Clearly we're comparing apples and pears here - family of four where both adults work and the house is kept relatively cool vs a single elderly gentleman who keeps his house warmer. But having talked to him and wandered around his house, it's hard to see that he really is using this much more energy. For example our washing machine runs every night and often during the day too and we have an electric cooker. He washes far less and has a gas cooker; but he still uses twice as much electricity.
Aside - ignore insulation etc - these are flat-roofed 1920s semis, neither of us have much insulation and it's very hard to add any more.
So, from your experiences with elderly friends and relatives, is this disparity common?
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It's retirement that does the damage. No heating from 8:00 until 6:00 changes to heating from ~8:30 until after midnight. Plus loads of cups of tea plus 300W plasma on all day etc etc.