WattShed Compare
How this home's electricity use compares to the average similar home.
Bring an annual kWh figure, from a utility bill's yearly total or from the measured savings check, choose the home's census region, and pick housing type, square footage, or household size as the lens. This compares that figure to the published RECS 2020 average for homes matching that lens in that region.
This is a comparison to a published average, not a percentile and not a score. The underlying survey, EIA's Residential Energy Consumption Survey, publishes the mean electricity use for each bucket of homes, not the spread of individual households inside it, so there is no percentile to place this home against, only the average it is compared to.
These averages are national-survey figures, and real homes vary widely inside every bucket. A home that differs from the average, in either direction, is a prompt to look closer, not a verdict on the home. Everything runs in this browser tab; nothing entered here is uploaded or stored.
1. Annual usage
Annual kWh
The home's electricity use over a year, in kWh. Read this off a utility bill's annual total, or bring it from the measured savings check.
2. Census region
Where the home sits
RECS reports its averages by census region, not by state. Which region am I in? Northeast CT ME MA NH NJ NY PA RI VT. Midwest IL IN IA KS MI MN MO NE ND OH SD WI. South AL AR DE DC FL GA KY LA MD MS NC OK SC TN TX VA WV. West AK AZ CA CO HI ID MT NV NM OR UT WA WY.
3. Lens and bucket
Compare against which homes
Pick the trait that defines the comparison group: housing type, square footage, or household size.
4. Result
Enter the home's annual kWh, choose a region and a lens, and pick a bucket to see a comparison.
5. Inspectable dataset
Every published bucket, by region
The full set of averages behind the result above, so it is checkable against the source table it came from.
Housing type
| Bucket | Northeast | Midwest | South | West |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-family detached | 10,181 kWh | 11,196 kWh | 15,150 kWh | 10,287 kWh |
| Single-family attached | 8,069 kWh | 8,024 kWh | 10,312 kWh | 6,465 kWh |
| Apartments in buildings with 2-4 units | 5,646 kWh | 6,372 kWh | 9,086 kWh | 5,644 kWh |
| Apartments in buildings with 5 or more units | 4,650 kWh | 5,529 kWh | 8,068 kWh | 5,086 kWh |
| Mobile homes | 8,433 kWh | 10,122 kWh | 14,804 kWh | 9,153 kWh |
Square footage
| Bucket | Northeast | Midwest | South | West |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 1,000 | 4,818 kWh | 6,156 kWh | 9,281 kWh | 5,362 kWh |
| 1,000 to 1,499 | 6,933 kWh | 8,168 kWh | 11,673 kWh | 7,952 kWh |
| 1,500 to 1,999 | 8,220 kWh | 9,788 kWh | 13,761 kWh | 9,492 kWh |
| 2,000 to 2,499 | 9,393 kWh | 10,735 kWh | 15,266 kWh | 10,705 kWh |
| 2,500 to 2,999 | 10,792 kWh | 10,886 kWh | 16,725 kWh | 11,643 kWh |
| 3,000 or more | 12,325 kWh | 13,876 kWh | 19,542 kWh | 13,118 kWh |
Household size
| Bucket | Northeast | Midwest | South | West |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 member | 5,027 kWh | 6,664 kWh | 9,425 kWh | 5,635 kWh |
| 2 members | 7,933 kWh | 9,895 kWh | 13,252 kWh | 8,875 kWh |
| 3 members | 9,330 kWh | 11,907 kWh | 15,276 kWh | 9,327 kWh |
| 4 members | 10,896 kWh | 12,082 kWh | 16,680 kWh | 10,303 kWh |
| 5 members | 11,788 kWh | 13,087 kWh | 17,949 kWh | 11,489 kWh |
| 6 or more members | 11,564 kWh | 13,892 kWh | 19,189 kWh | 11,881 kWh |
Source: EIA RECS 2020 Consumption and Expenditures tables CE2.1 through CE2.5, released March 2023, revised March 2024.
Related tools
Why an average, not a score
The survey publishes means. That is the honest limit of this comparison.
What the survey publishes
RECS 2020 publishes bucket means (and the totals behind them), not the underlying distribution of individual households within a bucket. There is no published percentile, quartile, or standard deviation to rank against, so a claim like "this home uses more than X% of similar homes" is not something the data can support. A comparison to the published average is the honest claim the survey lets anyone make.
What that means here
A result that lands well above or below the average is not a rank and not a grade. Real homes inside the same bucket vary widely, by insulation, by occupancy, by equipment age, by how someone actually runs a thermostat. A gap this size is common, and it is a prompt to look closer at the home, not a verdict already reached.
Source: EIA RECS 2020 Consumption and Expenditures tables CE2.1 through CE2.5, released March 2023, revised March 2024. RECS 2024, the next survey cycle, has published housing-characteristics data only; its consumption tables are not yet out, so RECS 2020 remains the latest vintage with published household electricity figures.