Although the price cap sets the unit prices for gas and electricity, your household’s actual bill depends on the overall amount of energy you use, and how you pay for it.
Where you live, the type of property you have, how energy efficient it is, how many people live there, and the weather all make a difference.
The Ofgem cap is based on “typical” household energy use in a year with a single bill for gas and electricity settled by direct debit.
The vast majority of people pay their bill this way to help spread payments across the year.
In July, Ofgem reduced what it believes to be a “typical” level of energy use, because many homes have cut back owing to high prices of recent years while energy efficiency has improved.
Its new estimate is 9,500 kWh of gas and 2,500 kWh of electricity a year.
Using these numbers the typical average bill since 1 July has been £1,663.
