The devices people notice most are not always the devices that use the most electricity. The biggest household loads tend to be equipment that moves heat: air conditioners, electric heating systems, and water heaters.
Cooling is a major residential load
Air conditioning can run for hours during hot weather and uses a compressor to move heat out of the home. The exact share varies enormously by climate, home size, insulation, thermostat setting, and equipment efficiency.
Electric space heating can be even more demanding
Resistance heaters turn electricity directly into heat and often draw around 1,500 watts per portable unit. Whole-home electric furnaces can draw much more. Heat pumps are usually more efficient because they move heat rather than creating all of it through electrical resistance, but they can still represent a large seasonal load.
Water heating is easy to overlook
An electric tank water heater may use heating elements rated around several kilowatts, but those elements cycle rather than run continuously. Household size, shower habits, inlet-water temperature, tank losses, and thermostat settings all affect annual consumption.
Refrigerators use modest power for many hours
A refrigerator's instantaneous power draw is lower than an oven or dryer, but it operates every day of the year. This is a good example of why runtime matters alongside wattage.
Dryers, ovens, and dishwashers are high-power but intermittent
Heating elements can draw several thousand watts, but these appliances usually operate for limited periods. A dryer used every day can be important; one used twice a week may contribute far less than air conditioning during summer.
Electronics usually matter less than people expect
Televisions, laptops, routers, game consoles, and desktop computers certainly use electricity, but most individual electronics are small compared with heating and cooling loads. A high-end gaming PC used for many hours can still become noticeable, especially when the monitor and room cooling are considered too.
Start with the largest combination of power × time
To find savings, look for equipment that combines high wattage with long runtime. A tiny device that is always on can matter, but reducing one hour of a large heating or cooling load can outweigh many small standby savings.
National averages do not describe every home
EIA data show that household electricity use varies substantially by region and housing type. A detached home in a hot climate with electric heating and cooling can look very different from a small apartment in a mild climate.
Source
EIA's residential energy data identify air conditioning, space heating, and water heating among the largest categories of household electricity consumption. See Electricity use in homes.