Running a home on electricity

Most UK homes still burn gas or oil for heating, hot water and cooking. This site explains the electric alternatives one part of the house at a time, with tools you can try on your own home.

Where to start

1. Find your home's energy performance certificate (EPC). It records the insulation, heating and windows the assessor found, and lists improvements in the order they'd make most difference. Search the register for England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
2. Stop the draughts and top up the loft. Both are cheap, they shrink the job any heating system has to do, and they don't need finishing before anything else. See insulation.
3. Plan the heating before the boiler fails. A heat pump takes a few weeks to survey, design and fit. A boiler that breaks in January is usually replaced with another boiler that week. The boiler escape plan helps you decide when to act.
4. Change the hob when it suits you. It doesn't depend on anything else. See cooking.
5. Consider solar panels and a battery. If your roof gets sun, they cut the electricity you buy, which matters more once the heating runs on it. See solar and batteries.
6. Charge the car at home. When you next change car, a charger on the drive is usually the cheapest way to run it. See car charging.

Grants cover some of the cost for many households. Paying for it lists the schemes and has a tool that checks which you might get.

Tools to try on your home

The tools on this site work from your postcode or your phone: which grants you might get, what a heat pump would cost to run, what one sounds like, and whether it fits where you'd put it. See all the tools.

They are made by KarbonKit, which lets councils, installers and community energy groups put the same tools on their own websites for free. This site is also where KarbonKit tests them.