Guides
Energy guides
Plain-English answers to the questions behind your bill, each with its sources named and dated.
Prices and bills
- The January 2027 price cap
Every published forecast, dated, and what each would add to your bill.
- Average energy bills by house size
What a flat, a 3-bed and a 4-bed home use and pay a year at today’s cap.
- Standing charges explained
What the daily charge pays for and why it differs between regions.
- Economy 7 explained
How day and night rates work, and the night share it needs to pay.
- Your fixed deal is ending
What happens when a fix ends, and how to decide what to do next.
- What is a kWh?
Kilowatt-hours explained, with what one costs and what it runs.
- MPAN and MPRN explained
Find your meter numbers, and the region your MPAN puts you in.
Help with bills and debt
- The energy debt relief scheme
What’s confirmed about the 2027 write-off, and what to do about debt now.
- ECO4 ends on 31 December 2026
What closes, what replaces it, and what to do before the deadline.
Boilers and heating
- Is your combi burning gas when nobody’s using it?
The preheat setting that keeps a boiler hot around the clock.
- Boiler flow temperature
The setting that cuts gas use by about 9%, and when not to change it.
- Heat pump vs gas: the honest numbers
The arithmetic, the efficiency figure that decides it, and when gas wins.
- How much electricity does a heat pump use?
Measured across 45,602 UK heat pump homes rather than modelled.
- The October 2026 cap made heat pumps cheaper
How the latest cap shifted the running-cost gap.
Smart meters
- Are smart meters worth it?
What you get, what it costs, the evidence and what can go wrong.
- Are smart meters accurate?
The legal limits, the real causes of wrong bills, and how to check yours.
Solar and batteries
- Solar panel costs
What UK homes actually paid, from government data on 264,742 installs.
- Why home batteries mostly don’t pay for themselves
The tariff switch, the losses and the capacity ceiling.