Use the energy calculator below to see how your actual annual energy consumption compares to the average home in your area. It covers England and Wales and includes a gas and electricity cost calculator. For homes in Scotland see Average Energy Consumption Calculator – Scotland.
To use the energy calculator:
- Enter your property details .
- Look at the calculator results section. The energy calculator displays energy consumption and cost for a year, month and day.
- To include electricity costs & gas costs from your own bill (rather than the calculator’s default prices) adjust the sliders below the calculator results section to correspond with the tariff you pay (including VAT).
- Compare the results with the energy usage from your own electricity and gas bills or the annual energy statement provided by your energy supplier. Your latest bill should also contain an estimate usage for the last 12 months.
The default calculator settings use national information for all properties of all housing types and ages. It also assumes a gas connection and that the home is not using economy 7 electricity. 2020 energy costs are based on popular tariffs from major suppliers. Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) are calculated using Draft SAP10 figures.
For some combinations of property details there may be no data available; in this case chose the closest property match to your home. The calculator does not include space and water heating data for properties using unmetered fuels such as LPG, oil, wood or coal. For the closest comparison in this case use a property with a gas connection.
Enter Property Details
Enter your own property details and see the average energy use and energy cost for your type of property below.
Now adjust the sliders to use your own energy costs
Take these from your gas and electricity bills (inc VAT figures).
Read more below…
What do you do with your energy consumption comparison?
When comparing your own energy use against the annual averages above, do allow for variations by season if using energy figures for a day a week or even a month. In winter, with central heating used much more, daily gas use will be much higher than the average daily gas use calculated above. Likewise, electricity use will generally be higher when nights are longer or when more cooked meals are prepared.
If your energy consumption is above average then there are a number of things you can consider doing.
These include:
- Improving insulation in your home to reduce gas bills
- Choose energy efficient electrical appliances and LED light bulbs
- Reducing the price you pay for your energy by finding a better deal with a new supplier
- Invest in solar pv panels to generate your own electricity
Reducing your energy usage is a great place to start. With a combination of measures it is possible to reduce consumption by 20% or more. See Ten Steps To Saving £1,000 On Our Gas Bill as an example. For other ideas, take a look at some of our recent articles:
- Insulate suspended timber floors
- Save Money By Studying Your Energy Bill
- Compare Gas Prices
- Consider solar panels
Where Does The Data Come From?
The energy calculator uses National Energy Efficiency Database (NEED) data for 2019 (data published August 2021) using meter point data to show the average electricity and gas usage for a specific type of property. The data shows metered usage of electricity and gas only, so use of fuels for space and water heating such as LPG, oil, wood or coal is not included. Typical pricing is based on the assumptions below.
Pricing Assumptions
Actual prices will depend on your supplier and tariff. The energy cost calculator assumes the prices below and that 40% of Economy 7 electricity consumption is at the night rate. These rates can be adjusted using the sliders.
Electricity cost calculator: 25.0p per kWh and a standing charge of 22.0p per day
Economy 7 cost calculator: 8.5p per kWh off peak
Gas cost calculator: 7.0p per kWh and a standing charge of 26.5p per day
Updated: 8 July 2022 to reflect higher electricity prices 25p per kWh and gas 7p per kWh
Updated: 6 March 2022 to increase max price to: electric 60p per kWh, gas 25p per kWh
Updated: 12 August 2021 to include 2019 NEED data release
Updated: 31 July 2020 to include 2018 NEED data release
Wow. Great Home estimate I’ll use 3000 kWh in a year, meanwhile, Bulb are estimating I’ll use over 7 times that (21484 kWh, to be precise) I’ve no way of checking, because our smart meter is stuffed, and has been for over 12 months, but so many people, including one at Bulb, have told us it’s far too high. its just me, the wife and the dog in a 2-bed semi with wall cavity and loft insulation, so how they’re calculating it, I’ve no idea.
Hi there,
We (2 adults, 2 children) live in a 3 bed cottage (1650s) with no gas and no electric heating (we have a wood burning stove); usual appliances (tv, fridge, washer, freezer, oven etc — we don’t use a dryer), all the usual tech but nothing terribly fancy and usual lighting, sockets etc.
Our smart meter (Clara SGM1312) says we are using 20kWh in every 24 hours, our bills are enormous each month (£290) and are about to increase again. During the day, only one of us is at home. Overnight the meter says were using 10kWh.
This all seems excessive; is it possible for the smart meter to be taking false readings? It is has never been able to report readings to our electricity company as the correct tech has not reached our rural area yet.
Any advice would be much appreciated,
Thank you
Hi. We were swapped from People’s Energy to British Gas. There is only 2 of us in a bungalow, we do have underfloor heating 2. X 2kw systems, been in for over a year. Previous or usage was between 450-650kw month with a DD of £188 MTH. When moved we had a credit of £400.
Now British gas say we are using 1200kw month, and want £258. We aren’t living any different from normal so can’t understand where they are getting figures. I now take daily meter readings and even when we aren’t home all day it says 27kw day.
Not sure where we go with our argument..
Any help welcome.
Before I changed to a smart meter I had been using a device that you clip around the input to the circuit box so it measured all power going into my home, when I had been using the new meter for a few months I checked it against my old one and the new one was reading just under what the old one was using so I was happy, when the guy was fitting the new meter I asked if it was possible for them to give the wrong reading and he told me that they can be up to 5% above or below he added that every one they fit they test every one out and if it is within 5%below they just leave it but if it is anything above that they try to adjust it so it is within the 5% below the true reading but that was the policy for that company but lots of other companies just fit the meter without testing them before they are fitted as there is no rule that they have to test them. If you think that your meter is supplying incorect readings then you can ask the company to fit a test meter to compare it to and if it is not correct and reading above the correct reading then they have to give a refund back to the date they fitted it if it has been giving a reading that is below the corect reading then they will adjust it to the correct reading and they are entitled to ask for the difference that you have not paid but recently I heard of a case that went to court and the judge stated as it was due to the supplier and not the customer that they had been under charged that the supplier could not charge the customer for the difference so maybe the rules will change to help the customer and not the supplier.
Hello, my father is 94 and housebound. Purely for electricity, he is paying £124.54 this month. He just watches tv and rarely has a bath. This feels disproportionately high..?
Currently running at over £250 a month in our electricity only flat – desperate to find out why.
Hi, we have a 3bed semi with 2 adults living in it. we had a log/coal burner originally but the pipe works were leaking so our landlord had the heating removed and Dimplex Quantum Heaters fitted throughout. The electricity use is astronomical, we use Bulb at the minute via the latest Smart Meter, their calculation for our home use is around 15000KW per year. We were with Octopus previously and their charges were based on around 17000KW per year. We have AAA rated appliances and an electric shower etc. we feel that the electricity usage is excessive but don’t seem to be able to get much sense from anyone. Even in the summer months just heating the hot water tank each night via Economy 7 costs around £3.50 per night!
Hi Jon, I live with my wife in a 3 bed + extension detached bungalow of ~ 135m2. Loft insulation is approx 200mm, cavity wall insulation from build in 1988 and double glazed throughout. Alpha cd50 Combi boiler 12 years old serviced each year 92% efficiency. General white goods plus hot tub. I have kept records since 2008 and I’m now disturbed with my general energy consumption of gas. My figures for last 12 months are electric 4592 kWh and gas 27910 kWh. We are both pensioners and try to keep a warm and welcoming home. Is there anything else I can do to minimise our energy consumption?
Regards Neil
I finally got an IHD and even with solar panels I’m using around a pound a day in electric, thought it was a fridge freezer american style. Unplugged it last night and the usage went down from 52 pence to 48. I have a water bed and the usual electronics but do not see what is eating that much electric. Any ideas?
Hi Dale,
It could be worth investing in an power meter monitoring socket. These cost around £15 and allow you to plug a 3 pin plug into it so the power demand of all your appliances can be measured. A simple spreadsheet which records the instantaneous power demand of each appliance in a room when it is operating and when it is on standby can be set up. This will give you a guide as to whether there are any energy hungry devices in your home which may need to be managed better. If you have solar then it is probably worth looking at devices that are on in hours when solar is not operating.
Hope this helps
Kind regards
Jon
Hi, I live alone in a 2 bedroom apartment, all electric (I moved in 6 months ago). I don’t have any special appliances, but heating is electric, and so is water heating (the boiler warms the water at night). I don’t have dishwasher and I do laundry once a week. I do use the oven often, but that is it. I had a really high adjustment and realised I am spending an average of 38kw/ day (about 1000 kw/month). Is this normal? I am new in the UK and have no idea of average usage, but from what I see online, this is way above average.
we have moved in to a 2 bed bungalow. it is an all electric property, no gas. we have storage heaters in 2 bedrooms and living room and being winter these are on to take heat in at night and distribute evenly through the day. we don’t leave lights on we shower once a day and we use cooker once a day and washing machine every 3 days. no dishwasher, no tumble. we have tried to change supplier and have just received our final bill for a month of £260. I nearly fainted…is this right?
Hi Vicky,
During cold winter weather you would expect storage heaters to be consuming a fair amount of electricity compared to summer months. As a first step it would be worth checking that the bill was based on real as opposed to estimated readings. I would then suggest you record your electricity usage daily or weekly from your meter to see if you can spot any trends. related to weather.
Hope this helps
Kind regards
Jon
We are using approx. 3x more gas than we should be – are there companies that we can seek advise from regarding gas consumption please.
Thank you
Hi Jon! Thanks so much for your view on this. After a deeper investigation with my supplier it was coming from a simple mistake on my side, my meter is indeed a “dial” gas meter and I misread it! My consumption for those 8 days was finally 30 units or 938 kWh, much better 🙂
I’m still wondering how can I reduce it as much as possible: if I’m getting cold, and with all heaters at medium power, what would you recommend between pushing higher the Central heating temperature control directly on the boiler, or pushing higher the Room thermostat (I got both) ?
Hey,
I rent a flat on top of a shop, it’s three bedroom but we only use two and don’t heat up the third one. We have economy 7 and our heater and water heater uses stored energy during the night. It’s just me and my partner and we both work so usually there is nothing on during the day. We rarely use the tumble dryer as we prefer to dry clothes normally. No gas. Energy efficient lighting and most of the appliances are fairly new and efficient. My new bill just came in asking me to pay £150 a month which feels excessive. Is there any way the shop downstairs electric is getting added to my one because I can’t see how I am spending so much money on electric.
Hi,
I have a 2 bedroom semi. All lights are LED. I don’t have a dishwasher or tumble dryer. I live alone. Washing machine is used once a week generally. Shower is electric 1 a day.
My monthly usage is showing as 773kw!!!! My supplier has just hiked my monthly bill to £126/month!!!!
Any ideas what is going on here my bills until recently were around £15/month.
I’ve bought no new appliances.
Hi Glyn, thanks for the query. 773kWh or £126 does seem excessive for one month, although likewise 92kWh or £15 per month also sounds slightly light, especially if you are using an electric shower for showering every day. The first thing I would be looking at is the historic meter readings for each month / quarter and whether they were estimated or actual i.e. is this just a one-off catch up from previous under-estimated meter readings or has something really changed. If this doesn’t explain it and you have not had a meter change then I would monitor the overall usage each day for a week (by recording the meter reading each day at the same time) to see if there are any big variations in usage. This may alert you to what activities are causing such high usage.
Hope this helps
Kind regards
Jon
Hi Jon, in an earlier comment you recommend using a power meter monitoring socket. Do you recommend a particular brand or are they all the same? Also do I need one socket per device ?
Thanks in advance,
Samantha
Hi Samantha,
I think all the meters do pretty much the same job so haven’t got any specific recommendation. These are best used for a quick check on a device rather than continuous monitoring. I bought two as I wanted to monitor one device in a little more detail (they can record maximum as well as average power over a period of time) but one would work fine as you are not going to use it that often. It depends what you are looking to do but a quick check on each appliance then it maybe only takes a minute to check what wattage they require on standby and then in operation. Something like a tv is easy to do quickly but a freezer takes a bit longer as it will only operate sporadically so you may need to have it plugged in for 24 hours to get a fair view on power demand.
Kind regards
Jon
I came to look at other properties similar to mine consumptions
I have a white brick 1980 semi detached house 4 bedroom 85sq meters total area.
2 peoples living in property most of time.
Gas consumption 11.000 (£30 per month)
Electricity consumption 2000kwh (£30 per month)
Always using compare sites for cheap energy providers, for electricity paying 13p plus 15p standing, and gas was 2.19p. now comes to 2.58p standing 22p.
Bradford City. Windy Place.
Hi, I’m looking for some advise as I look at all the average use calculators for my type of property and struggle to find anything to support my actual use.
3 bed semi, late 79’s build. It is a large semi with older roof insulation, has recent cavity wall insulation, double glazing all round.
3-4 adults living here most of the week.
Main Gas combi boiler for water, hob cooking and radiator heating in all rooms.
Electricity, normal household white goods inc dishwasher, tumble dryer etc
Consumption 2019 28/02/2019 through 09/01/2020
Gas: 26,170kWh
Electricity: 7449kWh
Consumption 10/01/2020 through 11/01/2021
Gas: 39432kWh
Electricity: 9050kWh
I appreciate these seem ridiculous amounts of energy but I really dont see where it’s being used. Talking with our next door neighbour they pay / use approx half what we do.
Any suggestions on what I can do to check meters, boilers, and white goods? Thanks
Hi Al,
That is a lot of gas usage for a 3 bed semi and the electricity is also on the high side even for four active adults. There’s a few things you can do, depending on how much time you have to spend on improving the energy performance of your home. Bear in mind that anything you do to improve things delivers a benefit every year. It may also improve occupant comfort as well as saving money.
The first thing I could suggest is taking either a daily (best) or weekly (still worthwhile) meter reading for both gas and electricity, first thing in the morning, so you can understand what the energy use was for the day (week) before. It helps if you have a smart meter as you can access this information easily but even manual readings entered into a spreadsheet would help. After a few weeks you will start to get a feel for when energy use is higher or lower. Of course gas usage will be higher when the weather is colder outside but you will also start to get a feel for any variations in behaviour of those living in the house and this may give you hints on how any future improvements you make reduce usage.
On the gas usage side, an adult is likely to use around 1,250 kWh of hot water per year so around 5,000 kWh of gas usage will be used in your home. A further 1,000 kWh could be used for cooking. So we are looking at upwards of 20,000 kWh per year for space heating. Looking at the way the system is set up and asking some basic questions may help. How old is the boiler and how efficient is is? Are there Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRV’s) on all the radiators except the one controlled by the thermostat? Are there separately controlled heating circuits for upstairs and downstairs. Are any of the occupants leaving windows open to get fresh air whilst the heating is on? Opening bathroom windows to clear condensation is a common cause of heat loss, if there is inadequate bathroom extraction. Are there any obvious draughts or is heat being lost through an open chimney or into the loft through a loft hatch without a seal (you have seals on windows and doors and a loft hatch is really no different) or holes in the ceilings for recessed lighting? I would certainly look to boost the loft insulation depending on the current thickness.
On the electricity side it could be worth investing in an power meter monitoring socket. These cost around £15 and allow you to plug a 3 pin plug into it so the power demand of all your appliances can be measured. A simple spreadsheet which records the instantaneous power demand of each appliance in a room when it is operating and when it is on standby can be set up. This will give you a guide as to the energy hungry devices in your home which may need to be managed better. A tumble dryer on continuous daily use is certainly one that will consume a lot of energy. Older style televisions and other devices, even on standby, can consume significant amounts of power so it may be worth turning these off at the mains or considering replacing. Newer devices often consume less than 1 Watt of power on standby (so are often not worth turning off at the mains) but I have seen older televisions consuming 50 Watts on standby. That may not sound a lot but left for 365 days a year that would be 438kWh per year or around £70 of electricity for something that is not being used. If you haven’t switched to LED lighting then this is another area of opportunity. A 60 Watt incandescent bulb can be replaced by a 5 Watt LED light which produces the same amount of light.
In the longer term there may be other areas you can look at, such as insulating suspended timber floors (if you have any), but I would start by understanding where your current energy usage is actually used.
Hope this helps
Kind regards
Jon
Hi Jon, great website!
I just moved to a 2nd floor mid-terraced flat in London with 2 bedrooms, a living-room + a small extra room and high ceilings of 3,10m (75 sq mt / 807 sq ft in total surface area); I use gas to heat the place and for hot water, with 5 regular-size heaters on at medium power for most of the day.
After 8 days, I estimated my gas consumption at 3772 kWh (120 units), meaning that I should be paying £116 already… I was quite surprised to see such a high consumption! Does it look “normal” to you? Could it be an issue with my boiler?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Chris, thanks for the feedback.
An average daily usage of 471 kWh of gas is certainly excessive to heat a two bedroomed flat, especially as the walls to either side of you and below will be heated courtesy of your neighbours. Some information on the age of the property or the wall and roof construction could help produce a better estimate.
The first question to ask would be how you calculate the 3772 kWh usage from 120 units on the meter? For a meter reading in cubic meters then the overall conversion should be around 11.13 rather than the 31.4 figure (3772/120). Normally a correction factor (1.02264) would be applied and then the caloric value (circa 40 MJ per m3 – the gas supplier will have this on their bill) to get a MJ per m3 figure. This would then be converted to kWh by dividing by 3.6. It would first be worth checking your calculations on this and find out what volume the meter reads in. If it was an older meter then it would be in cubic feet so would be much smaller anyway.
If the kWh gas usage is 3772 then the boiler would have to be going 24/7 to use close to this level of gas.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards
Jon
Hi Jon
I’m a little confused. On the default settings the electricity usage is 3,300 kWh and gas usage 13,200 kWh. Changing the assumption on whether the house has access to gas drops the gas uage to zero which obviously makes sense but only increases the electricity usage to 4,100kWh. Is that because in reality the homes that this data is derived from that are off grid won’t be 100% electric heat and powered but will either generate their own electricity or use another fuel source?
I am trying to get data on what a standard home’s electricity consumption would be if it was fully reliant on electricity, what that would fall to if it carried out a deep retrofit and finally how that would compare to a new build using the best thermal efficiency techniques but again fully electric heated and powered. The point is to try to understand what the electricity generation requirements would be to cover this using local renewable generation sources.
Many thanks for any pointers!
Best,
Rufus
Hi Rufus,
Thanks for the feedback.
Many of those with no access to gas but on the standard electricity tariff will use other unmetered energy sources for space heating eg wood or oil which will pull down the average.
Those using primarily electric heating will generally use Economy 7, or the modern equivalent in the form of half hour metering. The calculator shows that those in this category use on average 6,900 kWh. The average is skewed towards 1 and 2 bedroom flats where this type of heating is most suitable. Larger properties would have the option of switching to a heat pump.
To explore what electrification would do to the average 3 bedroom house built to a high standard read Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Energy Used In UK Homes which explores space heating demand in some detail.
Hope this help.
Kind regards
Jon
I live in a one bedroom all electric 1992 built flat, 4 in the unit on 2 floors, with a 15′ x 13′ living room which has 2 windows, narrow hallway, kitchen and bathroom, plus, one 2 element immersion heater and 2 newly installed night store heaters, NO a/c, washing machine, NO tumble dryer, halogen oven and standard cooker, computer, router and TV.
Would you say that usage of 8,8OO kWh p.a. is too high?
I really appreciate your website!
Regards, ianto
Hi Ianto,
Thanks for the feedback. The typical 1 bedroom purpose built flat of this age with no gas and on economy 7 tariff for heating would use around 4,900 kWh per year, compared to your 8,800 kWh. On this basis your consumption does seem high. A typical usage of a purpose built flat WITH gas supply would show usage of 1,800 kWh of electricity and 5,500 kWh of gas i.e. 7,300 kWh usage overall which is still below your overall energy use. It would be worth monitoring your daily/weekly/monthly usage to understand what the drivers are to your energy use – clearly in the summer, usage should be very different to the depths of winter when the night store heaters will be in use.
Kind regards
Jon
Hi Jon
Thanks for the very handy tool. I live alone in a 2 bed mid terraced property in Yorkshire. Gas and Elect supply. Gas on in winter 2 hours morning and evening. Sometimes I switch it off because its a warm house. Elect cooker. Bed by 8pm usually. Frugal with lights. Elect 15.04 per kw st charge 13.9 per day. Gas 3.447 per kwh st charge 10.74…… Bills 80 pm! Any idea how this is happening?
Would appreciate your input. Your ave gas consumption is 10,400 for my type of house in Yorks, however my supplier has given me a figure of 16744 for my use? Am I to believe that people warm their houses less than I do on what appears to be 50% more than others accordng to your average usage stats (Which I dont doubt). Any help would be appreciated. By the way the boiler is in good condition and has been regularly serviced.
Kind Regards
Jenny
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for the query. Annual usage of 16,744 kWh of gas is high for a terraced house especially as you don’t cook with gas. Terraced houses have homes either side that help heat two of the walls. Assuming that the annual usage is correct, then there are a few things that could be contributing to this which you could explore. With a terrace house I would look more to potential ventilation losses, rather than fabric losses through the walls, doors and windows.
On the space heating side:
1. Is heat disappearing into the loft due to a poorly fitting loft hatch?
2. Do you have open chimneys in any rooms? These can allow hot air again to escape.
3. Is it a suspended ground floor with gaps in the floorboards, allowing cold air to enter rooms from below?
On hot water:
If the hot water is stored in a hot water cylinder then this is one area where there may be losses if the cylinder is not lagged (modern cylinders are encased in insulation).
Boiler efficiency:
Much older boilers (15 years plus) are less efficient. My advice is always to put money into reducing the heat demand (better insulation and reducing ventilation losses) before looking to upgrade the boiler.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards
Jon
There seems to be a flaw in the calculator. If I select no gas available, standard rate electricity only, it shows a lower total energy use than if I select “all data”. It seems to be simply ignoring the Economy 7 energy usage (and similarly gas usage) to arrive at an unrealistically low consumption for an all-electric household. In my own case the calculator suggests total 4500 kWh for a 3 bed semi 1965-1982 in SW England. I’m sure more typical consumption is more than 10000 kWh!
If I change the options to allow “gas available” it increases the total energy to 14700 kWh. Even allowing for say 80% efficiency in gas boilers this doesn’t make sense.
Hi Alan,
Thanks for the feedback. To clarify, the calculator uses actual gas and electricity meter data from around 24 million homes. The NEED data on which it is based does not capture the use of unmetered fuels such as LPG, oil, wood or coal. In the case of properties with no gas using only standard electricity they are likely to be using an unmetered fuel for space and water heating which will not show on the calculator, whereas those with economy 7 are likely to be using electricity for heating.
I will amend the calculator to make that clearer. If you are looking to work out what the average house in your area is likely to use overall then a home with gas and electricity supply would be the best comparison.
Kind regards
Jon
Help!
3 Bedroom detached house in the North West, Gas Combi boiler fitted, LED lights throughout except the 5ft Fluorescent in the garage. 4 person living in the house 3 work through the day one at school.
I believe my meter is faulty in 69 days we averaged 18KWH per day, according to Scottish power that is within the average? I don’t think it is. at nigh time 00:00 to 06:00 we average 2.5KWH of electricity usage. 2 x TV’s, sky Xboxes are on standby, no lights, Router is on fridge freezer is on and the freezer is on can’t forget the central heating pump running for a maximum of 1 hour.
am I correct in this sleep mode 6 hours x 2.5KWH x 4 to make it a day so 10KWH per day x30 day =300KWH this equals 300KWH x 18.86p equals £56.58 per month in sleep mode. this equals a staggering £678.96 a year
Please can anyone advise me
My house is 1 bedroom but 3 storeys. It has 105m2 and ceilings are 2.4m.
How can I work out whether my consumption is appropriate please?
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for the email. The NEED data probably doesn’t have enough homes with your specific location and age of property within the database. You don’t say whether your house is detached / semi-detached /terraced but if we take the national picture for all ages of property and a 1 bedroom house then
Detached 1-bed house
Total: 19,200 kWh
Electricity: 3,500 kWh
Gas: 15,700 kWh
Semi-detached 1-bed house
Total: 12,400 kWh
Electricity: 2,600 kWh
Gas: 9,800 kWh
Mid terraced 1-bed house
Total: 10,300 kWh
Electricity: 2,200 kWh
Gas: 8,100kWh
To put it in perspective, the electricity use is primarily dependent on the number of occupants and the energy efficiency of appliances and whether you cook with electricity.
Upgrading to the EnerPHit standard (high levels of fabric insulation and air-tightness) would mean the house would use 25kWh/m2 annually for space heating = 2,625kWh annually for a 105m2 house. Allowing 1,250kWh per person per year for hot water heating would then take the total gas demand to 3,875kWh for one person or 5,125 kWh for two (two is the average number of occupants in UK homes).
Hope this helps.
Kind regards, Jon
I would prefer to have the GAS in cu.mtrs ie X cu.mtrs as that is how my meter reads instead of doing the maths conversion of about 11 Kwh=1 cu.mtr
Hi Michael, Thanks for the feedback and suggestion.
It would not be possible to use volume of gas to compare usage as the calorific value of natural gas can vary depending on the source of the gas and its exact composition, making gas volume an unreliable measure of energy use. That’s one of the reasons why a unit of energy (kWh) is used for charging purposes on bills rather than volume.
Background
Different countries have different standards. In the UK calorific values of natural gas can legally vary by upto 14% on a daily basis. Example: if volume was used then your meter could show that you had used 5% more gas (volume) than last year even though in reality you had actually used 5% less energy than last year (and assuming a constant gas price would have been charged 5% less as well).
UK gas suppliers have to maintain the energy content in the gas transmission network within the band 37.5 MJ/m3 to 43.0 MJ/m3. This means that the energy content can vary between 10.4 kWh and 11.9 kWh per m3. Suppliers calculate the energy content daily and then average it for the length of your billing period They then use a conversion factor to show the cost in kWh when they bill customers to ensure that users are charged for actually energy content rather than volume. That’s one of the reasons why there are 13 different gas supply areas in the UK as it would be very hard to provide a single calorific value throughout the network given that the gas could come from multiples sources like the European continent, the North sea or LNG delivered by ship to Milford Haven and would depend on which part of the network the gas was inserted into.
Generally I understand that the variations are more to do with location than time (i.e. the calorific value in any one place is relatively stable but two places far apart on the gas network could be very different) unless the local inputs to the gas network change significantly. When Milford Haven LNG terminal came on line I would have expected the Welsh calorific values to shift.
Hope this explains why kWh’s are used.
Kind regards
Jon
The gas on my meter is in cu.mtr I know a cu.mtr is about 11 Kwh but why not say X cu.mtr per day/year so no need to do conversions