The good intentions to ditch the central heating this year made in the summer have been largely thrown out of the window as we try to stay warm in what feels like a very cold run-up to Christmas.
Although the met office says that the temperatures are not unusual for this time of year, they are below average and coming after a very mild autumn, many families are finding that they are using their heating more than they want or intended to do as they try to warm up their homes.
Because of the cost of living crisis, heating costs are a hotter topic than usual this year, with the average household paying £2,500 for energy compared to last winter's price cap of £1,277. Most households in the UK are getting £400 towards their energy bill, with vulnerable groups getting additional cost of living payments, but that's done little to stop the new national obsession with heating costs as we go into the coldest three months of the year.
Read more: British Gas, Scottish Power, SSE and Ovo named and shamed as energy vouchers fail to to arrive
It is estimated that half of fuel bills are spent on heating and hot water in the average household, so using heating in the most efficient way is essential to keeping bills low. Experts at the Energy Saving Trust say that the idea that it's cheaper to leave the heating on low all day is largely a myth. And MoneySavingExpert states that having the heating on only when you need it is, in the long run, the best way to save energy, and therefore money.
It's difficult to work out how much it costs to run your heating, because it depends on many factors, including:
- The size of your home
- The energy efficiency of your home
- Where you live
- How long you use your heating for
- The temperature your heating is set at
- How well insulated your home is
- How many people live in your house
A quick look on social media proves the wide range of costs people are paying to heat their home. Posters on a recent topic on Energy Support and Advice UK Facebook page reported paying anything from £2 to £28 to heat their homes for the day, and while there's no way of knowing the specifics of how the heating was being used, the wide range illustrates just how hard it to give a precise figure.
Even the energy experts are reluctant to give a price. A spokesperson for comparison firm Uswitch, which publishes data about the energy appliances use, told This Is Money there are 'just too many variables' to be accurate about central heating costs. For devices like fridges, working out the cost of using them is pretty easy, but it's a different ball game for central heating, and although it is possible to get an idea of how much it might cost to run your heating, unfortunately it is a very rough estimate, and can change depending on a number of factors.
To try to work it out, you will need the following:
The amount of kWh your boiler uses: Most are between 24-42 kWh
The price of your energy: Because of the Government's Energy Price Guarantee, you pay no more than 34p per kilowatt hour (kWh) for electricity and 10.3p per kWh for gas, which is what runs the boiler.
The sum is: The kWh of your boiler x the price of 1KWh of gas divided by 100.
So if your boiler used 24kwh of gas per hour and your gas cost 10.2p, the equation would be: 24 x 10.3 = 247.2p, divided by 100 = £2.47 per hour to run your boiler. Run it for two hours and it will cost £4.97 for two hours, £7.42 for three hours and so on.
However, it's not as simple (or necessarily as expensive) as that, as once the thermostat reaches the desired temperature, the boiler switches off and the just fires up to keep the house at that temperature. So the first hour or two will almost always cost a lot more than subsequent hours as the boiler works harder to being a cold house up up to temperature.
If you have a smart meter, you can use that to track your gas costs and see what changes you can make to save money. For instance, the Energy Saving Trust reckons if you turn down your thermostat by 1C, this will knock around 10 per cent from your yearly energy bill.
Now read:
- Energy crisis: Can your energy company move you to a prepay meter to clear debt?
- Five energy companies with 'severe weaknesses' named and shamed by Ofgem
- How and when you might get a cold weather payment this year
- Tumble driers, radiators and heated airers: Work out the best way to get your laundry dry amid the energy crisis
- Changes to Warm Homes grant mean some miss out this year - list in full of who is eligible
