Government announcements are looming on energy costs, lets see what lies ahead 2023. This is all based on the research of Cornwall Insight energy consultants who have previously proved very accurate!
Firstly it looks likely that the price cap level will increase to £3,294 annually for the average household from the 27th February. This is a per kWh price of 54.19p for electricity and 12.33p for gas. It's the price per kWh that is capped, not the amount you can use so your annual bill can easily exceed the £3,294!
This is above the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) level of £2,500 for the average household so initially we won't see a change in bills.
In April though the EPG level increases to £3,000 for the average household meaning a £500 annual increase. At the same time the Energy Rebate Scheme, £400 off your bills in 6 instalments from October, comes to an end.
Taken together this means the average household will be paying an additional £75 a month for energy from April.
Into the summer though the outlook seems more positive for once with prices for gas and electricity set to drop back under the EPC at around 33p kWh for electric and 8p kWh for gas. In average then over the year we are perhaps looking at prices broadly as they are now with some fluctuations up and then down again.
Lets be optimistic and assume an average of 33p kWh electric and 10p kWh gas across the rest of 2023. Oil seems stuck at 90p per litre for now so we'll go with that too!
What does this mean for Aga range cookers?
Lets run through the approximate costs of running a 4 oven Aga range cooker in 2023.The consumption estimates are our realistic best efforts based on our countless conversations with owners (and my own testing when it comes to multi element electric), not factory figures from brand new cookers!
- Single element electric (13amp) £99 (300kWh) per week. £5,148 annually.
- Natural gas £55 (550kWh) per week. £2,860 annually + servicing.
- Oil £54 (60litres) per week. £2,808 annually + servicing.
- Multi element electric (13amp or 32/40amp) £29.70 (90kWh) per week. £1,544.40 annually.
There is over £3,600 between the most expensive and cheapest option here in cash terms. In environmental terms the difference is even more stark. A 4 oven oil cooker creates nearly 8 tons of carbon a year, my own multi element electric less than 1 ton. The grid just keeps getting greener and if you have solar panels you can run your cooker for almost no cost. In pounds or carbon!
We'll save solar panels for next time I think, lots to look at!
