This paper investigates research work related to the modelling and simulation of household electricity consumption with a view to developing a simulation to evaluate the effectiveness of demand-side management mechanisms. The eventual aim of the research is to be able to model household consumption down to the level of individual appliance use in order to explore and assess the impact of different demand-side strategies, both in individual household consumption, and on overall grid balance. The focus of this paper is to survey relevant research on simulation of household consumption, potential demand-side strategies and their impact, and modelling techniques for residential consumption. From this review, the paper provides a number of pointers for future effort in the area of modelling the impact of demand-side management strategies and techniques.