Homeowners across the US are receiving the highest electricity bills of their lives (so far), thanks to a combination of rapid utility rate hikes and record-breaking summer heat waves that are driving up electricity usage.

With electricity more expensive than ever, it’s normal to wonder how many kilowatt-hours (kWh) is normal to consume in a day so you can accurately budget for your energy costs and make a plan to lower them.

In this article, we’ll explore average daily electricity consumption in the US and how it differs based on your home size, family size, and location. 

Let’s get started with a baseline so we understand what’s high or low.

Did you know? With the “One Big Beautiful Bill” signed into law, the 30% tax credit for solar ends on December 31, 2025. Residential solar and battery systems will need to be installed by the end of the year to qualify for this federal tax incentive. Compare quotes today to secure an installation date and lock in your home’s full savings potential.

How many kWh per day is normal?

The average US household electricity consumption is 29 kWh per day, according to the most recent data from the US Energy Information Administration, which means the average kWh usage per month is around 870 kWh.

However, it’s worth noting that daily electricity consumption varies substantially based on the location, size, and number of members in a home.

For example, in the hot sticky South, it’s normal to use around 37 kWh per day to power your air conditioning day and night for much of the year. Meanwhile, it’s normal to around 23 kWh per day in the Northeast and West, where more moderate climates require less energy for heating and cooling.

Of course, climate conditions and daily electricity usage vary within each region. Use the map below to see the average daily kWh consumed in each household in your state.

Find your average kilowatt usage per day

Now that we have a baseline average for kWh usage per day, let’s see how yours compares. Start by finding a recent electricity bill (check your mail and email inbox, or log into your electric utility account). On your bill, you’ll likely see a “Historical Usage Graph” that shows a year’s worth of electricity consumption, like the example below:

Add up your total electricity usage over the last year and divide by 365 to get your average kWh usage per day. Make sure to get at least 12 months’ worth of data so you are accounting for seasonal highs and lows throughout the year!

Once you know your kWh per day average, you can see how it compares based on your state, square footage, and number of household members. Check out the charts below to compare.

How many kWh does a house use per day?

The average US household uses around 29 kWh per day. However, this can vary by the size of the home, as bigger homes require more energy for heating, cooling, and lighting and may have additional electrical systems like multiple refrigerators, TVs, pools, and hot tubs.

In fact, the average electricity usage for a 3,000+ square foot home is over 42 kWh per day, which is over twice the average usage of homes less than 1,000 square feet.

The median home size in the US is 2,000 square feet which averages around 30-33 kWh of electricity usage per day.

Related reading: Which Celebrity Mansion Could Offset the Most CO2 With Solar Panels?

Is 40 kWh per day a lot?

40 kWh of electricity usage per day is much higher than the average household consumption of 29 kWh per day. However, it’s quite normal for homes with 3,000+ square feet and/or five or more members (especially in the South!)

The chart below shows the average daily electricity consumption based on the number of people in a home. 

Each additional member of the house represents another person doing laundry, charging devices, using hot water, leaving lights on, and demanding the home stay at just the right temperature. Once you reach five members, it’s quite normal to have daily consumption near or above 40 kWh.

It’s important to note that having high daily consumption – like 40 kWh – presents a massive opportunity for savings by going solar. Like many products, pricing for solar projects (measured in dollars per watt) gets better as the project gets larger. This allows you to drop your cost per unit of electricity lower than homes with smaller solar projects and, by using more kWh, you have more opportunities to save.

How many kWh per day is normal in summer?

Electricity consumption ranges from 20-50 kWh per day in the summer, largely based on how hot it gets and how much A/C you use.  At the national average, summer electricity usage is roughly 20% higher than the average daily consumption throughout the year. As such, electricity bills tend to be higher as well, especially in areas with time-of-use rates that increase during the summer months.

The chart below shows the average kWh per day in summer for each census zone. Use this map to see which census zone you are in.

The West South Central states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana have the highest summer electricity usage at 53 kWh per day, which, at 12 cents per kWh, translates to $190 per month and nearly $575 over the summer.

Lower your cost per kWh with solar

Everyone’s daily electricity usage is different and “normal” is whatever you want it to be. Electricity consumption can be hard to control since so much of it is tied to heating and cooling and is dependent on climate conditions. 

However, you can control the price you pay per kWh of electricity by installing solar panels. Connect with an Energy Advisor to explore your savings potential.

There are a zillion articles and videos promising “expert tips” for how to lower your electric bill. Spoiler alert: 99% of them focus solely on reducing consumption and have no actionable advice for lowering your rate.

We’re here to shake things up a bit.

We’re all for conserving electricity, but usage is only half of the equation for electricity bills and it can only realistically be reduced so far. In fact, if you are experiencing high electricity bills, it’s far more effective to reduce your rate than to shave your consumption down one kilowatt-hour at a time .

So, in this article, we’re going to skip over turning off lights and unplugging appliances to focus on the meaningful ways to lower your electric bill.

In this article:

• What causes high electric bills?
• How to save on your electric bill
• Lowering your electricity rate with solar panels
• How does solar reduce your monthly electricity bill?
• Frequently asked questions

Let’s start with a quick investigation of what causes high electricity bills.

What causes high electric bills?

High electricity bills are typically caused by a combination of extreme weather and utility rate hikes. For example, intense or prolonged heat waves cause homeowners to use more electricity for air conditioning. Meanwhile, utility electricity prices increased in 2022 at the highest rate in 40 years.

Each of these forces on their own can cause electricity bills to increase substantially. But when combined – as they have been in the summer of 2023 – they create the perfect storm for high electricity bills.

So, what can we do about it?

How to save on your electric bill

There are three ways to save money on your electric bill: Lower your rate, reduce consumption, and conserve electricity. Most articles – and homeowners – tend to focus solely on reducing consumption with things like upgrading to LED lightbulbs, unplugging devices, sealing doors and windows, and fine-tuning the thermostat.

But we find it more effective – and realistic – to focus on lowering your rate. Here are two reasons why.

Why it’s time to focus on lowering your electricity rate

First, electricity consumption isn’t easy to control. Typically 30-50% of household electricity consumption is from heating and cooling, which is largely dependent on the weather and extreme weather events. For example, during the prologned 2023 summer heat wave, Phoenix saw at least 19 consecutive days with temperatures above 110 degrees (the streak is still going as I’m writing this!), forcing residents to keep their ACs humming or risk heat-related illnesses and deaths.

Second, conserving electricity is a wonderful thing, and anything you can do to prevent waste is a win in our book, but having high electricity consumption isn’t necessarily a bad thing, economically and environmentally, if you are using it efficiently and in place of fossil fuels.

The prime example is home electric vehicle (EV) charging. Charging an EV at home is many times cleaner, more convenient, and more cost-effective than fueling a combustion vehicle at a gas station. But it will also make your electricity bill increase substantially.

The same goes for electrifying your stove, water heater, clothes dryer, and heating and cooling systems.

In fact, if the goal is to cut your overall energy costs, then home electrification is the way to go for four reasons:

1. Electricity is cheaper (and cleaner) than fossil fuels
2. Electrical systems are far more efficient than combustion systems
3. There are robust incentives for home electrification upgrades
4. You can control the price you pay for electricity

The last point is the most important, because unless you have an inside man at OPEC, there is virtually nothing you can do about the price of fossil fuels for your car or home. However, home solar gives you the power to lower your electricity rate.

Lowering your electricity rate with solar panels

At its core, home solar is a way to buy electricity in bulk. And if we’ve learned anything from Costco, it’s that buying in bulk is a great way to reduce the cost of essential items and save a ton of money over time.

So, what does that look like for electricity? The metric to focus on is Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), which is essentially the price you pay per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity that you use (aka your utility rate). You can find your LCOE by taking your electricity costs and dividing it by your electricity consumption.

For example, let’s say you live in California and you paid $1,765 for 6,504 kWh of electricity over the course of a year. That would bring your LCOE to 27.15 cents per kWh.

$1,765 / 6,504 kWh = $0.2715 per kWh

Even easier, just look up your electricity rate on your utility bill. For reference, the national average price of electricity in June 2023 was 17 cents per kWh, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Now that you have a score to beat, let’s see how to find the LCOE of a solar system.

What’s the price per kWh of home solar?

The price per kWh of solar varies from system to system depending on the size and scope of the project, how it’s financed, and the incentives available in the area.

For example, a larger system purchased with cash can typically produce electricity at around 6-8 cents per kWh, after the 30% solar tax credit is applied. A smaller, more complex project that’s financed with a loan may produce electricity at closer to 12-14 cents per kWh.

The amazing thing is that homeowners can effectively control their price per kWh by choosing:

• The size of their system
• The equipment and installers they choose
• Which incentives they claim
• How they finance the project (cash or loan)

The easiest way to find the cost per kWh of home solar is to generate and compare binding quotes from solar.com’s network of vetted installers. However, you can get a ballpark figure by taking the net cost of the system (after incentives) and dividing it by the estimated production over 25 years.

How to calculate the cost per kWh of home solar

Let’s say you buy a 6 kW system for $25,000. Between the 30% tax credit and the interest on a 12-year loan, the net cost of the system comes to $23,000.

Factoring in 5.5 hours of sunshine per day and typical degradation, this 6 kW system can be expected to produce a total of 219,500 kWh of electricity throughout its 25-year warrantied life. That brings the price per kWh – or levelized cost of electricity – to 10.48 cents per kWh.

$23,000 / 219,500 kWh = $0.1048 per kWh

This is 38% lower than the average electricity rate in the US, and a 60% reduction in higher cost states like California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. You can cut and conserve as much electricity as you’d like, but it’s unrealistic to sustain a 40-60% reduction in an era of electrification and climate change.

How does solar lower your electricity bill?

Home solar reduces your monthly electric bill in two ways: By offsetting your grid consumption with net metering credits and by reducing your grid consumption altogether (aka “behind the meter” savings). With a properly sized solar system that produces 100% or more of your electricity usage, your electricity costs become the fixed monthly payments on your solar and/or battery equipment, which are much lower than the cost of grid electricity over time.

Net metering: Offset your grid usage

Most residential solar systems use net metering to trade electricity back and forth with the local utility grid. In net metering, homeowners earn credits for the electricity their solar system pushes onto the grid, and use those credits to offset the cost of electricity they pull off the grid at night.

A system sized to produce 100% of a household’s average electricity consumption can effectively reduce the electricity bill completely, aside from certain fixed charges that can’t be offset, and your electricity costs are the predictable monthly payments for your solar system.

Depending on how you finance the system, your solar payments may be higher or lower than your electricity bill at first, as shown in the table below for a household using 750 kWh per month.

*Based on APR rate of 5%. All solar options for 6 kW system with net price of $17,500 after claiming the 30% tax credit.

But the thing about electricity rates is that they keep rising over time. So, even if your solar payment starts out higher than your average electricity bill, it won’t stay that way for long.

The point is that solar gives you options for lowering your electric bill. You can:

• Pay cash to get the greatest lifetime savings
• Take out a 20-year loan to start saving on Day 1
• Take out a 12-year loan to a steady payment and substantial lifetime savings

It’s worth noting that net metering isn’t offered everywhere, and in some places (namely California) the credit value of excess solar electricity is far less than the price of using grid electricity. In this case, it’s better to reduce your grid consumption as much as possible.

Battery storage: Reduce your grid usage

The second way is by using battery storage to reduce the homeowner’s reliance on the grid altogether to lower their electricity bill. With a properly sized solar and battery system, a household can produce, store, and use all of its own solar electricity.

Batteries are most known for their ability to provide backup power. However, they also perform a function called “load shifting,” which is essentially storing the cheap electricity produced by solar systems to avoid using expensive electricity from the utility grid.

Given the cost, it can be tough to achieve Year 1 electricity bill savings with a solar and battery system. However, under NEM 3.0 solar billing in California, solar and battery typically yield greater savings than solar-only systems.

Solar is key to a lower electric bill

Home solar gives homeowners unprecedented control over their electricity rate, which is crucial to cutting essential electricity costs. Using net metering and/or battery storage, homeowners can replace the cost of buying electricity from their utility with predictable payments for their solar system – leading to substantial energy cost savings over the 25 year life of the system.

High electricity consumption is not necessarily a bad thing, if it’s being used efficiently and in place of fossil fuel systems. With that in mind, focusing solely on cutting consumption (as many articles do) is an unrealistic way to lower an electric bill.

With that said, the most effective way to lower your electric bill is through a combination of installing solar panels, reducing consumption, and conserving electricity.

Connect with an Energy Advisor to see how much you can save with solar.

How to lower your electric bill FAQs

Does unplugging appliances save electricity?

Unplugging certain appliances when they are not in use can save the average household up to $100 per year in electricity costs, according to the US Department of Energy. Standby power or vampire power — the electricity consumed by appliances that are off but still plugged in — accounts for 5-10% of residential electricity use. This can be reduced by uplugging appliances when not in use, using a power strip, or upgrading to energy efficient products with lower standby power usage.

Why is my AC bill so high?

AC bills (aka the electricity consumption associated with air conditioning) get higher during the summer when the units are running more frequently and for longer periods of time. Air conditioning costs can also increase due to heatwaves or if the AC unit is not functioning properly. To decrease your AC costs, have a professional tune up your machine, decrease your usage by setting a higher indoor temperature, or install solar panels to decrease the price you pay for electricity.

Why is my electric bill $500?

The average electricity bill in the United States varies from $85 in Utah to over $245 in Connecticut, so a $500 monthly bill is very high. This is likely due to a combination of increased usage (EV charging, prolonged air conditioning, pool or hot tub heating, etc) and/or a significant electricity rate hike by your utility. There could also be an appliance malfunctioning or left running that is using an abnormal amount of electricity.