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Domestic Fuels

Carbon Dioxide and Fuel Costs

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The site focuses on cost and the belief that if environmental measures are cost effective then people will adopt them. We show with evidence which are the most cost effective measures to adopt in your domestic situation to save you money and as a consequence help the environment and which costs need to be driven down or grant funded to increase uptake.

The site does not aim to cover in any detail CO2 emissions, even though these are of great importance to our future. There are so many sites on the internet focusing on this. Some awareness is however useful. The CO2 emission data from the below table is taken from the Carbon Trust. The table also has the cost data to compare with this so that you can get a feel for cost of energy and the consequence of the fuel type on the environment.

Different fuel prices per kWh Different fuel prices per kWh

Well from this we should all be burning wood pellets to keep warm, they are fairly cheap and their net carbon dioxide emissions are the lowest.  The problem is that if we all switched we would run out of trees and the price would go up!

 

Fuel Prices

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Most of this site is dedicated to giving its visitors useful indicative cost information related to the use of energy in and around your place of residence.  Depending upon what is within your control where you live, it is hoped that this information will help you save money and help you make sensible cost based decisions regarding what equipment to invest in, to reduce costs.

Getting to the actual cost of energy in your area, in you type of accommodation and with consideration for your personal circumstances is close to impossible because there is so much variety. The best that can be achieved is to have an average for each major fuel type. For those of you that are interested the range of prices in the UK for most fuels is presented in the table below . It should be noted that the values presented here vary with time and the cost of fuel in the overall economy, as a consequence these values are regularly updated and as they are updated all the costs in the site change automatically.

The most accessible figures are for  electricity and natural gas since these are the main sources of energy for most households in the UK.  Using the BERR (Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform) quarterly review, the following tables summarise the three main billing methods and provide the largest and smallest unit rates in the UK and then the average of these.  The total annual rates are based on the average use per household in the UK. Prepayment was a lot more expensive in 2008 it appears to have reduced dramatically this is good news since typically those who can least afford it were forced onto expensive prepayment tarrifs!

 The prices currently in use on this site are in the bar chart below, they include VAT and delivery where appropriate.

energy prices kWh gas electricity kerosene fuel oil wood biomass LPG coal smokeless propane butane

Last Updated 1th February 2012
ELECTRIC Standard Credit
Direct Debit Prepayment (meter)

Unit (kWh) cost Average annual cost Unit (kWh) cost
Average annual cost Unit (kWh) cost
Average annual cost
Highest 17.06 pence £ 563 15.27 pence £ 504 16.91 pence £ 558
Lowest 12.88 pence £ 4.25 11.67 pence £ 385 13.31 pence £ 439
Average 14.29 pence £ 472 13.2 pence £ 436 14.64 pence £ 483
An average annual energy consumption of 3,300 kWh is assumed for all calculations, and all figures include VAT

Last Updated 1th February 2012
GAS Standard Credit
Direct Debit 
Prepayment (meter)
  Unit (kWh) cost
Average annual cost Unit (kWh) cost
Average annual cost Unit (kWh) cost
Average annual cost
Highest 4.62 pence £ 831 4.2 pence £ 755 4.35 pence £ 782
Lowest 3.87 pence £ 696 3.57 pence £ 574 3.89 pence £ 700
Average 4.15 pence £ 747 3.89 pence £ 700 4.13 pence £ 743
An average annual energy consumption of 18,000 kWh is assumed for all calculations, and all figures include VAT

Direct debit payment and standard credit are equally used as payment methods for both electricity and gas, and about 15% use prepayment meters.  The figure used for the electrical unit price and the gas unit price in this site is half way between the direct debit tariff and the standard tariff and is currently

  • £ 0.137 per unit (1 kWh) for electricity, last updated  1th February 2012
  • £ 0.041 per unit (1 kWh) for gas, last updated 1th February 2012

Almost all other energy sources are used for heating and hot water, and this is a huge and very important cost element in your accommodation. The table below shows all the heating fuels in common use, there are others (corn pellets, wood chip and even cow dung!) but we only show the main ones in use in the UK. For consistency and sensible comparison with electricity the final price of energy is given as pence per kilowatt hour (kWh). For further clarity this is the amount of potential energy in the fuel, and not the energy delivered from an appliance, it is therfore important that the efficiency of the heating application is also factored into cost calculations within the site and you will see efficiency factors in some of the tables.

Heating Fuels Range of Prices Energy Average Price Used in the Site
Low High
Gas Unit £ 0.039 per unit £ 0.042 per unit 1 kWh per unit £ 0.041 per kWh
Heating Oil (kerosene) litre £ 0.58 per litre3 £ 0.61 per litre3 10 kWh per litre £ 0.062 per kWh
Wood Log 50kg bag £ 10 per bag £ 20 per bag 3 kWh per kg £ 0.1 per kWh
Wood Chip ton £ 90 per ton £ 100 per ton 3 kWh per kg £ 0.032 per kWh
Wood Pellet ton £ 220 per ton £ 233 per ton 4.5 kWh per kg £ 0.05 per kWh
Coal 50kg bag £ 15 per bag £ 20 per bag 9 kWh per kg £ 0.039 per kWh
Smokeless Coal 50kg bag £ 16 per bag £ 21 per bag 6 kWh per kg £ 0.053 per kWh
Bulk LPG litre £ 0.5 per litre £ 0.5 per litre 7.08 kWh per litre £ 0.074 per kWh
Butane* 4.5 kg Cylinder £ 16 per cylinder £ 16 per cylinder 13.7 kWh per kg £ 0.26 per kWh
  7 kg Cylinder £ 17.99 per cylinder £ 21.5 per cylinder 13.7 kWh per kg £ 0.206 per kWh
  15 kg Cylinder £ 33 per cylinder £ 33 per cylinder 13.7 kWh per kg £ 0.161 per kWh
Propane* 3.9 kg Cylinder £ 15.5 per cylinder £ 15.5 per cylinder 13.9 kWh per kg £ 0.286 per kWh
  6 kg Cylinder £ 18.5 per cylinder £ 20 per cylinder 13.9 kWh per kg £ 0.231 per kWh
  13 kg Cylinder £ 25.5 per cylinder £ 25.5 per cylinder 13.9 kWh per kg £ 0.141 per kWh
  19 kg Cylinder £ 35 per cylinder £ 35 per cylinder 13.9 kWh per kg £ 0.133 per kWh
  47 kg Cylinder £ 60 per cylinder £ 65 per cylinder 13.9 kWh per kg £ 0.096 per kWh

*Please note that there is usually a rental charge for cylinders of gas of about £ 30.

The prices currently in use on this site are in the bar chart below.

 
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Household Energy Costs

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Site Guidance

All calculations on this site are based on current fuel prices they are checked regularly are automatically updated and were last changed on:-
1th February 2012
For complete clarity, all calculation using current fuel prices are coloured red.
The costs calculated based on these fuel prices should be regarded as 'good estimates', given that fuel prices vary in different parts of the county and at different time of the year.
The calculations also have different levels of accuracy depending on the nature of the calculation. For example calculating the energy use of a known power output TV is very easy compared to calculating the effect on energy savings when insulating a cavity wall.

Site Units

The main units used in this site are in the table below, For a complete explanation of any of these Wikipedia is an excellent resource.

Unit Name Detail
W Watt Unit of Power
kW Kilowatt 1000 watts
kWh Kilowatt hour Measure of Energy
L Litre Measure of Volume

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This is the best world enery graphic and simulation tool we have come across so we have put it on the home page! Wish we had done it.

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