The growing share of electricity production from renewable sources, and the progressive tendency to ‘electrify’ household consumption, have led to important challenges for the electricity system: in fact, the growing load demand must be balanced from the point of view of the supply. In particular, the residential sector contributes almost 26% of final energy consumption in Europe, highlighting the central role it plays in achieving decarbonization objectives. In this context, this article contributes to the ongoing discussion, proposing the load profiling of Italian families using an experimental smart metering study, which also involved households defined as being in energy poverty. The results indicate three important peaks on load profiles for all identified clusters, with a notable distinction in intensity. For households including children, there is a higher load profile, reaching a maximum of 600W of power absorbed between 7.30pm and 10.30pm. On the contrary, households in conditions of energy poverty show a regular load profile value, ranging from a minimum of 110 W of power absorbed in base load conditions during the night up to a maximum of 280 W in the evening. The findings in this paper are consistent with existing research in this field, and consequently the study proposes a greater focus on domestic consumption.