Home energy use
Home energy use in Orkney Islands
How much electricity and gas the typical home here uses, from meter readings for every home in Great Britain, and how that compares with everywhere else.
- Electricity, median home
- 4,315 kWh
- a year, 75% more than Great Britain
- Gas, median home
- No mains gas
- DESNZ records no domestic gas meters here
- At today’s price cap
- £1,338
- a year for the median home, electricity only
The typical home in Orkney Islands used 4,315 kWh of electricity in 2024, 75% more than the typical home across Great Britain. There is no mains gas grid here, so homes heat with electricity, oil, LPG or solid fuel.
Of 350 local authority areas in Great Britain, Orkney Islands comes 2nd for electricity use, counting from the highest. These are medians: half the homes here use more and half use less. The mean is higher (5,514 kWh of electricity) because a minority of big users pulls an average up.
41% of electricity meters here are on Economy 7 or a similar day and night meter, against 12% across Great Britain. That usually means electric storage heaters or a hot water cylinder heated overnight, and it is worth checking your night rate is the one you are using most.
What it costs
At the price cap for 1 October 2026 to 31 December 2026, a home using exactly the Orkney Islands median would pay about £1,338 a year for electricity, standing charges included, against £850 for the Great Britain median. Homes heated by oil, LPG or solid fuel pay for that on top. These use the North Scotland region’s rates.
Orkney Islands is in the North Scotland electricity region. See every region’s rates on energy prices by region.
Your own use is on your bill or in your supplier’s app. Put it into the direct debit checker to see whether you are paying the right amount each month.
Over the last ten years
Since 2015, the typical home’s electricity use here has fallen 5%. The biggest drop came in 2022, the year of the energy price crisis.
How does your home compare?
- Is my electricity use normal? Your yearly use against homes like yours, by property type, heat pump and electric car.
- Electricity smart meter analyser reads your supplier’s download and shows what your home uses hour by hour, without the file leaving your device.
- Heat pump calculator What a heat pump would cost to run against oil, LPG or electric heating.
- Grant checker Including Home Energy Scotland’s heat pump grant and loan.
Areas with similar use
- Shetland Islands4,152 kWh
- Isles of Scilly5,034 kWh
Median electricity, nearest to Orkney Islands.
Elsewhere in Scotland
- Aberdeen City
- Aberdeenshire
- Angus
- Argyll and Bute
- City of Edinburgh
- Clackmannanshire
- Dumfries and Galloway
- Dundee City
- East Ayrshire
- East Dunbartonshire
- East Lothian
- East Renfrewshire
- Falkirk
- Fife
- Glasgow City
- Highland
- Inverclyde
- Midlothian
- Moray
- Na h-Eileanan Siar
- North Ayrshire
- North Lanarkshire
- Perth and Kinross
- Renfrewshire
- Scottish Borders
- Shetland Islands
- South Ayrshire
- South Lanarkshire
- Stirling
- West Dunbartonshire
- West Lothian
Common questions
- How much electricity does a home in Orkney Islands use?
- The median home used 4,315 kWh of electricity in 2024, against 2,471 kWh across Great Britain. The mean was higher, 5,514 kWh, because a minority of heavy users pulls an average up; the median is the household in the middle.
- Is there mains gas in Orkney Islands?
- No. DESNZ records no domestic gas meters in Orkney Islands. Homes heat with electricity, heating oil, LPG or solid fuel, which is one reason electricity use is 75% more than the Great Britain median.
- What does energy cost for a typical home in Orkney Islands?
- At the price cap for 1 October 2026 to 31 December 2026, a home using the Orkney Islands median would pay about £1,338 a year, standing charges included. Your own bill depends on your own use, which is on your bill or in your supplier’s app.