UK Energy Prices Are Rising Again: What It Means for Your Kitchen
If your energy bill has crept up again this year, you’re not imagining it. From 1 July 2026, Ofgem’s price cap rose by 13%. Taking the typical dual-fuel household bill to £1,862 a year under the old usage figures, or £1,663 under Ofgem’s newly updated (lower) consumption values. Either way, it’s an increase of around £18 a month for the average home. Driven largely by volatility in wholesale gas markets connected to the conflict in the Middle East. Electricity is now priced at 26.11p per kWh and gas at 7.33p per kWh under the standard variable tariff, both up on the spring rate.
We know this isn’t news anyone wants to read. But we also know that for many of the families who come through our showroom doors in Cannock, a kitchen isn’t just about how it looks. It’s one of the most energy-hungry rooms in the house, and it’s also one of the easiest to make meaningfully more efficient.
This post is our honest attempt to explain why bills are rising, what actually uses the energy in your kitchen, and where a kitchen or appliance upgrade genuinely pays you back, and where it doesn’t.
Why bills are going up again
The short version is that UK energy prices are still tied closely to global wholesale gas markets. And this is despite the fact that renewables now make up a growing share of our electricity generation.
Ofgem reviews the price cap every three months. And this summer’s 13% rise reflects continued volatility in wholesale gas caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
Prices are still well below the peak of the 2022 energy crisis, when the government stepped in to cap the typical bill at £2,500. But they remain a long way above pre-crisis levels, when a typical household bill sat closer to £1,000 a year.
The other important thing to understand is that the price cap doesn’t cap your actual bill. It caps the unit rate and standing charge suppliers can charge.
What you pay depends entirely on how much energy your household uses. That’s really the whole point of this post: usage is the one part of the equation you have some control over.
Where your kitchen fits into the picture
Cooking, refrigeration and washing account for a genuinely significant slice of a typical household’s electricity use. Unlike heating, it’s largely made up of appliances you could choose to replace, rather than a boiler system you might not touch for another decade. An old oven, an ageing fridge freezer, or a gas hob running at full flame every evening are all quietly adding to that annual figure.
None of this is about making anyone feel bad for owning an older kitchen. Appliances built fifteen or twenty years ago were built to different standards, because different standards existed at the time. It’s simply worth understanding what’s changed, so you can make an informed decision if and when you’re due an upgrade.
Old appliances versus new: what the ratings actually mean
You’ve probably seen the coloured A to G energy label on a new fridge freezer, washing machine or dishwasher.
It’s worth knowing that this label was reset in 2021.
The old scale, which ran all the way up to A+++, had become so crowded at the top that it stopped being useful for comparing models. The new A to G scale recalibrated everything. So a fridge that would once have been labelled A+++ might now sit at a C or D. The appliance hasn’t got any less efficient, the yardstick has simply changed.
What matters for your bills is the real-world difference between ratings.
According to the Energy Saving Trust, choosing an A-rated fridge freezer over an E-rated model of the same size can save around £380 in running costs over its lifetime.
That’s not a marginal saving. And it’s before you even factor in that a fridge freezer runs continuously, every day of the year, whether you’re using it or not.
Ovens sit slightly outside this system. They’re not currently covered by the new A to G label. So you won’t find a coloured energy rating on the door of a new NEFF oven.
That doesn’t mean efficiency isn’t a factor though. It’s built into how the oven actually cooks. NEFF’s CircoTherm technology, for example, circulates heat evenly around the cavity using a fan and heating element around the back panel. Rather than relying purely on top and bottom elements. That means faster preheating. More even results across multiple shelves. And less energy wasted heating air that isn’t doing any cooking. It’s also why NEFF ovens tend to need shorter preheating times than older conventional ovens. And that quietly adds up over a year of daily use.
Gas or induction: the honest answer
This is one of the questions we get asked most often in the showroom, and we’d rather give you a straight answer than a sales pitch.
Electricity costs considerably more per unit than gas under the current price cap. So on paper, gas looks cheaper.
But that comparison only tells half the story. Because it ignores how much of that energy actually ends up in your food rather than in the air around your pan.
A gas flame loses a significant amount of heat around the sides of the pan. Whereas induction generates heat directly inside the base of the pan itself through an electromagnetic field, with very little wasted.
The practical result is that, once you account for efficiency rather than just unit price, the real-world running cost gap between a gas hob and an induction hob is often much smaller than the headline electricity price would suggest. And for some households induction works out similar or even slightly cheaper over a year, particularly if food is cooked on the hob daily.
Where induction has a clearer advantage is speed and control. Water boils noticeably faster. The hob responds instantly when you turn it down. And there’s no residual flame heating your kitchen once you’ve finished cooking.
It’s also worth knowing that new-build homes in the UK are increasingly moving away from gas connections entirely. So if you’re planning a kitchen that needs to serve you for the next fifteen years, it’s a sensible direction to at least consider.
If you already have a reliable gas supply and cook on the hob daily, there’s nothing wrong with sticking with gas. This is genuinely a “what suits your kitchen and your cooking” decision rather than a straightforward efficiency verdict. And it’s exactly the kind of thing our showroom team can talk through with you honestly, model by model.
Habits that cost nothing to change
Before any of the above, it’s worth saying that plenty of energy saving in the kitchen has nothing to do with buying anything new at all. A few habits make a genuine difference over a year:
- Put a lid on your pans. It traps heat and shortens cooking time significantly.
- Match your pan size to the ring or zone you’re using. A small pan on a large ring wastes most of the heat around its edges.
- Batch cook where you can, so the oven or hob isn’t heating from cold twice in one week for similar meals.
- Cook more than one thing in the oven at once. A fan oven like NEFF’s CircoTherm is built for exactly this, so use it.
- Avoid long preheats. Most modern ovens reach temperature faster than older models, so there’s less need to preheat well in advance.
- Keep your hob rings and oven door clean. Grease and residue reduce how efficiently heat transfers. Also a dirty door means you lose more heat every time you open it to check on something.
- Switch appliances off at the wall rather than leaving them on standby. Kettles, toasters and coffee machines left on standby quietly add up across a household.
- Only boil the water you actually need in the kettle, rather than filling it out of habit.
- If you’re using a Quooker style boiling water tap, use it for topping up vegetables and hot drinks rather than reboiling a full kettle each time.
None of this requires a new kitchen. But it’s worth doing alongside any upgrade, not instead of one, because the two work together.
When an upgrade genuinely pays you back
If your fridge freezer, oven or hob is over ten years old, it’s worth at least asking the question. Refrigeration in particular runs every hour of every day, so even a modest efficiency improvement compounds significantly over a decade.
An oven used several times a week with a genuinely even heat distribution, like NEFF’s CircoTherm range, will typically need shorter cooking and preheating times than an older conventional model. This really adds up in the background without you having to think about it.
This is also where a wider kitchen renovation can make sense, rather than replacing appliances one at a time into an old layout.
If you’re already reviewing your kitchen, it’s a natural point to think about hob type, oven specification, and where your fridge freezer sits, all at once, rather than as isolated purchases.
We’d never suggest replacing a kitchen purely to save on your energy bill. That’s not a genuine payback calculation for most households, and we wouldn’t want to pretend otherwise. But if you’re already planning a new kitchen for other reasons, space, layout, style, or simply because the old one has had its day, then choosing genuinely efficient appliances within that plan is one of the easiest wins available to you. It costs nothing extra to make the right choice while you’re there.
Come and see it for yourself
There is genuinely no substitute for opening the door yourself.
You can read energy labels and running cost comparisons as many times as you like. But the easiest way to understand the real difference between an old oven and a new CircoTherm model, or a gas hob and an induction one, is to stand in front of them. At our Cannock showroom, we have a full range of NEFF appliances on display. Our team are NEFF MasterPartner® specialists, which means they’ve been trained directly by NEFF. They’ve seen every model in the range, and they’ll take the time to understand how you actually cook and live before making a recommendation.
No pressure, no scripts, just honest advice from people who know these appliances inside out.
Explore our full range of NEFF appliances or read more in our Slide & Hide series:
Why everyone loves the NEFF Slide & Hide oven
NEFF pyrolytic ovens: is self-cleaning worth it? – coming soon
NEFF Slide & Hide double ovens: the complete guide – coming soon
NEFF Slide & Hide ovens compared
NEFF vs the alternatives – coming soon
We’re open Monday to Friday 9:30am-5:00pm and Saturday 10:00am-4:00pm at Octagon House, 236-238 Walsall Road, Bridgtown, Cannock, WS11 0JL.
Visit our showroom or call us on 01543 570468 – we’re always happy to talk kitchens.