Heating — space heating and hot water — is almost always number one, typically 4,000–5,500 kWh a year together. If you drive electric, charging is number two at roughly 2,700 kWh for 15,000 km. Everything else — fridge, dryer, lighting, screens, standby — usually adds up to under a third of the bill. A typical home uses 8,000–12,000 kWh a year, about 25–33 kWh a day.
| Load | kWh/year | Typical range | Best single fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Space heating (electric or heat pump) | 4000 | 1,500–9,000 | Lower the flow/thermostat temperature and heat fewer rooms; a heat pump replacing resistive heat cuts it 3–4x. (saves 20–70%) |
| Charging an electric car (15,000 km/yr) | 2700 | 1,500–4,500 | Charge at home off-peak instead of public fast chargers — same kWh, a third of the price. (saves 0% energy, 40–70% cost) |
| Hot water | 1500 | 800–3,000 | Shorter showers and a lower tank setpoint (55 °C). Every minute of shower is roughly 0.4 kWh. (saves 20–40%) |
| Air conditioning | 1000 | 0–3,500 | Shade the windows before you cool the air; raise the setpoint 2 °C. (saves 15–30%) |
| Oven and hob | 500 | 300–800 | Use the smallest appliance that does the job — kettle, microwave, air fryer beat a full oven. (saves 30–50%) |
| Clothes dryer | 400 | 0–900 | A drying rack is free. A heat-pump dryer uses about half of a vented one. (saves 50–100%) |
| Fridge and freezer | 350 | 200–800 | Replace anything older than ~15 years; keep coils clean and the freezer full. (saves up to 60% on old units) |
| Lighting | 300 | 150–600 | Finish the LED swap. It is the cheapest kWh you will ever buy back. (saves up to 80%) |
| Computers and home office | 300 | 100–700 | Sleep settings and a laptop instead of a desktop where you can. (saves 30–50%) |
| Standby and always-on devices | 300 | 150–800 | Find the vampires with a plug meter: router, set-top box, chargers, old NAS. Switch strips off at night. (saves 40–70%) |
| Dishwasher | 250 | 150–400 | Eco programme, full loads. Most of the energy is heating water, not moving it. (saves 20–30%) |
| TV and entertainment | 250 | 100–500 | Screen brightness and actually turning it off, not to standby. (saves 15–30%) |
| Washing machine | 200 | 100–350 | Wash at 30 °C — heating the water is ~90% of the cycle's energy. (saves 30–50%) |
Figures are mid-range estimates for a temperate-climate home of 2–4 people, not measurements.
A typical home uses 8,000–12,000 kWh of electricity per year. Homes with electric heating or an electric car sit at the top of that range or above it; a small, well-insulated apartment on gas heating can be under 2,500 kWh.
Around 25–33 kWh per day for a typical home, which is 750–1,000 kWh per month. Winter days in an electrically heated home can be three times the summer average.
Anything that makes heat. Space heating and hot water together usually take 4,000–5,500 kWh per year — more than every appliance in the house combined. After that comes electric car charging, then air conditioning, then the kitchen.
In order of payback: turn off always-on devices you don't use, wash at 30 °C and skip the dryer, lower the hot water tank to 55 °C, finish the LED swap, and only then consider hardware like a heat pump or solar.
Roughly 150–800 kWh per year for a full household of routers, set-top boxes, chargers and idle electronics. At €0.28/kWh that is €40–€225 a year for devices doing nothing.
For 10,000 kWh per year, roughly 8–10 kWp of south-facing panels in a temperate climate. A smaller home or better self-consumption can lower that; electric heating or an EV pushes it higher.
Usually yes if you are replacing resistance heating, oil or gas. A heat pump moves 3–4 kWh of heat for every 1 kWh of electricity it uses, so the same warmth costs roughly one-third to one-quarter the energy of direct electric heating.
About 5–15% on heating and cooling, mainly by reducing hours when no one needs the temperature. The biggest wins are in homes that currently heat all day or all night on a fixed schedule.