alt Hacker NewsGood analysis. And kudos to the author for saving money. But still 21.6MWh per year excluding solar production seems too high for a household. I use electric heating and drive an electric vehicle, and my household annual energy consumption is about one fifth of that.
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Not all homes are made equal: different appliances & electronics from different vintages, etc.
I have 2 EVs (Tesla and BMW), an electric oven, and a homelab rack (but no HVAC), and my usage was 34.4 MWh last year — with 100% from Solar and Powerwall.
We brought down our energy consumption substantially over the years starting not so far from that high figure, including swapping out racks of Sun servers for an RPi or two, and we are now slight net exporters of utility energy and with it roughly zero carbon...
It's more a stress test showing that even with unusually high consumption, solar + batteries + tariff optimisation can still materially change the cost curve
I can’t see any mention of hot water or cooking in the article, which may be relevant.
I was stoked at the power saving from turning off an espresso machine a bit sooner, a swapping out a nuc to a Mac mini.
Maybe there is a bit coin mining operation in his basement?
That’s about double the average household so I would imagine spending that money and effort into energy efficiency would pay off way better that solar and batteries.
I used about 64MWh last year, not counting what I used for EV charging (Which is on a separate meter). I also produced about 20MWh from Solar. With the EVs I would guess the total is around 70MWh.
Some of this extra is certainly my 6kw homelab + HVAC for that. ;)
maybe saving money they used more - in other words Jevon's paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
thus perhaps leading to more global warming
It's high but it really depends on your lifestyle and appliances.
If you have a heat pump water heater and heat pump based floor heating you'll use 1/4th of the energy as the same house with resistive water/floor heating.
A house which barely passed regulation from 2010 will consume 5-10x the energy of a certified passive house.
etc.
That being said I think you have to draw the line somewhere. I'd much rather have inefficient appliances (resistive boiler/heaters) and be fully solar powered than spend 50k in heatpumps and other gimmicks that are rated for 10 years and cost a kidney in maintenance and the eventual replacement.
From the article: "My wife and I both drive electric cars"
That probably explains it.
I think Scott's usage is high – I think he mentions between £300-400 / month – but then he's got a hot tub, server rack as well as the cars.
We still have an ICE car and gas central heating but our combined electricity and gas bill is around £140 / month
Plan to go to EV and heat pump in our next house though
I'm an example more towards the middle.
In 2025 I produced 6.5MWh (solar) and consumed 12.7MWh (excluding solar production); this is a family of 4 in a 4 season climate with electric heating and a single electric car.
That was my highest year over the past 5 years.
An additional EV can really add up, especially if both people have long commutes.
Their total household usage was actually ~17.3 MWh depending on what data source you're using for their usage.
Given 6 MWh of exports with only 3.2 MWh of total solar production, they are cycling their powerwall to get paid for the fact that their off-peak rate is half the price of their peak export tariff rate which is inflating the number you're looking at.