From 13000 kWh to 1400 kWh, saving € 2320 per year….

After my enthousiasm about my first solar panel, I started to investigate my power consumption in my house

Soon, I learned that my electricity consumption in recent years has increased slowly, until an extremely high consumption (for Dutch standards) of 13000 kWh per year. That means an electricity bill of more than € 2600 per year! This triggered my action plan to started to be energy neutral. 

As a comparison, the electricity consumption of an average household (2.4 people) in the Netherlands in 2004 was 3346 kWh / year. A larger family uses more electricity in general, see the table below.

The yearly power consumption for different household sizes in the Netherlands:

• 1 person household 2220 kWh
• 2 person household 3095 kWh
• 3 person household 3875 kWh
• 4 person household 4345 kWh
• 5 person household 4910 kWh
• 6 or more persons household 5295 kWh.

Source: milieu centraal

This triggered me to investigate what caused my high power consumption…..

On the website of milieu centraal have found good overview of the major power consumers in a house. I used this as an guide to find my major power consumers.

Using this list I made an overview of my largest power consumers and an action plan how I could save energy with the same type of comfort. This resulted in the following actions to save energy:

* Assumption: Average use of lights 4 hours per day.

My action plan resulted in reducing my yearly power consumption from 13000 kWh to 3718 kWh. This saves me € 1856, – per year on my electricity bill. 

The other reduction is achieved by my new solar panels, which provide 2280 kWh per year.