We compare business gas and electricity from 20 plus suppliers for children's residential homes. Typical bills run £5.4k to £51.5k a year and businesses that switch with us save 40 per cent on average, typically 30 to 50 per cent. The figures on this page are estimates from published UK benchmarks, not quotes.
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What a typical children's home uses and pays across the UK, from published benchmarks.
Figures are estimates from published UK benchmarks priced at 25p/kWh electricity, 7p/kWh gas and about £365 a year in standing charges. They are not quotes. See how we estimate.
Ofsted-registered children's homes are usually large domestic houses looking after two to five young people, often older detached or Victorian properties with poor fabric and oversized heating systems. Staff are on site 24 hours including waking nights and sleep-ins, so the house never empties. Heating, hot water, laundry, cooking and hot showers run at a level well above a family home of the same size. As at March 2025 about 84 percent of England's children's homes, roughly 3,360 of them, were privately owned, and most operators run a handful of houses rather than dozens, which puts them squarely in the SME bracket that holds its own supply and renews by letter.
Large older houses with poor insulation, heated 24 hours because there is always someone home, and often on an oversized boiler installed for a family that left decades ago.
Hot water demand well above a comparable family home, with daily showers for every young person plus staff facilities on shift changeover.
A house that never empties. Waking nights and sleep-ins mean lighting, heating, the office, IT and CCTV run right through, and holidays make it busier rather than quieter.
Bills small enough individually that nobody chases them, so a house sits on deemed rates for a year after a new lease and the cost never gets questioned.
Typical equipment loads across care homes and supported living, with annual kWh and cost bands from published benchmarks.
| Equipment | kWh a year | Cost a year (est.) |
|---|---|---|
| Gas boilers, radiators and space heating (24/7 at 22-24C) | 250,000–500,000 kWh | £17,500–£35,000 |
| Hot water: stored cylinders, assisted baths, wet rooms, secondary circulation | 90,000–180,000 kWh | £6,300–£12,600 |
| On-site laundry: washer-extractors and vented tumble dryers | 18,000–45,000 kWh | £4,500–£11,250 |
| Catering kitchen: combi ovens, dishwasher, walk-in fridge and freezer | 20,000–45,000 kWh | £5,000–£11,250 |
| 24/7 lighting, nurse call, door access, CCTV and fire systems | 15,000–38,000 kWh | £3,750–£9,500 |
| Passenger lifts, ceiling hoists, profiling beds and pressure mattress pumps | 6,000–18,000 kWh | £1,500–£4,500 |
List every house with its MPAN, MPRN and end date, then tender them together. Even three or four houses priced as a portfolio usually beat the same houses priced one at a time.
When you take on a new property, sort the supply contract in the first fortnight. Deemed rates apply from day one and are the most expensive rates on the market.
Check the boiler is not wildly oversized for the house. Older detached properties are often running plant specified decades ago for a very different heating pattern.
Get thermostatic radiator valves and a proper programmable thermostat in. In a 24/7 house the win is control by room, not overall setback.
Confirm whether each house should sit on a business or domestic supply. It affects price, VAT treatment and which protections apply, so it is worth getting explicitly checked.
Illustrative example
Around 30 registered beds with in-house laundry
Heating, hot water, laundry and catering cannot be switched off, so the whole bill rides on the contract rate.
Illustrative example, not a real customer. Figures are estimates based on published UK benchmarks. See how we estimate. See all worked examples.
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Get a tariff matched to how a children's home actually uses energy: the equipment, the hours and the fuels on your meters.
