The CompareElectricity Index.Real usage, shared anonymously.
How much electricity households that compare here actually use, next to ESB's 4,200 kWh headline.
The numbers
- Median yearly use
- 5,442 kWh
- Middle half of households
- 3,411–8,003 kWh
- Households in the sample
- 328
- From smart meter data
- 155 (47%)
The CompareElectricity Index
Ireland's real electricity usage.From real bills, not ESB's headline.
Not ESB's 4,200 kWh “average”. Real homes, anonymously.
ESB headline “average”4,200 kWh
Real median (328 homes)5,442 kWh
30% higher than ESB's figure.
Run a comparison and your usage is added anonymously.
Add your usageAnonymous. No names or addresses.
How the Index works
- When someone runs an electricity comparison here and leaves “Add my usage” ticked, we record their yearly kWh, the home type they picked, urban or rural, their night-time share and whether the figure came from an ESB smart meter file.
- Figures that are just one of our home-type presets, unedited, are left out. Averaging our own defaults would only echo them back.
- We show the median (the middle household), not the mean, so a few very large users don't skew it.
- No figure is shown until 10 households have taken part, and it's marked as an early estimate until 30.
What it can and can't tell you
- It describes households that chose to compare plans on this site. It is not a survey of all Irish homes, and isn't weighted by region, home type or household size.
- Typed-in figures can be estimates. Smart meter uploads are measured, which is why we show how many there are.
- We don't yet ask about electric cars, heat pumps or solar, so the Index can't break usage down by them.
Privacy
Submissions are anonymous: no names, emails, addresses or MPRNs are stored with them, and an uploaded ESB file is read on your device and never sent to us. You can untick “Add my usage” before comparing. See our privacy policy.