Another year gone by: Energy consumption in our passive house

We had a long and cold Winter in Germany and also several upgrades to our electrical equipment in our passive house. So I was curious how our energy consumption would be for the last 12 months compared to the year before. This morning was the time to read out our two energy meters (still old fashioned and not smart):

• Household consumption: 2473 kWh (previous year 2244 kWh)
• Heating/ventilation/water: 2858 kWh (previous year 2782 kWh)

As mentioned, the Winter was long and cold and thus the small increase for heating makes sense. It would have been even bigger if we would not have "cheated" when we bought (and used) a table-top fireplace. That small fireplace has a nice flame, burns Ethanol and, of course, produces some heat. It's stronger than some candles and only needs about 0.15 l of Ethanol an hour.

For the increased household consumption one big factor is my work: I traveled less over the past 12 months and worked more and longer at home, started using a 2nd screen, and am now using an automatic coffee/espresso maker to keep the spirits high. Now add in some kids asking for more TV and computer time, some more washing cycles, and extended cooking, then the increase for the household is surprisingly small.