Our energy consumption

We should probably fork the thread.

It is probably more relevant to discuss kWh than CHF. As a family of 4 in a house, non-electric heating, we spent 3242 kWh last year, i.e. <9 kWh per day. When we were a couple in a 50m2 flat we used to spend <3kWh per day but we used the common washing machine and dryer and had no dishwasher (edit: and I was not working from home half of the time).

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Same for me I have a new AAA fridge and I use the building common laundry machine.

We spend 1,71 kWh by day (52 kWh/ month or 624 kWh/year) on average which include few appliances :

  • Internet router ,
  • 2 computers,
  • 2 phones,
  • espresso machine,
  • nutri bullet,
  • vitro ceramic hubs,
  • 1 oven
  • 1 instant pot
  • 2 kettles
  • 1 old fashion toaster
  • 1 hand blender
  • AAA fridge / freezer
  • 1 dyson hoover v8
  • all 9 lights are led

Lifestyle: We cook 80% of our meal and wfh 1 days a week each.
We travel 1/2 weekend by month outside of our home.

But does not include

  • dishwasher (we do not use it)
  • laundry machine (we spend 6-8chf/month)
  • hot water
  • nor heating
    Both are provided by the building for a provision of 180 chf by month (+50% in 2021).
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We can split the discussion about the energy consumption if you want. Our numbers from the previous period, if I understand our bill correctly: 4.1 kWh per day. We are a family of 4, only 2 days per week there is no one home, we were away on vacation that year probably 5 weeks and couple of weekends. We use a common washing machine.

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You might have misread. Or you have a Bitcoin farm. :smiley:
It’s per year. According to google/axpo you are on the average swiss family group.

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Per year it was around 1500 kWh. Not including energy to warm water that comes through pipes.

An average Swiss four-person household consumes about 4500 to 5000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year (including electric hot water preparation).

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4.1 kWh you said. I read 4.1k kWh. :slight_smile:
4.1 kWh is then low. I wonder how you got that number. I’ve never seen bills per day.

Maybe it’s the axpo number too high? I remember something about 2000kwh goal. Minergie something…
Found this: 2000-watt society - Wikipedia

These comparisons lack context.
If your rental apartment is heated with oil, your stove uses gas, you fill your car at the gas station and warm water is billed via the other utilities, your personal electricity bill can be very low. You still consume a lot of energy, electric or not, and you pay for it.
If the energy for your efficient heat pump, water boiler, dryer and charging station are all electrified and go straight to your personal electricity bill, obviously it will be 10x higher, but without the other cost.

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I took a number from the final bill for the previous year and divided by 365 because others were quoting their numbers per day.

I also wonder if this number includes for example public transport and offices. Otherwise it does look too high. We have so many talented people in this community, maybe someone has a professional insight on this topic? @Architect ?

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Honestly if we use hydrocarbons as a source of energy, I prefer that they are burned directly to warm houses, water or to cook. Burning hydrocarbons to produce electricity that is transferred via electric grid and then used to warm stuff is a disaster, you lose like 70% (optimistic) of initially available energy.

In this context, cars working on petroleum might be even more energy efficient than electric cars using electricity produced from hydrocarbons.

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Not that I’m a fan of burning hydrocarbons by any means: With modern (gas) plants, losses are not near 70%, but more around 40% (+60% plant efficiency) [1].

Most/all ICE cars are not operated near the efficient speed range, averaging in a low ~20% efficiency [2].
EV on the other hand are around 65% (pessimistic sources) - 75% efficient [3]. This (65%) in combination with the 60% of [1], we’re still looking at an almost 2x factor of EVs efficiency. Even powered with electricity from an old coal plant (efficiency of ~40%), an EV is (slightly) more efficient then ICEs on average…

And yes: There are factors on both sides not taken into consideration (transportation, storage, …)

[1] Combined cycle power plant - Wikipedia
[2] Verbrennungsmotor – Wikipedia
[3] Elektroauto – Wikipedia

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Thanks for the shout out Dr.PI. Are you referring to the goal(s) of the 2’000 Watt society? If so, it’s a concept related to the general primary energy consumed by the society… at a national level and calculated as an ‘average’ per inhabitant. It forces us/we to rethink 1) energy sources (from non-renewable to renewable + help to low CO2 emissions) and 2) reduce the energy consumption in all sectors (infrastructures, housing, mobility…).

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Thanks for the info! I meant the whole process: burning, producing electricity, transfer by the grid, using electricity to warm up stuff. But ok, after electricity being produced, other steps are quite efficient as far as I understand.

No, I am referring to energy consumption at home numbers and what would be average for a house/apartment.

In 2021 we consumed around 4800 kWh, but I was mining with 3 GPUs in that year. Hopefully we got down to max. 3000 kWh this year.

I just made a quick check and the Office Fédérale de l’Energie OFEN published some fresh numbers (2021) related to electricity consumption per appartement size (excluding the ‘built’ factor that can change between households.) Here the pdf FR or DE and here bellow a couple of print screens with consumption and also the breakdown… This allows your estimate your specific consumption of ‘office related activities’ if ceteris paribus.

I’ll check my own numbers :slight_smile: Are you in the average? :electric_plug:


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Indeed. Like heating with a heat pump, that is like ~300% efficient :wink:

IMHO: Even with a very high fossil energy mix, EV and heat pumps are still more efficient on average…

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Burning 1L Diesel gives you what, 9.8 kWh? That’s enough energy for driving a Tesla for ~60km.

ICE are so inefficient that even burning gasoline to produce electricity for EVs is better.

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I agree. I’m consuming approx. 1600 Kwh per year for an household of one in a 1 bedroom apartment with old appliances (inc. Washing machine, wine fridge and the cost to recharge the electric bike).

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I have just checked out of curiosity. We use around 6000 kWh per year for a household with 4 incl. heat pump etc. furthermore, we also supply around 4000 kWh back to the grid with our PV. Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that we spend that much in a new house with PV. I assume that the heating is quite a big part as my wife comes from a tropical country and can not live below 25°C :rofl: let’s see if you come lower for this winter

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For sure. 25°C needs ~20% more energy than 22°C.

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A lot of utilities usage might be showers. A 10 minute shower costs about 1 CHF

shower cost calculator

(I looked this up after seeing a headline from the UK )

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