Hello everyone. I’m wondering what’s the typical household electricity usage is in Japan. I know it’s hard to tell “typical” as people live in different apartments and use (or not) AC or other appliances. But still given the circumstances and kWh usage I could figure out more or less what to expect.
In my case:
* quite a big apartment (but it shouldn’t matter, as other rooms are not used and therefore no AC enabled)
* single AC warming the room 24/7, set to 24C at daytime and 22C at night
* two washlets with warm seat
* small ceramic heater
* with PC on the whole day (working from home)
* and typical stuff, fridge, lamp in the evening
Usage: 966 kWh in February
Now, back home I was using 1/4 of this. Maybe 1/3 during winter. Granted, that was with central heating so it may be different but home was bigger and all rooms heated. I am slightly alarmed at the usage, but maybe it is normal in Japan? Could anyone please confirm their case?
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EDIT:
Of course we do disable AC when no one is at home. I sometimes do disable AC in the morning when the sun is out. House is badly insulated, sure, but still – only one AC is on, and it shouldn’t triple the usage, I guess.
39 comments
That seems awfully high for an apt
We used 850kw last month, largish house all electric, cold area.
Mostly for hot water and appliances, one small electric radiator.
I have a gaming PC on maybe 4 hours a day, work laptop 8 on hours a day, aircon heater at 20C, fridge. No heated toilet seats or ceramic heater. I use between 100-120 kWh per month.
I’d cut the heated toilet seats, or at least put it on some kind of a wall plug timer. Those felt toilet seat paddings do more than enough for me.
287kWh this month for a family of four. Cook and heat water with gas. Run A/Cs no higher than 20°C and set to a timer at night. Don’t use the heated function on the washlet seat. Laptop on 24/7. Plus typical things like a fridge. Cook a lot with an electric oven. Also run the clothes dryer a few times when necessary.
Something is wrong, that usage just doesn’t line up.
Could you have electric hot water and take a lot of long showers?
For February me and my partner used 165kWh.
Good bless your wallet
966??? That’s what I had last summer nwhen crypto mining…
We are currently below 300, we don’t warm the house 24/7, cut the heating at night or when there’s no one at home, close the doors to the room we dont need to heat.
24 degrees in winter is freaking hot, get something over your tee shirt mate…
22 at night is also a lot, you dont have blankets?
I think we were around 280kwh. Family of 4, house. Don’t use air con in winter, but use a gas heater with a fan blower. It’s been running less and less, not 24h. During the weekdays between 2-5 hours, depending on what time we all go to bed and how cold it is. Weekends might be longer, especially January through mid February. I will put it away this week. No need to heat up bedrooms, that’s what blankets are for so no air con in those rooms.
Gaming PC that runs between 2-10 hours, PS5 that’s used daily, various tablets and phones being charged. Don’t use the heated seat feature on toilets, led lights through the entire house. 4 people taking hot showers daily, laundry, gas stove, oven used at times, stand mixer used at times, hybrid hot water tank etc… you get the idea. We will use air con more once it’s really humid at night, but will use eco mode and try to keep the usage as little as possible.
Honestly your situation sounds too high and sounds like you enjoy wasting electricity. Why ceramic heater and air con?
We’re on a range of 200-300kwh. The heater is not turned on 24/7 but most of the day it is. Plus your usual appliances. My laptop is plugged in 24/7 plus gaming consoles and a projector. 900kwh is a bit too much
106kWh. 2 aircons at 21C daytime (off at night), 3 laptops on 24/7, gas stove and heated water, laundry once a week.
Recently, 600-700 kWh for a family of six. We use our air con to heat our place only 1-2 hours a day. This figure includes A LOT of use of appliances such as extra fridge and freezers, ovens, clothes dryers, and large dishwasher.
Our electricity bill is hooked up with cc. I cant now get details and usage. Anyway to look all these details?
That’s a lot. To cut down you should certainly be able to turn off the heater at night. If you are cold without the heater, then your place has an insulation problem which is going to increase electricity use anyway, or you need to have a better comforter on your bed/futon. Of course in summer I use my air conditioner all the time.
I am wondering what you are wearing at home? In winter I wear a T-shirt with a fleece top, fleece pants, and fleece socks, LOL, very comfortable and warm. I have a fleece blanket on the sofa as well for extra cold evenings.
I never use the heating function on the washlet, but my apartment is well insulated so the seat never feels cold. Just buy a seat cover at the ¥100 store and it’ll save you money if it’s too cold without the heater.
Just under 300 kWh for 3LDK
350kw/h during the winter months for a 3ldk 2 stories house and about 200kw/h during summer.
Also have 2 heated washlets, 2PC and a 8GPU render farm on the whole day. I don’t turn on the AC in the room with the render farm as it generates enough heat to not need it.
Are you sure you are trying to heat your apartment and not the whole planet?
I maybe wrong, but ceramic heater might be the problem. A decade ago I used oil heater one winter, it used electricity to heat, my usage went up like 500%. After that I concluded nothing is more efficient/cheaper than air con set at 18C.
That seems really high. We average around 800 in winter, 200 not winter because we run oil heaters. That is with IH cooking, gas for hot water.
Umm 1326kWh this February, Central heating set to 20c day-16c night, plus electric car were biggest users.
150kwh around 200 on summer.
i pay around 5,000 ~ 6,000
Your AC is killing you I imagine. I live in a 3LDK condo. We have the standard set of appliances. Wife works from home. The only thing we use for heat is the DeLongli heater during the evenings as it’s not too cold. Last month we used 383kwh. You might want to check the energy efficiency of your AC and maybe not use it 24/7.
Here is mine for a 一戸建て between 5 and 6 people. depending when grandmother is with us.I work from home also.
winter usually the heat is set to 21~22.
summer 26
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44 for January and 70 for February, easier to gaman when you live alone
Reading this has made me think we really need to check with our energy provider :/ pretty sure we used around 400 last month but that’s without running the air con at night and switching it off completely on some days.
I’d have to check but it’s probably high. My husband has a greenhouse full of heat lamps and I have an EV that I charge overnight once or twice a week. We also live in a big, drafty, two-story house that is always a challenge to keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We consider it a good month when the electricity bill is below ¥30,000.
Idk lol. But I pay around 25.000 (4 ac)
I thought it was expensive until my friend show me his bills 45.000 😳
Used 544 kWh last month
2 people in a 2DK, Aircon at 20c + gaming pc on all time in bedroom in evenings, kotatsu in living room on aswell in the evenings, average 10-15kwh/day in January/February. Bad insulation and partner forgetting to turn off kotatsu probably causes that to be on the higher end 😅
Last bill was 1843 yen for 98kWh living alone in a 2DK. I don’t use my aircons though.
For last closed period of Dec-17 to Jan-16 I got:
* 518 kWh electricity for 22,436¥
* 81m3 gas for 14,008¥
70m2 apartment, wife and I both home full-time (I work remote, she’s a home maker) and baby mostly at preschool or daycare.
* We use the floor heating in the living room, that uses gas
* I will often have the AC on at 20C during the day in the master bedroom where my work desk is
* Baby’s room has AC on at 18C from 6pm to 7am
* The washer/dryer runs once or twice a day and probably uses quite a lot of juice
* Clothes that are not safe to tumble dry go in the unit bath with the dryer mode on which uses gas
* We don’t do a lot of baths
I live with my extremely cold-intolerant mother, and ours is above 450 kwh. our AC is set quite high, though it’s off at night, and our stovetops are IH. when I’m by myself, no AC/IH use during the day because I’m at work, it’s still around 100 kwh.
179 last month and that was “high” and paid 6500 yen. Live alone in a 1LDK
Detached house with AC in the living room and upstairs bedrooms (2). Also a gas heater for really cold days. Gas cooking. Heated toilet seats (x2) and kotatsu for winter. iMac on 24/7 and TV on a lot. Two adults two kids. We seem to be averaging between 400kW and 600 kW a month.
If you can see your meter, it might be worth turning off every device in your house and see if it stops turning. If it doesn’t, then something you’re not aware of is consuming power.
Since it is a common topic… (1LDK All Electric ~44m3 remote working)
This winter I had read that on the other island nation (the UK), the recommendation was to set AC to 18C. So I did this to keep costs this year similar to last year (AC at 23C).
(Referring to the graph). The difference here between Dec, Jan, and Feb is the difference in base rates, and also the fuel adjustment rate. In Feb 2022 the rate turned positive (-0.53 to 0.74). However this past Jan-Feb the rate declined for the first time in awhile (12.99 to 6.04). No other base rate changed (they are actually cheaper currently vs. last year), so the difference for me in Jan and Feb is primarily the fuel adjustment rate’s decline.
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I will say however being at 18C is a test of sanity and sometimes I just walk out to go to a department store because its just better heated. I really get frustrated sometimes.
162kw for January, used the aircon almost everyday. I never charge my car at home, I use free chargers at the mall, saves me a bunch 👍🏼
24 and 22 are really warm. Do you wear sweaters at home?
You can likely do minimal heating at night, especially when paired with an electric blanket – the human body is a wonderful and resilient thing, being cold at night won’t kill anyone or give them a cold, and I’d imagine people won’t kick off the blanket if it’s colder in the room.
Around 90 kWh/month
40m² apartment, laptop, PS5, OLED 48 inches TV, washer, 225L fridge.
Max 400kwh if I run everything everywhere all at once.
Recommended temp for winter is 20C, it’s what your aircon’s efficiency is tested at for heating. There’s a few factors involved, but it’s roughly 25~40% more efficient(compared to 24C). Putting on a sweater could save you 10,000¥. If you want to activate comfy mode, a kotatsu blanket(2m x 2m) are usually on sale this time of year for 2~3,000¥.
I would suggest it’s almost certainly the fault of your ceramic heater. I was waiting to install an aircon so my January bill was 490KWH because I used a 1000W oil heater. My February bill was 210kwh after getting a daikin split air con.
I also have a gaming pc, but it was built for efficiency. Radeon 6600, ryzen 5600, power draw when gaming at 1440p is around 250W, including the display(s).
If you use multi monitors, larger, higher res also uses significantly more power. So if you’re using multiple 30″ 4K displays, they’ll use significantly more power than a 24″ 1080p. Not a whole lot, but it adds up if they’re on all the time.
If you set the AC two degrees lower you’d notice about 50% decrease in electricity usage.
Get one of those little meters and do the test each night, one with your normal temp and the other two degrees lower.
YMMV but that’s the ballpark.
That seems high. Our all electric house used 1326 kWh for February.
I just got a 1000 yen Amazon voucher from our electric company for being a “low user” in January. My wife was away for 3 weeks and I barely had the heating on. Did you have electric central heating back home? It’s usually gas in the UK.