The energy efficiency class and the indication of the annual energy consumption (included in the energy label) are renowned indicators and represent useful references suitable to compare different models, but the actual electricity consumption of domestic appliances may depend on several different factors. Among these, the behaviour of the final user that may considerably affect the actual consumption and that can hardly be taken into account when performing standard tests applied to the energy labelling of a product. In order to clearly identify the real performances of installed appliances and the impact of energy standards it is therefore important to implement on-site measurement campaigns. For this purpose a recent measurement campaign involving 20 households in Northern Italy has been carried out. The electricity consumptions of cold appliances and washing machines have been monitored for approximately 5 weeks. The main results present the daily absolute electricity consumption and the difference between actual consumptions and labelled values, as well the temperatures and the frequency of washing cycles for washing machines. The data collected have been compared to the results of previous campaigns carried out in Italy in the early 2000’s. The main results of the comparison are: i) the average energy consumption of cold appliances is substantially lowered; ii) the cold appliances older than 15 years show the higher consumptions; iii) regarding washing, energy consumption of colder cycles is increased, while energy consumption of the 60°C cycle is decreased; iv) the behaviour is substantially changed, colder cycles are now more frequently used. © 2015 EEDAL.