What a home costs to run, by EPC band

A 3 bed semi-detached house heated by mains gas costs about £1,885 a year in band D, £1,754 in band C and £1,981 in band E, F or G, at the Ofgem price cap for October to December 2026. Size matters more than the band: a 1 bed flat in band D costs £1,193 a year and a 5 bed detached house £3,068.

Gas includes its £108 a year standing charge and electricity its £200 one. Bands F and G use the band E figure: households in those homes buy slightly less gas than band E homes on the meter, which is under-heating rather than efficiency, so a buyer who plans to heat the home properly should expect more.

Heating comes from our heat model, built from 2024 meter readings for 39,502 gas heated homes in the government's National Energy Efficiency Data-Framework. The difference between bands is measured the same way: by comparing homes in different EPC bands that are the same type and size, so the band is not mixed up with the size of the house. Electricity for lighting, appliances and cooking is the 2024 median for homes with that many bedrooms, from the same government data. The energy bill calculator covers every type and size of home.

Divided over the year, a band D 3 bed semi costs about £157 a month and a band C one £146. Paying by direct debit spreads the cost evenly, but the energy itself is used mostly in winter.

These are typical figures for a home of each kind, not a quote for a particular house. The household matters too: more people at home in the day and a warmer thermostat both push the bill up, which our guide to bills by household size puts numbers on.

For a 3 bed semi on gas, band C costs about £132 a year less to run than band D, or £11 a month. Across the homes below the gap runs from £67 to £233 a year, growing with the size of the home.

Our bills by EPC rating guide puts the typical band D home at £1,834 a year and the step from D to C at about £242, a bigger gap than the one here. Both come from the same government meter readings, but that guide compares every band C home with every band D home, and band D homes are on average larger and older. This page compares homes of the same type and size, which is the comparison that matters when you are choosing between two houses of the same size.

The same 3 bed semi in band D costs about £2,216 a year heated by oil, £2,006 by LPG and £3,506 with electric heating on a standard rate, against £1,885 on mains gas.

Oil and LPG boilers are taken as 85% efficient and gas boilers 90%. Electric heating is priced at the standard rate; storage heaters on Economy 7 cost less to run, which our storage heaters guide prices properly. Heating oil prices move from month to month.

A home without mains gas pays no gas standing charge, but every unit of heat costs more. The questions to ask about an oil or LPG heated home before you buy are in our guide to buying an older or off-gas home.

For a band D 3 bed semi, the cheapest route to band C in our EPC points model costs from about £1,225, where the loft and cavity walls still need insulating, to about £6,475 where they are already done. What the certificate says about the walls, loft and boiler decides which.

Routes from our EPC points model, the same as the EPC calculator, cheapest per point first, starting from the middle of band D. The saving is worked out measure by measure: insulation uses the median fall in gas use the government measured after each measure, solar panels the yearly saving and export income for a 4 kW south facing roof in the Midlands from our solar calculator, and a heat pump its saving against gas on a heat pump tariff. LED bulbs, heating controls and a boiler swap lift the rating, but we have no measured bill saving for them, so they count as nothing and the payback is cautious. Our guide to what EPC recommendations cost gives the figures for each measure.

Where the walls and loft are already done, the route reaches for solar panels, which earn their keep through the electricity they make rather than through the band. Grants can cut the insulation cost: ECO4 can fund it for households on qualifying benefits until 31 December 2026.

Put in the home's type, bedrooms, heating and EPC band and our home buyer energy check gives the bill now, the cheapest route to band C, the bill after and the payback, in one answer.

Find the certificate first. Every EPC lodged in England and Wales is free to read on the government register, and its recommendations list tells you what the assessor thought the home lacked. Our guide to how EPC points are calculated explains what moves the score.

• Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, National Energy Efficiency Data-Framework 2026: 2024 gas use by home type, size and EPC band, and electricity by number of bedrooms.
• Ofgem, energy price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026: unit rates and standing charges.
• BoilerJuice UK average kerosene price on 25 September 2026.
• Our EPC calculator points model, js/epc-plan.js, with insulation costs from the Energy Saving Trust and the new boiler cost from DESNZ.