How much energy do you use to heat your home, and what’s the cost?

The figures included in this article were based off the cost of energy at the time of publication, May 2024.

In a typical household, the most energy is used on heating and hot water. In fact, for the average UK home, heating is responsible for over half of each month’s energy bill¹.

In this guide, we'll cover:

• How to measure the energy used to heat your home
• How to work out how much your heating is costing 
• Changes that can help cut your energy use

How to measure the energy used to heat your home

It all starts with the kilowatt hour (kWh). It’s a standard measurement for energy – with 1 kWh representing the energy used to keep a 1,000 watt appliance running for 1 hour.

Whether you use gas, fuel oil, electricity, or something else for your heating, it’s best to measure the energy used to heat your home in kWhs.

For more help getting your head around kWhs, and how they work, check out our guide to understanding kW and kWh.

How to calculate the energy you use for heating

Most households will use the same fuel for heating as they do for other things – like using gas for heating and for hot water, for example.

This means we need a way of working out how much energy is used for central heating, and how much is used for other things.

Here’s an example of a home where everything is powered by electricity:

• Over 1 year, our home uses 16,000 kWh in total – for lighting, appliances, cooking, heating, and hot water.
• If we take 6 months where the heating isn’t being used, we see our home uses 3,000 kWh of electricity. This is roughly the amount of energy used on everything except heating. Our home will use about the same amount for the next 6 months, too.
• So over a year, 6,000 kWh is used on everything except heating, and the remaining 10,000 kWhs are used on heating alone.

How to convert your energy use into kWh

Depending on where you live and the kind of fuel you use, you might be using one of many units to measure your energy use.

As we explained above, it’s helpful to convert your energy use into kWh. Here are some of the common units used for measuring energy – multiply them by these numbers:

• For therms – multiply by 29.3
• For tons of oil equivalent – multiply by 11,630
• For gigajoule – multiply by 278
• For kilocalorie – multiply by 0.00116

You’re all set

You should now have everything you need to work out how much of your energy bill goes towards central heating. And by converting it to kWh, you can more easily compare how it might change over time.

Bear in mind that other factors can affect the amount of energy needed to heat your home. Like the size of your home, the local climate, your thermostat temperature, your heating system, and how your home is built.

How much does it cost to heat a house? Central heating costs per hour

It can be a little tricky, but here’s how to work out how much your heating is costing.

• First, you need to work out how many kWh of energy you use on heating per year – follow the steps above to do this. 
• Your energy tariff is made up of 2 rates. The first is the standing charge, which is charged daily no matter how much energy you use. The second is the unit rate, which is how much you’re charged for the energy you use. 
• It’s only the unit rate that’s needed to work out how much your heating is costing each year. (It’s calculated in kWh.)

Gas central heating cost per hour and per year in the UK

Unfortunately, it’s not currently possible to work out exactly how much gas heating costs hour by hour – as it can’t easily be separated from your total gas use at home.

But as we’ve explained above, you can work out how much heating costs across the year.

• Let’s say you have a gas boiler, and use 10,000 kWh of energy per year on heating and your gas unit rate is 7.24p
• 10,000 multiplied by 0.072 is 720 – so £720 is how much your heating cost across the year

Electric central heating cost per hour and per year in the UK

Likewise with gas heating, it’s not possible to break down the cost of electric heating hour by hour from the other things you use electricity for. 

You can still work out the cost per year:

• Let’s say you have an electric boiler, and use 10,000 kWh of energy on heating per year and your unit rate is 16p. 
• 10,000 multiplied by 0.16 is 1,600 – which means heating cost £1,600 across the year.

Average cost of heating a home in the UK

The cost of heating a home in the UK has increased considerably over the last few years.

At the start of 2024, the average UK energy bill (not including standing charges) was £1,626. This means the typical cost of heating a home is likely over £600 a year².

For context, the typical cost of heating a home in the UK in 2018 was £453.242 – when the average UK energy bill in the same year was around £1,184 per year³ .

Energy consumption by country: comparing the energy used to heat your home to European standards

Now, let’s compare your heating use to some of our European neighbours. Let’s say you’ve calculated that you use 10,000 kWh a year on heating your home – or ‘space heating’ as it’s sometimes called.

Compare this figure to those in the chart below, to see how this looks against averages for European countries. Each number shows the average heating used in households per year – shown as kWh per dwelling (kWh/dw).

As you might expect, a country’s climate plays a big role. For countries with cold winters – like Denmark – 10,000 kWh is quite a low figure. But in warmer countries, like Spain, it’s on the higher end of the scale.

Heating energy (kWh) per square metre: how much gas and electricity do you use per floor area?

Another thing to think about with heating costs is the size of your home. This isn’t something the figures above take into account – but it’s useful to work this out for your own home if you know the rough floorspace. 

Estimating your heating use by floor area means you can compare the usage in your home to benchmarks like the Passive House (Passivhaus) standard – which limits energy use for heating to just 15 kWh/(m2a). Here’s an example of how it’s worked out:  

Let’s say your home uses 10,000 kWh of energy per year on heating, and it has a floor area of 100m squared.

• To work out your energy use per floor area, you divide the energy use by the floor area – in this case, that means dividing 10,000 by 100 
• This gives you a figure of 100kWh/(m2a) – with the “a” meaning “per annum” (or each year)

The chart below shows how those same European countries shape up when it comes to average heating use, relative to floorspace.

As you can see, this gives us a quite different picture. When it comes to heating per square metre, we’re not far above Greece or Italy – which is interesting to note, given the warmer weather they enjoy throughout much of the year.

4 low-carbon heating alternatives

1. Air source heat pumps 

Did you know air can be used to keep homes warm? Heat pumps absorb heat from the air outside, and use it for heating and hot water. They even work in winter. 

Air source heat pumps are a greener alternative to regular central heating. Air is a practically limitless natural resource. And they can be run on electricity, which in the UK, has a lower carbon intensity than gas – the typical fuel for gas boilers.You might be able to get help replacing your boiler with a heat pump, as part of the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme. You can learn more here and register interest.

Read our guide to find out everything you need to know about air source heat pumps and how they work.

2. Ground source heat pumps

Ground source heat pumps, like their air source relatives, are an alternative to a traditional boiler, drawing heat from the surrounding environment. And just like their relatives, they’re another brilliant way of generating renewable warmth for homes.

They work through a network of pipes buried underground, near the house, where a mixture of water and antifreeze is circulated around a loop of pipe. Heat from the ground is absorbed into the fluid, which is then passed into a heat exchanger in the pump.

There’s a very high upfront cost here too, with the cost ranging from £11,000 to £30,000 – depending on how the ground source heat pump is installed in your home. 

Want to know more? Our quick and easy guide gives you all the details on ground source heat pumps.

3. Solar thermal panels 

While you might have heard of solar panels, you may not have heard of solar thermal panels. They’re a type of solar panel especially intended for turning sunlight into heat.

But rather than converting the heat from the sun into electricity, they use it to directly heat water. And in fact, they’re more energy-efficient than traditional solar panels. This is because heat waves carry more energy than sunlight, and there’s no transformation process needed to turn that energy into electricity.

Check out our in-depth guide to learn more about the best low-carbon heating options

4. Storage heaters

If you use storage heaters in your home, it could be worth investing in newer ones if you're able to. Compared to older models, new storage heaters are much more energy efficient – updating them could be a good way to save energy, while lowering energy costs.

Powered by electricity, they charge overnight, using off-peak energy, which can then be used during the following day. This is especially important to note if you’re on a time-of-use electricity tariff, such as Economy 7, which means you pay a lower rate for energy used overnight (usually 12pm-7am). 

Interested to find out more about storage heaters? We've put together a practical guide to explain how storage heaters work, and their costs and benefits.

Saving energy and using it more efficiently for heating

There are 4 key things to bear in mind, to help make your heating more efficient:

• Boiler settings – the temperature you set your boiler to is the temperature at which it heats water – and you’ll want the temperature to be no higher than you need. For your heating, the ideal temperature setting is around 70C. And for your hot water, it’s 60C. 
• Thermostat settings – a common mistake is setting the thermostat higher in the hope that it’ll make the heating warm up faster. Instead, set it to the temperature you want. The thermostat measures the temperature of the room, and once that temperature has been reached, the boiler stops sending hot water to the radiators.
• Thermostatic radiator valves – these allow you to adjust the temperature of individual radiators, which means you can set the best temperature to suit different rooms. 
• Insulation – If you’re able to, one of the best ways to make your heating more energy efficient is by improving your home’s insulation. If your home isn’t insulated, heat can escape – which means more energy is needed to warm it back up. From roof and loft insulation to cavity wall insulation, there are lots of different options for insulating your home. 

Through the Great British Insulation Scheme, you can access support to insulate your home with cavity wall or loft insulation. 

You could reduce your heating bills by around £310 a year. And if you’re eligible, you could get this at a reduced price or completely free.

If you’re worried about heating costs or you’re struggling financially, please get in touch with us – we’re here to support you.