Report reveals what kind of households are the most energy efficient

Smaller and newer homes use less energy than larger, older ones, confirms a new report by UCL researchers that offers unique insights into household energy consumption across the country. The report, published by UCL's Smart Energy Research Lab (SERL), analysed the gas and electricity use of more than 13,000 representative households across Great Britain over two years. The report offers a range of insights into overall energy usage, and efforts to improve the energy efficiency and sustainability of households. The report found that homes built between 1900 and 1929 used an average of 33% more gas per square metre of floor area than homes built since 2003, even though they used comparable amounts of electricity, highlighting the increasing insulation efficiency of modern homes. Homes over 200 square metres used more than four times as much energy than homes smaller than 50 square metres. However, while larger homes used more gas for heating than smaller homes overall, they averaged to be slightly more efficient per square metre of floor area. This is in part because larger homes tend to have less surface area from which to lose heat for a given volume.