With winters getting colder with every passing year and gas and electric prices continuing to rise, it is clear that homes all over the UK will be reliant on their heating heavily in the winter months. Here at Village Heating, we have investigated the parts of the UK that are likely to be paying the most to heat their homes to a comfortable temperature of 21 degrees.
A number of UK energy suppliers, as well as the World Health Organisation, state that most people prefer an indoor temperature of between 18 and 21 degrees celsius for their homes. With this in mind, we have used Met Office data to find the average temperature of 14 regions of the UK during the winter months (December, January and February) to find out where has to heat their homes the most to reach this optimum temperature and stay comfortably warm during the winter months.
We have compared this with the average electricity prices, in pence per kWh, in these regions to find out which parts of the country are having to pay the most in heating bills to warm their homes to an assumed desired household temperature of 21 degrees.
Households in North Scotland stand to pay the most to heat their home this winter, with both the lowest average winter temperature, at 7.32°C, and the highest average electricity unit rate, at 15.60 pence per kWh. With a whopping 13°C needed to raise their household temperature to the desired 21°C, many households in North Scotland will need to pay a higher electricity bill than the rest of the UK.
Understandably, many of the Northern regions of the UK have a lower average winter temperature, and as a result, have to heat their home more to reach a comfortable 18-21°C. However, in some cases, this is reflected in energy costs. For example, households in the West Midlands had a lower average winter temperature last winter than the North East, but enjoy a low electricity rate of 14.25 pence per kWh. However, despite this cheaper rate, households in the West Midlands are the second most expensive to heat to a comfortable temperature according to our data.
In the third position for the highest cost, households in the North East suffer from a chilly average winter temperature and middle ground energy prices to come just behind the West Midlands. Households in the North West, Merseyside and North Wales are also in the top 5 for the most expensive. Interestingly, households in Merseyside and North Wales enjoyed an average winter temperature of 8.34°C. However, they have one of the highest average electricity unit rates of 15.18 pence per kWh.
Many of the Southern regions of the UK benefit from warmer temperatures during the winter months, which help them save on heating costs. From the South West to the South East, the average winter temperature last winter was between 8.25 and 9.41°C. However, this higher temperature does often come with higher energy costs, with the South East, South West and South Wales appearing in the top 5 for average electricity unit rate.
Households in the South of the UK are overall able to heat their homes for less thanks to the higher temperatures. In addition, the South West comes in second place thanks to having the highest average winter temperature in the UK.
The only region that breaks this trend is the East, which can thank its low average unit rate of 14.06 pence per kWh for coming in third for the lowest cost, despite its middle ground average winter temperature.
We gathered the average electricity prices in pence per kWh of 14 regions of the UK. We then gathered the average winter temperature of these regions in 2021/2022. We then compared those figures to find the areas of the UK that had the lowest average temperature and highest average electricity prices to find the areas of the UK that would cost the most to heat.
