Gun, try looking in the Cave of Winds for your spiritual answer
See i think that the DOE numbers might be a bit screwy too, oh wait its the gubernet
DOE says average kwh consumption is 10,656 per year. I used their kwh usage per item and household to check my house.
Central Air 2796
water heating 2552
Lighting 940
Clothes Dryer 1079
Furnace fan 500
Dishwasher 512
electric range top 536
electric oven 440
microwave oven 209
electric toaster oven 50
coffee maker 116
Color TV x4 548
VCR/DVD x2 140
Satellite dish 1 x4 receivers 520
PC desk top x5 1310
Printer w/ fax copier 216
Ceiling fan x3 150
Clothes Washer 120
Compact Stereo 81
Component Stereo 55
Portable Stereo 19
Answering Machine 35
Cordless telephone x2 52
Rechargeable tools 43
Routers x2 70
based on the DOE my average kwh usage should be 13089, but in reality is its closer to 18,000 per year.
so how did they arrive at an average of 10,656? I would agree that my house is likely not an average representation so let me try building an average usage from their list
Central Air 2796
water heating 2552
Lighting 940
Clothes Dryer 1079
Furnace fan 500
thats 7867 kwh so far
everyone maynot have a dishwasher so I'll leave that out
electric range top 536
electric oven 440
microwave oven 209
color TV 137
clothes washer 120
VCR/DVD 70
compact stereo 81
at least 1 PC 262
thats another 1855, so 9722 so far
average household might have
coffee maker 116
electric toaster oven 50
answering machine 35
cordless phone 26
another 227 kwh per year brings that total to 9949, still not hitting the 10,656 average
lets see
Cable box 120
Freezer? i dont have one but maybe the average home does 1,039
portable stereo 19
that adds another 1178 which brings us up to 11127
all that means is my numbers do not make anymore sense than the DOE's numbers, just made up and thrown around to make a meanless statistic.
footnotes say they used a 1997 report, Energy Data Sourcebook for the U.S. Residential Sector, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1997.