Our energy consumption can end up costing us hundreds of pounds a year, but do you know how much energy you use to heat your home?

Some homes can use around 20,000 kWh a year, whilst others may be using more like 10,000 kWh. Although many people have a rough idea how much they spend on fuel bills each year, not many know how much energy they use specifically for heating their home.

Knowing the answer is the first step in helping homeowners reduce the cost of their heating bills.

Measuring Energy Usage To Heat Your Home

A typical home can use anywhere between 5,000 kWh and 30,000 kWh of energy a year for heating purposes.

Heating varies; some use natural gas, oil, electricity or something else. No matter which fuel type you use, you can measure the usage through energy meters and energy bills. If you use one fuel for heating and nothing else, then your annual usage of that fuel is the number you’re looking for.

Those who use electricity and gas to heat their home, also tend to use the fuel for other purposes such as cooking, water heating, lighting and appliances. To account for this, you can take advantage of the fact that heating in the UK is seasonal.

If a home uses electricity for all its energy needs, and uses around 16,000 kWh a year for everything, and if we know that over 6 months when the house isn’t heated it uses 3,00 kWh for everything except heating, we can roughly assume that the same is used over the winter months for these same things. So, over a year, non-heating demands account for 6,000 kWh, and the remaining 10,000 kWh will be used for heating.

For some people in certain locations, heating bills can be balanced by using a home stove that burns smokeless coal. This can help reduce the overall yearly energy bills.