Home energy use check

The AECB Home Energy Check  helps you to see how your existing home energy use compares against retrofitted energy efficient properties entered in the AECB Low Energy Buildings database. Energy used to heat and power these properties after they have been retrofitted is based on measured data, so these are real results after the fitting of energy efficiency measures including: wall, roof and floor insulation, improved windows, draught-proofing, ventilation systems, more efficient heating systems, lights, appliances and household electrical equipment.

You will only need basic information about the size of your home and the amount of fuel(s) your home uses over a twelve-month period. You will  be able to see how much energy the different buildings consumed before they were retrofitted (some of these pre-retrofit figures are modelled, some measured).

We hope that the Home Energy Check and the information available on retrofitted buildings held on this searchable database provides you with the confidence to develop your own plans for making energy-saving improvements to your home – in order to reduce climate changing greenhouse gas emissions, increase your comfort levels and reduce your fuel bills.

The AECB is currently developing a retrofit guidance programme to further support low energy retrofit activity, aiming to improve knowledge in this area generally and

  •     Get better performance results from retrofit
  •     Minimise the moisture related risks to the building fabric and indoor air quality relating to both existing problems and as a result of retrofit measures, notably around application of insulation, draught-proofing and ventilation
  •     Offer guidance on viable energy performance ‘targets’ to aim for different house types
  •     Support building condition monitoring, learning and knowledge sharing
please check the form for errors and omissions

Measure the internal floor area of your home

How to measure

Enter the floor area of your property in square meters

Measure the floor area of all the rooms that are within the heated areas of your building, on all floors and add them up to give a total floor area. Your energy consumption is presented as energy used per square metre, so the more accurate this measurement the more accurate a result is given. However for this exercise you can use an approximate floor area based on your own measurements, following the Gross Internal Area (GIA) convention, which is the floor area contained within the building measured to the internal face of the external walls (i.e. excluding the thickness of the external walls) - taking each floor into account.

If you are keen to more closely follow this convention GIA will include:
  • Areas occupied by internal walls (whether structural or not) and partitions
  • Service accommodation such as WCs, showers, changing rooms and the like
  • Columns, piers, whether free standing or projecting inwards from an external wall, chimney breasts, lift wells, stairwells etc.
  • Lift rooms, plant rooms, tank rooms, fuel stores, whether or not above roof level
  • Open-sided covered areas (should be stated separately)
GIA will exclude:
  • Open balconies, Open fire escapes, Open-sided covered ways, Open vehicle parking areas, terraces and the like
  • Minor canopies
  • Any area with ceiling height of less than 1.5m (except under stairways)
Source
square metres (m²)

Your annual fuel use

How to calculate

To calculate your annual fuel use we need to know how much of each fuel type you use to heat and power your home in a twelve month period. You should enter the total amount CONSUMED to heat and power your home over any 12 month period. You should be able to find how much you have used via your fuel bills – these are often confusing and alternatively you can ring your energy supplier and ask them to give you the exact figures (in kilowatt-hours per year, for gas and for electricity). It is up to you which 12 month period you use, or which year, although in colder years you will use more. Please enter the figure for each type of fuel or electricity consumed in the appropriate box, remembering to select the appropriate units for that fuel. For example: natural gas could be in kilowatt-hours (kWh) or, if based on your own meter readings over the year might be in cubic feet or cubic metres (depending on your meter type). You can also enter figures based on LPG, heating oil, and estimated tonnes of wood burned, in litres or tonnes. Don’t worry - a rough estimate for tonnes of wood burned each year is good enough for this exercise.

SOLAR PANELS (electricity generating only,photovoltaic or PV panels)
If you have solar PV panels and don’t consume all the electricity generated, determining the amount of electricity actually consumed can become confusing - depending on your metering arrangement. It is assumed by default that you consume 50% of the electricity generated by the PV panels, but in reality this may be higher or lower. If you have PV panels generating your own electricity please DO NOT reduce your consumption figures by the total amount generated as this exercise looks at all energy used in the home, wherever it is generated or sourced from: PV panels are part of the national energy generation mix (along with wind, coal, gas and nuclear power stations).

Please enter annual fuel consumption for each fuel type that you use.

kWh per year




please check the form for errors and omissions