I finally had the time to write a post in this interesting thread.
We have gas heating for warm water and heat in an apartment we rent, 5 room, 120 m².
We use electricity for cooking and one washing machine, no dryer. Two electric bikes we use all the time.
I did install a small 60W solar panel with a DC circuit and various adapter to various voltages. We charge our laptops, smartphones and usb battery packs from the solar balcon.
Before 2020, we had 3 days a week with an empty house. Since Covid, I do mostly home office and there is always somebody at home.
our energy consumption was:
2019: 1950 kWh (family of 4)
2020: 2200 kWh (family of 4)
2021: 2600 kWh (third kid was born, parenthood leave)
So covid, home office and the constant presence at home added roughly 700 kWh to our consumption. We traveled a lot less but we do spend one month a year back to our parents in Ticino, so we only are 11 month in this apartment.
In general though for our family and apartment size I think we are doing ok.
It looks like your apartment have a large surface in contact with the outside, so somewhat higher consumption for heating is expected. Still looks too high consumption to me, although I am not sure anymore.
I wonder if any of you guys actually check your electricity bills. This isn‘t 2018 anymore, prices went up dramatically. 1kWh costs 0.40 CHF these days (or even more in some places). Current consumption is 8-10kWh/day. All LED lights, one fridge and one freezer. According to the internet, a single person household needs 2200-2700kWh/year, that‘s CHF 880-1080 per year or CHF 73-90 per month.
80 CHF per quarter, as you are telling, are just 900kWh for a whole year. How could that be possible?
It depends on where you live. In ZH it is 0.3/kWh during the day and <0.2 during the night.
If you don’t cook often & have an efficient fridge, then some LED and smartphone charging is not giving you a high bill.
Don’t know where you got this from, but based on this source average consumption for 1 person is much lower (1300 kwh/y).
No, I am just saying that for fun, pulling the numbers out of thin air.
The above is more realistic to you than people knowing their bills on a board like this?
66.75
76.35
93.85
80.90
70.65
81.30
74.70
100.90
All quarterly bills in my current place.
I pay way, way less than 0.40 CHF per kWh. But I also use way less than your estimate, can’t be arsed to add up all the bills, and also they run 01.11 to 31.01, but i am at 250-400 kWh per quarter. It’s gone up recently, yes, because I leave the PC and TV on more, and use the drier a lot more as well as the dishwasher, curious to see this quarter’s bill.
just my computer equipment probably takes 900 kWh a year. According to my energy provider, for a family of 4 in a house, around 4000 kWh a year is expected.
My PC runs probably 20-30 hours per week or 1040-1560 hours per year. Assuming 1/3 working/surfing (300W) and 2/3 gaming (600W) that would amount to 420-630 kWh per year for the PC alone. Monitor and speakers will probably add another 50-70 kWh to that, so 470-700 kWh per year. Then there is the 77“ TV with the Sonos surround system, probably another 400-600 kWh per year? So 870-1300 kWh just for the PC and TV.
My own bill is around 100.-/month with a 40m2 individual “house”, poor insulation and electric heating, electricity at 33ct/kWh.
I would use your planned 80.-/month value as a good enough estimate for a start and adjust it when you get your actual final bill later on (since it’s a different appartment and lifestyle for you, it’s hard to assess your future consumption without actual data).
10.- / 20.- per month won’t make or break your budget, you can deal with a bit of uncertainty on that position.
I just checked. Our bill averages 100 per month, however, we have oil heating and hot water, so it is just for lights, cooking, etc.
Bills have gone up 25% post-covid even after we tried to be more efficient.
Luckily, electricity costs are a small amount of our total costs so even if they doubled, we could absorb it. I think it will be much harder on those with tight budgets and lower income.
that depends on the municipality or more correctly the local elictrical provider. I assume the 0.40 CHF/kWh is the total cost (actual energy + network). In this case I am sorry to tell you that your energy provider was not a good buyer. In our firm we have around 0.25 CHF/kWh for private consumers, and it will be falling in the next years.
All this numbers seemed align to our consumption of 3 people.
We spend an average of 70-80kWh by month with a max of 100 kWh. It was 930 kWh got whole 2023.
It’s every electric appliance except heater and washing/drying machine which are common to the building.
My wife cook a lot and the oven is the appliance that will consume the most.
A good idea will be to disable the appliance in sleep mode when going on a long weekend. With an on/off socket.
For a single household, average electricity consumption should be around 1500 kWh directly billed. This excludes heating and water, which typically are the biggest energy consumers, yet not billed directly to renters.
Still, there are so many individual factors what you use and what you pay directly in the first place. In my previous apartment, washing/drying was shared, yet charged to the individual users. That alone can be 10-20% difference of total usage.
With heavy PC or home entertainment use, you can expect to be above the average.
Normal home appliances and electronics are quite efficient these days and inactive usage close to 0. The big kitchen ones are provided by the landlord, unless you get a separate freezer.
So you can only reduce or optimize so much. For example, run the dishes at night, use remaining heat when cooking or baking, avoid using the dryer in the first place and so forth.
As a general point to the budget, I’m missing an item for various purchases. Sure, you don’t buy new furniture or electronics every month, but those add up.
I’m wondering now why our electricity consumption is so high.
We do have a large fridge and a freezer, but I wouldn’t expect that to take too much. We cook at home a lot so maybe the induction hob and oven use up a bit. Even running the dishwasher every night and washing machine twice a week, I still don’t see why we should be at >300 kWh a month.
Found this. It’s from 2021, but should hold up.
Cooking is energy intensive. Induction should be among the most efficient ones, though.
Fridge or freezer still use way less, but then they’re running 24/7
How is your water heated? Electric boilers are a significant factor into electricity consumption for units using them (and for whose they’re billed).
You can ask for your meter to be checked if you suspect its readings are incorrect. They may bill it to you if the audit reveals it’s working properly.
That wouldn’t be my first, second, third or fourth check but it’s not an impossibility that someone is connected to your post meter wiring or that other appliances (say, a crypto miner) are run by other members of the household (I’d check everything else twice before even thinking of going that way).
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