Typical Domestic Consumption Values: The Benchmark Behind Bill Figures

Typical domestic consumption values (TDCVs) are the industry standard figures for the annual gas and electricity usage of a typical domestic consumer, set by Ofgem. They exist so that a household can see roughly how much energy it might use in a year, and so that every supplier's tariff can be compared on the same basis¹. The medium values currently used for bill figures are 2,700 kWh of electricity and 11,500 kWh of gas, with 3,900 kWh for multi-register meters such as Economy 7³.

Those figures are the reason a price cap headline is a single number rather than a range. The cap limits the unit rates and standing charges a supplier can set on a default tariff, and the headline annual figure is what those rates produce for a household using the benchmark. The benchmark used in the cap is currently based on TDCVs from 2017⁴, and the values themselves were updated from 1 July 2026, when the new typical household became 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas per year⁵.

The distinction matters for any household trying to read its own bill. A benchmark is not a limit and not a prediction: it is a fixed reference point that lets a regulator, a supplier and a comparison site all talk about the same household. A home that uses more pays more than the headline, and one that uses less pays less.

The low, medium and high figures

The values are published as a low, medium and high figure for each fuel, and the medium figure is the one that drives the headline bill. The medium values used for bill values are 2,700 kWh for electricity, 11,500 kWh for gas and 3,900 kWh for multi-register meters³. Ofgem's own definition is that the TDCVs are industry standard values for the annual gas and electricity usage of a typical domestic consumer⁷.

The low and high figures bracket the middle. For gas, the low value is 8,000 kWh and the high value is 17,000 kWh per year⁸. For electricity, the picture is complicated by meter type: a single-rate household and a multi-register household have different profiles, so the same "medium" label can sit on different numbers depending on how the meter records consumption.

The values are not the same as a household's actual consumption, and the gap can be wide. Ofgem's National Energy Efficiency Data Framework records annual electricity consumption across a range from 100 to 25,000 kWh¹⁰, which is far broader than any low, medium or high band. The benchmark is a central reference, not a description of the distribution.

The figures also change over time, and the direction has been downward. The median value used for the headline price cap fell by 7 per cent for electricity and 17 per cent for gas in the 2026 review, and across the full set the electricity values were reduced by 7 to 14 per cent and the gas values by 15 to 20 per cent². The new typical household consumes 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas per year, down from 2,700 kWh and 11,500 kWh⁶.

What drives the figures

The values are built from metered consumption data rather than from surveys or assumptions. Ofgem derives them using an established methodology based on the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero sub-national consumption statistics, and the central figure is based on median consumption⁴. The methodology uses the median with an adjustment for very low, including nil, consumption meter points⁵.

The choice of median over mean is deliberate. Ofgem states that a small number of customers who use very high volumes of gas and electricity disproportionately influence the mean, and the distribution is positively skewed, so the median better represents the middle of the range⁷. The low and high values are drawn from the quartiles around that middle.

Two forces have pushed the figures down. Ofgem attributes the fall to better energy efficiency and rising energy costs, which together have reduced average energy consumption¹¹. The official statistics support the efficiency side: in 2024 consumption per household increased by 2.9 per cent, as consumption increased more sharply than the number of households¹², and on a temperature corrected basis domestic consumption in 2024 was 36.7 mtoe¹². The benchmark is revised against that moving picture, not against a fixed idea of a typical home.

The review cycle is set out in Ofgem's framework. The current approach is to review the values every two years, in line with the established framework⁵, and a revision follows only if the latest consumption data results in materially different values⁸. Material means a change of at least 100 kWh for electricity and 500 kWh for gas when rounded⁷. That threshold is why some review cycles pass without any change to the published numbers.

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The values are set by Ofgem, which regulates the energy market in Great Britain, so they underpin the price cap and tariff comparison figures in England, Scotland and Wales. The cap itself is expressed as a figure for a dual-fuel home with typical usage in Great Britain paying by direct debit, which the Welsh Government's own explainer puts at around £1,758 for 1 January to 31 March 2026¹³. The Scottish Government's fuel poverty modelling is likewise built on Ofgem energy price caps¹⁴.

Northern Ireland sits outside that structure. It has a separate energy market with its own regulator and its own tariff arrangements, so the Great Britain benchmarks do not map directly onto Power NI bills. When the Energy Price Guarantee was introduced, it applied to all households in Great Britain with equivalent support in Northern Ireland¹⁵, which is the pattern: the same policy intent delivered through a different mechanism.

The practical consequence for a household is that the headline figure quoted in national coverage is a Great Britain figure. A household in Northern Ireland reading a story about the cap and the typical household is reading about a benchmark that does not govern its own bill, even where the support arrangements are designed to be equivalent.

Within Great Britain, the benchmark does not vary by nation. The same 2,700 kWh and 11,500 kWh apply in England, Scotland and Wales, because they are derived from sub-national consumption statistics across the whole of Great Britain rather than from separate national datasets⁴. Regional variation shows up in unit rates and standing charges, not in the consumption benchmark itself.

The rules behind the values

The values are governed by a published framework rather than set ad hoc. Ofgem reviews them every two years, in line with its established approach⁵, and revises them only where the latest consumption data produces a materially different figure, defined as at least 100 kWh for electricity and 500 kWh for gas when rounded⁷. The updated values are implemented for communication purposes from 1 July 2026⁵.

The values are used for two distinct jobs. They help customers compare energy tariff offers, and they are used to calculate the unit rates for gas and electricity in the price cap². The cap's benchmark consumption is currently based on TDCVs from 2017⁴, and Ofgem's cap letters state that all figures reflect the latest (2023) TDCVs¹⁶. The two statements sit together because the cap's benchmark and the published values are reviewed on different timetables.

Multi-register meters have their own rules. The medium value for multi-register meters such as Economy 7 customers is 3,900 kWh³, and Ofgem's earlier work on these meters assumed a 45/55 per cent day and night split, based on temperature adjusted consumption data¹⁷. The values for these meters are calculated per meter and not per household, so averages may underestimate the consumption of customers on restricted meters¹⁸.

There are also boundaries at the edges of the domestic market. For electricity, the cut-off point for non-domestic consumption is 100,000 kWh per year⁷, and for gas the industry standard Annual Quantity cut-off used to classify domestic consumers is 73,200 kWh⁸. Households far above the medium benchmark are still domestic consumers, but the classification rules show where the domestic category ends.

Where the benchmark is used in bill figures

The benchmark is the reason a single number can stand for the price cap. The cap levels represent a dual fuel customer who uses a typical amount of gas and electricity, using a measure calculated from the medium gas user and medium electricity user values¹⁹. Every headline figure since has been built on that construction.

The figures move with the cap, and the benchmark is what converts rates into an annual illustration. A typical household on a default tariff was quoted at £102 a month from October to December 2025, against £100 previously²⁰. The January to March 2026 cap was forecast at £1,712 a year for a typical household on dual fuel direct debit²². Each of those numbers is the capped rates multiplied by the benchmark consumption, not a bill any particular household is guaranteed.

The benchmark has also been used in crisis schemes. The Energy Price Guarantee capped a typical UK household annual energy bill at £2,500 from 1 October 2022 for two years, with equivalent support in Northern Ireland¹⁵, and the scheme assumed typical consumption of 2,900 kWh for electricity and 12,000 kWh for gas²³. Those are the older values, which is why the crisis-era headlines are not directly comparable with current ones.

The same construction appears in the cap's own documentation. The benchmark consumption used in the price cap is 3,100 kWh for single rate electricity and 12,000 kWh for gas in one Ofgem consultation²⁴, while the current published values used for bill figures are 2,700 kWh and 11,500 kWh³.

What the benchmark means for energy independence

The benchmark is a measure of dependence as much as of consumption. A typical household using 11,500 kWh of gas and 2,700 kWh of electricity a year is buying almost all of that energy from a supplier, delivered through the grid and the gas network, at prices set by wholesale markets and the cap³. The values describe how much energy a household pulls from external systems, not how much it could generate or store itself.

That is why the figures matter to anyone thinking about self-sufficiency. The gas figure is the larger share of the benchmark, and it is the part most exposed to import prices and to the wholesale market movements that drive cap changes²². Reducing the gas figure, whether through insulation, heating changes or a switch to electric heating, changes the household's exposure more than an equivalent reduction on the electricity side, because the starting number is so much larger.

The electricity figure is where a household can begin to substitute its own supply. A home using 2,700 kWh a year is drawing that from the grid, and the benchmark gives a target against which self-generation can be measured. The National Energy Efficiency Data Framework records annual electricity consumption across a range from 100 to 25,000 kWh¹⁰, which shows how far a low-consumption home can sit below the benchmark and how far a high-consumption one can sit above it.

The dependence that remains is structural. The benchmark is set by a regulator, revised on a two-year cycle, and used to calculate the unit rates a supplier can charge⁵. A household can change its own consumption, but it cannot change the benchmark, the cap, or the wholesale prices behind them. The values are a fixed reference point in a system the household does not control, which is precisely why knowing them is useful: they show what the system assumes a home like yours uses, and therefore what a bill headline is actually describing.