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Energy & Sustainability

Home Energy Calculators & Guides

Understand your electricity bill, size home storage, and cut standby consumption — the everyday side of the energy transition.

Home energy is where most households meet the energy transition first. Before you install solar or a heat pump, you should understand your baseline consumption — what your appliances actually cost to run, where standby losses are hiding, and how your tariff structure rewards or punishes different usage patterns. This hub covers those fundamentals.

The guides here work through unit prices, appliance running costs, battery storage sizing, small wind viability, and the CO₂ emissions attached to a kilowatt-hour drawn from your local grid. Together they give you the numbers you need to prioritise investments — usually starting with cheap efficiency wins before expensive generation or storage.

Once you know your baseline, the neighbouring pillars — solar, heat pumps, EVs — become far easier to evaluate. The order matters: efficiency first, then electrification, then generation and storage.

Flagship calculator · Free

Home Energy Audit

Appliance-by-appliance annual kWh, running cost, CO₂ and share of bill. Surfaces standby losses and quick wins automatically.

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Guides in this hub

In-depth articles covering the math, the assumptions, and the practical decisions for home energy.

Smart thermostat displaying energy savings on modern home wall
🌱Energy & Environment

Smart Home Energy Savings: Complete Guide to Reducing Your Bills

Smart home technology offers unprecedented control over your energy usage. From learning thermostats that optimize heating schedules to real-time monitors that reveal energy vampires, these devices typically save 10-30% on energy bills while improving comfort. This guide covers the best smart energy devices and strategies.

Home battery storage system mounted on wall with solar panels
🌱Energy & Environment

Home Battery Storage: Complete Guide to Energy Independence

Home battery storage is revolutionizing how households manage energy. By storing excess solar power or cheap off-peak electricity, batteries provide backup power, reduce bills, and move us toward true energy independence. This comprehensive guide covers everything from capacity calculations to real-world savings.

Wind turbines at sunset generating clean renewable energy
🌱Energy & Environment

Wind Energy for Homes: Is a Small Wind Turbine Right for You?

Small wind turbines promise clean, renewable energy for homeowners. But unlike solar panels, which work almost everywhere, wind turbines require specific conditions to be economically viable. This honest guide explores when home wind power makes sense and when it does not.

Electric power lines against blue sky representing CO2 emissions from electricity
🌱Energy & Environment

How to Calculate CO₂ Emissions from Electricity

Understanding how much CO₂ your electricity use produces is essential for reducing your carbon footprint. However, the answer varies dramatically depending on where you live and how your electricity is generated. This guide explains how to calculate your electricity emissions.

Supporting converters

General-purpose unit converters you will use alongside the guides above — area for panel sizing, temperature for heat pumps, distance for EV range.

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°C → °F

Celsius to Fahrenheit

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ft² → m²

Square Feet to Square Meters

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m² → ft²

Square Meters to Square Feet

More calculators in this hub

Focused tools that answer a single question — pair them with the flagship calculator for deeper analysis.

Gas to kWh Converter

Convert m³, ft³ or therms of natural gas into kWh, cost and CO₂ — with editable calorific value.

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Standby Power Audit

Annual cost + CO₂ of always-on routers, TVs, chargers and standby loads.

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Frequently asked questions

How many kWh does an average home use per year?
A single-person flat: 1,500–2,500 kWh/year. A typical family home without electric heating: 3,500–5,000 kWh/year. With electric heating or a heat pump: 8,000–15,000 kWh/year. With an EV added: another 2,000–4,000 kWh depending on annual mileage.
What are the biggest home electricity users?
Space heating (if electric) dominates at 40–70% of the bill. Then hot water at 10–20%. Then refrigeration, laundry and cooking each at 3–8%. Lighting has fallen to under 5% with LEDs. Standby losses across all electronics often exceed 5% — small individually but continuous.
How much does standby power actually cost?
A typical home has 20–40 always-on devices totalling 30–100 W. At 0.30 €/kWh that is 80–260 € per year — enough to justify a €30 smart plug on the entertainment centre.
Is it worth insulating before switching to a heat pump?
Almost always. Every kWh of heat demand you eliminate through insulation costs less than the equivalent kWh delivered by a heat pump over the system’s lifetime. It also lets you install a smaller, cheaper heat pump operating at lower flow temperature — which raises SCOP.
Does a smart meter save money by itself?
No — it only measures. Savings come from acting on the data: shifting laundry to cheap-tariff hours, identifying an old fridge that draws 300 kWh/year more than it should, or moving to a time-of-use tariff. Households that engage with their smart meter data typically cut consumption 5–10%.
How is 1 kWh actually defined?
One kWh is the energy used by a 1,000-watt appliance running for one hour. It equals 3.6 million joules. Utility bills use kWh; heating engineers often use joules or MJ; gas suppliers may use therms (1 therm ≈ 29.3 kWh) or m³ (1 m³ of natural gas ≈ 10.5–11 kWh depending on gas composition).

Explore related topics

Energy decisions rarely stand alone — solar pairs with batteries and EVs, heat pumps pair with insulation and tariffs.

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Solar Energy

Plan, size and understand a solar installation — from panel output to payback and battery storage.

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Heat Pumps

Understand COP, SCOP and running cost — and see when a heat pump beats gas, oil or direct electric heating.

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Electric Vehicles

Charging cost, range and total-cost-of-ownership math — from home charger sizing to petrol comparison.

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Carbon Footprint

Translate kilowatt-hours, kilometres, kilograms and litres into CO₂ — with emission factors you can verify.