I just got my May bill and it was 677kw for electric and zero for gas. I have an electric water heater which I bet accounts for 200kw or more per month. 3 people in my house.

Monthly average varies- the dehumidifier & AC adds ~60-70kwh/month in summer (mostly dehumidifier), the heating system adds a similar amount in winter (which should drop when the hydro-air zone gets decommissioned), but the shoulder seasons run about 500-550kwh/month (16-17kwh/day). The electric dryer is something of a power pig, as is the 12 year old who would leave game machines & computers running for days on end (unless we're vigilantly on his case, and we're not always.) Hot water & space heating are from a gas-fired combined system.

The average Japanese household uses something like 400-450 kwh/month, and a good fraction of the country heats with mini-splits, if you call Japanese homes "heated". (Most Japanese homes are kept pretty cool and are less-well insulated, using mostly point-source space heaters to take the edge off.) Post-tsunami Fukushima meltdown and the subsequent shut down of all the Japanese nukes it wouldn't surprise me if that average has dipped under 400kwh/month. The average US consumption is about 825kwh/month, but about 675kwh/month if air conditioning is subtracted out, so your usage is pretty much the average. But for a home that heats hot water with electricity you're probably well below average.

At the EF-test water use volumes (64.3 gallons/day) & incoming water temp (58F) & storage temp (135F) conditions a typical electric HW heater uses about 4700kwh/year, or about 390kwh/month. But for a 3-person household that bathes primarily with low-flow shower heads and washes clothes & hands only in cold water 200kwh/month would be achievable without extreme conservation measures. A 200kwh/month average would still cover more than 30 gallons/day of use- say 20 minutes of shower time with a 1.5gpm showerhead plus a few gallons for dishwasher, etc. In warmer climates with higher incoming water temps (say FL or south TX) 300-350kwh/month would probably about the average at EF test volumes due to warmer incoming water temps, but in ND, or MN 450-500kwh/month for hot water would be expected. If you crank the storage temp down to 120F rather than 135F it cuts a few percent, insulate the near tank & distribution plumbing it saves another few percent, but it takes drainwater heat recovery to get savings into double-digit percentages.

We put in a ground source heat pump in Oct. of last year. We averaged 811 kwh / month for the 2 years prior to the addition of the heat pump. This is a house with 2 of us in it now, no gas...electric water heating. We have a largish fish tank that hogs some energy and have some stock tank water heating needs for horses during the winter. We also averaged 6 to 6 1/2 full cords of firewood to heat the place plus around 30 gal of fuel oil, in the years we heated with wood.

In the 6 months during last winter's heating season (Nov.-Apr) with the heat pump, we averaged 1251 kwh / mo. That's for everything including heat (warmer end of climate zone 6). So basically, it cost us less than $300 total to heat over and above our usual usage.

The ironic thing is that our electic useage this winter is about the same as it was 3 years ago. At that time, I went on a conservation spree with a killawat meter, and was able to cut our usage by about a third. Most of the savings came from replacing an ineffective cellar dehumidifier with one that actually worked, and superinsulating my horse stock tank which drastically reduced the water heating needs out there. So I'm heating the house with the amount of energy I just was wasting before.

Household average for the U.S. in 2010 was 968 kWh (http://www.eia.gov/electricity/sale...ble5_a.pdf).  There are obvious regional variations, with the south using more electricity because of air conditioning.  However, households in the north use more gas or oil for heating, but this is not shown in the table.  

My average monthly use was 257 kWh, but PV generation was 494 kWh per month, so net use was minus 237 kWh per month.  Folks that are off-grid with solar PV typically have very low monthly averages.

Posted By Dana1 on 06 Jun 2012 02:23 PM

The average Japanese household uses something like 400-450 kwh/month, and a good fraction of the country heats with mini-splits, if you call Japanese homes "heated". (Most Japanese homes are kept pretty cool and are less-well insulated, using mostly point-source space heaters to take the edge off.)

My experience is that the Japanese tend to keep house and office temperatures warmer than in the U.S., both summer and winter.  However, that is just a personal observation.  Average house sizes must be much smaller than in the U.S.

Posted By Lee Dodge on 06 Jun 2012 11:17 PM

Posted By Dana1 on 06 Jun 2012 02:23 PM

The average Japanese household uses something like 400-450 kwh/month, and a good fraction of the country heats with mini-splits, if you call Japanese homes "heated". (Most Japanese homes are kept pretty cool and are less-well insulated, using mostly point-source space heaters to take the edge off.)

My experience is that the Japanese tend to keep house and office temperatures warmer than in the U.S., both summer and winter.  However, that is just a personal observation.  Average house sizes must be much smaller than in the U.S.

Warm offices yes, but homes, not so much, in my experience. 

Better newer Japanese homes are pretty comfortable even with point-source heating, but pre-1980 homes are pretty drafty & cool.  Even in newer homes cool room temps and sitting/lying on a ruggedized version of an electric-blanket atop the tatami for watching game-shows on TV seems more the rule than 22C room temp and for lounging directly on the floor.  It may be different in urban apartments & condos- I've only stayed in single-family homes in smaller cities & towns, and I've never been in a Japanese home that had central heating.
Or maybe you & I just travel in different classes of Japanese society (or your hosts boost the temp in anticipation of your 'merican sensibilities.)

Fortunately the climate is pretty temperate in most of Japan, and they have decent house kimonos & house slippers.

Your response prompted me to a bit of googly-research- it's not just me. Take this Belgian blogger's point of view, f'rinstance. Or the Koreans quoted in this bit.

Single person living alone in Connecticut, 2009 vintage house . I use wood with propane boiler backup for heat, hot water is solar/ propane backup. Propane clothes dryer and kitchen range. I have ceiling fans, but no AC. I am currently running around 5.7 kwh per day. 176 kwh/month avg. 44$ bill per month from CL&P on average which works out to 0.25$/kwh. ~80 gallons propane/year gas consumption last 2 years.

Cheers,
Eric

Family of six, Green bay Wisconsin, climate zone 6, indoor pool. We typically use about 2000kwh a month with about 200kwh from solar PV. We also use about 1-2 therms for hot water finishing tank and gas stove, dryer is electric. 99% of our electric use is off peak at a rate of $.06/kwh

May was 717 kWh for an all electric house near Philly, family of 4. Yearly usage/12 mos = 1325 kWh (and still falling) Heating and A/C are 2008 vintage ASHP. DHW is a new AOSmith HPWH.

Posted By Brock on 07 Jun 2012 10:40 PM
Family of six, Green bay Wisconsin, climate zone 4, indoor pool. We typically use about 2000kwh a month with about 200kwh from solar PV. We also use about 1-2 therms for hot water finishing tank and gas stove, dryer is electric. 99% of our electric use is off peak at a rate of $.06/kwh

Wouldn't that be US climate zone 6?  Or does WI have it's own state-defined set of climate sub-zone mapping (the way CA does)?

Woops yes we are zone 6.