1,958 kwh. https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Environment/Environmental-Economic-Accounting/private-households/Tables/electricity-consumption-private-households.html https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Enviro... Interestingly, for 2 person households they state 3,196 kwh and for 3+ person households 4,919 kwh. Energy consumption scales worse than I expected. I assumed there would be more synergy in shared households.

morsch 4y ago
I googled it. Your source is much better. But it's in the same ballpark, anyway.
jansan 4y ago
Your source includes "Electricity for heating, hot water". Maybe this includes households using heat pumps for heating, so this could explain the difference?
- proto_lambda 4y ago
  Not just heat pumps, but also electric water heaters, which are standard issue for older apartment buildings (those without central hot water).
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    And also probably the single least efficient source of heat for a home. An apartment using resistive heat instead of a heat pump should not be allowed anymore.
    - proto_lambda 4y ago
      Wait, what? How could electric resistive heating with its 100% efficiency possibly be less efficient than gas or oil, which are the main alternatives in use at this point? Heat pumps have >100% efficiency, which makes them stand way out at the top, but they're an exception rather than the rule.
      - mrguyorama 4y ago
        If the electricity for resistive heating is coming from a combustion process, it would be more efficient to burn that substance directly in the home to produce heat directly. Otherwise a lot of heat energy is lost being converted to electricity and traveling through the power lines.
locallost 4y ago
That's pretty crazy. We used to spend 1400 KWh as a family of three. Didn't check the latest numbers as a family of four, but I don't expect a lot more. We even cook / bake a lot. What on earth are people spending electricity on?
- chrisandchris 4y ago
  How do you heat your appartmen/house? There might be quite some differences between oil, gas or heat-pump. I'm not sure whether these numbers include/exclude that part.
- polycaster 4y ago
  > What on earth are people spending electricity on? I guess there are just a lot more appliances in use today and we're more lazy. When I, approaching my 40s, compare our household with my parents household when I was a child there a various notable changes in habits: - My mother hang the loundry to dry. We seldomly do this anymore, instead we're using a dryer. These things are insanely power-hungry. - Electronics for entertainment and communication: A landline phone, a TV (for the evening news), a radio + casette player. Now I'm powering/charging at least 10 devices (like mobile, laptop, smart watch, tablet) at any given time. - When dark outside, about 3 100W light bulbs would illumate the living space for 5 people. Now we have „power-saving” LEDs. But a lot of them. So many, I can't even compare them. - When it was hot, well, you endure it. Now we have three ventilators (others start to use ACs, which has always been a very awkward thing to do in Germany). Edit: I come to think, while a lot has to do with being lazy, another lot has to do with being selfish. Things like hanging the loundry. We use the dryer, so we safe time to do more productive things like working on our careers.
  - gmac 4y ago
    I find people’s continued use of tumble dryers pretty surprising. The air will do it for free! We have a space-efficient drying rack so we can dry indoors.
    - mijamo 4y ago
csnweb 4y ago
It definitely can scale much better, we are using around 1800 kWh (2 parents, 1 small child) and I think it’s safe to say going below 1300 for one of us would be hard, especially when working from home. But we live in a flat and there are many 2 or three persons households in a whole house, probably with several computers and may be even tvs and certainly more lights. May be you do save a bit on cooking and the fridge, but cleaning things should roughly scale linearily.
- number6 4y ago
  Kids will make your washing machine run constantly; and the dryer...
carlmr 4y ago
2 person household without much saving is ~1500kWh in my experience. LEDs and laptop instead of desktop computers lowered these stats quite a lot for me. I'm sure if I bought a newer fridge it would also help.
- xxpor 4y ago
  1500... per year? I use more than that by myself per month. Granted, I have all electrical appliances, heat, and a car, but even without those I have to imagine I'd still use significantly more. Thank god for being on hydro I guess.
  - morsch 4y ago
    That's got to be your car, otherwise the number is insane for one person. Maybe check if something is drawing more power than it should.
  - carlmr 4y ago
    I have electric appliances, but heat and hot water is gas. I also have a ICE car.
dekleinewolf 4y ago
'3+' covers 3, but also 4, 5, 6 and 7. That average really doesn't tell you much on how it scales.
gumby 4y ago
Interesting that the equivalent in the US is about 10,000 kWh p.a. The delta is so large I thought there might have been a monthly/annual confusion. I have lived in both countries and it didn't feel like there was much of a difference in electricity consumption.
pvorb 4y ago
My household has seen 1800 kWh of electricity consumption in 2021, a year in which I worked a full-time job on a computer and two displays at home. So did my wife. We have two little children. While we might not be close to the average consumption in Germany, because our house is quite new, I'm regularly wondering what other households are doing with that much energy.

morsch 4y ago

I googled it. Your source is much better. But it's in the same ballpark, anyway.

jansan 4y ago

Your source includes "Electricity for heating, hot water". Maybe this includes households using heat pumps for heating, so this could explain the difference?

proto_lambda 4y ago
Not just heat pumps, but also electric water heaters, which are standard issue for older apartment buildings (those without central hot water).
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  And also probably the single least efficient source of heat for a home. An apartment using resistive heat instead of a heat pump should not be allowed anymore.
  - proto_lambda 4y ago
    Wait, what? How could electric resistive heating with its 100% efficiency possibly be less efficient than gas or oil, which are the main alternatives in use at this point? Heat pumps have >100% efficiency, which makes them stand way out at the top, but they're an exception rather than the rule.
    - mrguyorama 4y ago
      If the electricity for resistive heating is coming from a combustion process, it would be more efficient to burn that substance directly in the home to produce heat directly. Otherwise a lot of heat energy is lost being converted to electricity and traveling through the power lines.

locallost 4y ago

That's pretty crazy. We used to spend 1400 KWh as a family of three. Didn't check the latest numbers as a family of four, but I don't expect a lot more. We even cook / bake a lot. What on earth are people spending electricity on?

chrisandchris 4y ago
How do you heat your appartmen/house? There might be quite some differences between oil, gas or heat-pump. I'm not sure whether these numbers include/exclude that part.
polycaster 4y ago
> What on earth are people spending electricity on? I guess there are just a lot more appliances in use today and we're more lazy. When I, approaching my 40s, compare our household with my parents household when I was a child there a various notable changes in habits: - My mother hang the loundry to dry. We seldomly do this anymore, instead we're using a dryer. These things are insanely power-hungry. - Electronics for entertainment and communication: A landline phone, a TV (for the evening news), a radio + casette player. Now I'm powering/charging at least 10 devices (like mobile, laptop, smart watch, tablet) at any given time. - When dark outside, about 3 100W light bulbs would illumate the living space for 5 people. Now we have „power-saving” LEDs. But a lot of them. So many, I can't even compare them. - When it was hot, well, you endure it. Now we have three ventilators (others start to use ACs, which has always been a very awkward thing to do in Germany). Edit: I come to think, while a lot has to do with being lazy, another lot has to do with being selfish. Things like hanging the loundry. We use the dryer, so we safe time to do more productive things like working on our careers.
- gmac 4y ago
  I find people’s continued use of tumble dryers pretty surprising. The air will do it for free! We have a space-efficient drying rack so we can dry indoors.
  - mijamo 4y ago

csnweb 4y ago

It definitely can scale much better, we are using around 1800 kWh (2 parents, 1 small child) and I think it’s safe to say going below 1300 for one of us would be hard, especially when working from home. But we live in a flat and there are many 2 or three persons households in a whole house, probably with several computers and may be even tvs and certainly more lights. May be you do save a bit on cooking and the fridge, but cleaning things should roughly scale linearily.

number6 4y ago
Kids will make your washing machine run constantly; and the dryer...

carlmr 4y ago

2 person household without much saving is ~1500kWh in my experience. LEDs and laptop instead of desktop computers lowered these stats quite a lot for me. I'm sure if I bought a newer fridge it would also help.

xxpor 4y ago
1500... per year? I use more than that by myself per month. Granted, I have all electrical appliances, heat, and a car, but even without those I have to imagine I'd still use significantly more. Thank god for being on hydro I guess.
- morsch 4y ago
  That's got to be your car, otherwise the number is insane for one person. Maybe check if something is drawing more power than it should.
- carlmr 4y ago
  I have electric appliances, but heat and hot water is gas. I also have a ICE car.

dekleinewolf 4y ago

'3+' covers 3, but also 4, 5, 6 and 7. That average really doesn't tell you much on how it scales.

gumby 4y ago

Interesting that the equivalent in the US is about 10,000 kWh p.a. The delta is so large I thought there might have been a monthly/annual confusion. I have lived in both countries and it didn't feel like there was much of a difference in electricity consumption.

pvorb 4y ago

My household has seen 1800 kWh of electricity consumption in 2021, a year in which I worked a full-time job on a computer and two displays at home. So did my wife. We have two little children. While we might not be close to the average consumption in Germany, because our house is quite new, I'm regularly wondering what other households are doing with that much energy.