Annual Electricity consumption in electric only house

Stan79

Hi all,

I'm trying to establish what the average consumption figures are for electric only houses. There are lots of websites with info on electricity usage in dual fuel houses but I’m yet to find any solid info for electric only. 

I would be grateful for any links or advice. 

Many thanks,

stan 

pochase

Not sure what you need this for?

Do you want to compare you own use, or do you just want to see a statistics for a lot of different scenarios?

It depends on

- type of house - detached, semi detached , terraced, end of terrace
- E7 or panel heaters
- how many people live in the house
- how many bed rooms
- where is the house, mild climate like in London, or somewhere in the north of Scotland
- people at home during the day or not

A one for all statistic that says a 2 bedroom house will use x KWh is a bit meaningless, and will only give you a very basic idea.

If you want advice, just post your consumption and people will tell you what they think.

Gerry1

Low 2,400kWh, Medium 4,200kWh, High 7,100kWh annually. Profile Class 2 refers.

The consumption values are relatively low because few houses are heated by electricity, it's usually just small flats.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2020/01/tdcvs_2020_decision_letter_0.pdf

matelodave

I've never understood why a gas heated house seems to use a lot more heat (in kwh) than an electrically heated one.

IMO an equivalent sized house with an equivalent number of people is likely to use roughly the same amount of energy to heat it whether it's delivered by gas, oil, leccy, wood or biomass

Probably the best idea is to check out the EPC as a rough guess at the amount of energy required to heat it and then add that to the average amount of leccy required rather than trying to use averages

For instance my EPC suggest that I need 12500kwh to heat the place, 2500kwh for hot water and then on top of that I need to cook, clean wash, light and watch the telly etc which implies an energy requirement of 15,000kwh plus what ever an average house would use as leccy (3000kwh) I'd need a total of  total of 18,000kwh per annum = about £5350 at the present rate 

As it happens I've got a heatpump which, although doesn't reduce the amount of heat we require to keep the place warm, does reduce the amount of leccy I need to produce it. It has a COP of around 3 which theoretically produces 15000kwh of heat from 5000kwh of leccy, add to that the 3000kwh for the other stuff and it comes out to 8000kwh = around £2500 at the present rate

Interestingly my annual average consumption over the past 12 years that I've had the heatpump has worked out to be around 7000-8000kwh a year depending on how cold the winters have been

That's for a fairly large (140m2), reasonably insulated detached bungalow out in the Cambridgeshire fens, and we are at home all day so it's heated virtually continuously throughout the winter

Mstty

4 bed detached all electric. Air Source Heat Pump 7100kWh a year

Edited with the energy savings on schedule for 6400 kWh per yeah hoping to get down to 6000kWh per year

k_man

matelodave said:

I've never understood why a gas heated house seems to use a lot more heat (in kwh) than an electrically heated one.

IMO an equivalent sized house with an equivalent number of people is likely to use roughly the same amount of energy to heat it whether it's delivered by gas, oil, leccy, wood or biomass

Probably the best idea is to check out the EPC as a rough guess at the amount of energy required to heat it and then add that to the average amount of leccy required rather than trying to use averages

For instance my EPC suggest that I need 12500kwh to heat the place, 2500kwh for hot water and then on top of that I need to cook, clean wash, light and watch the telly etc which implies an energy requirement of 15,000kwh plus what ever an average house would use as leccy (3000kwh) I'd need a total of  total of 18,000kwh per annum = about £5350 at the present rate 

As it happens I've got a heatpump which, although doesn't reduce the amount of heat we require to keep the place warm, does reduce the amount of leccy I need to produce it. It has a COP of around 3 which theoretically produces 15000kwh of heat from 5000kwh of leccy, add to that the 3000kwh for the other stuff and it comes out to 8000kwh = around £2500 at the present rate

Interestingly my annual average consumption over the past 12 years that I've had the heatpump has worked out to be around 7000-8000kwh a year depending on how cold the winters have been

That's for a fairly large (140m2), reasonably insulated detached bungalow out in the Cambridgeshire fens, and we are at home all day so it's heated virtually continuously throughout the winter

Is there a reason you think it does use more for gas?

There will be a small difference (10-20% maybe?) as electric is usually more efficient and direct (and responsive too).

But the differences in quotes figures, as stated above, are as electric only are usually smaller houses/flats.

QrizB

matelodave said:

I've never understood why a gas heated house seems to use a lot more heat (in kwh) than an electrically heated one.

It's simply that the average all-electric property is much smaller than the average dual-fuel one.

How many all-electric one-bed flats are there? Lots.

How many all-electric 5-bed detatched homes are there? Hardly any.

Mstty

Ours is technically a 5 bed we use the downstairs bedroom with ensuite as a snug and there are at least 20 others all new builds in the same village.

It is becoming the norm ASHP with small developers, not so the large ones I haven't looked at what they are doing but presume gas and elec as that's what they have know for the past 70 years(fact check please lol)

So I think it's relevent hence the info in my signature.

Reed_Richards

I have solar panels so I don't know what my electricity use would be without them.   However I have an ASHP with its own meter and that used 5330 kWh in the year from 31/3/21 to 31/3/22.  This provides my heating and some of my hot water (although some hot water is provided via solar electricity to my immersion heater).  I live in a 4-bedroom bungalow.  

matelodave

Reed_Richards said:

I have solar panels so I don't know what my electricity use would be without them.   However I have an ASHP with its own meter and that used 5330 kWh in the year from 31/3/21 to 31/3/22.  This provides my heating and some of my hot water (although some hot water is provided via solar electricity to my immersion heater).  I live in a 4-bedroom bungalow.  

You could reasonably assume that an SCOP of 3 times 5330kwh would produce around 16,000kwh of heat

So how does that compare with the EPC calculations for your heating and hot water requirements or even your previous oil consumption based on around 10kwh per litre. Is it in the ballpark or wildly out

Reed_Richards

My best estimate is that my oil usage was 17935 kWh per year but that is for 4/2/19 to 6/2/20 (adjusted to 365 days and assuming my oil boiler achieved 90% efficiency).  If the two years were equally cold and my boiler really could achieve 90% efficiency then that would be a CoP of greater than 3.  On the other hand if my oil boiler was only achieving 80% efficiency then the CoP would be close to 3.  A CoP of 3 is certainly in the ballpark.