Residential monthly electricity bills provided by students in physics classes served as data for a project designed to help them develop a sense of scale for electric energy consumption referenced to their own electric lifestyles and insight into how these lifestyles depend heavily on various naturally occurring terrestrial hydrocarbon resources. From kilowatt-hours (kWh) reported on the bill, we determined "per capita" averages for electric power load (661 W) and energy consumption (476 kWh/month) which provide a quantitative framework for discussions about personal and societal electric energy use and illustrate how physics provides the fundamental vocabulary and analytical perspective for comprehending and managing our various local and global energy dilemmas. Interpretation and presentation of these data could be modified for audiences ranging from middle-school physical science classes to university-level environmental science classes.