Is Gas Cheaper Than Electricity in the UK? What It Means for Your Heating

Under the current price cap, electricity costs roughly 27p per kWh and gas roughly 6.5p per kWh. So unit for unit, electricity is around four times more expensive than gas. If a heat pump simply converted electricity to heat one-for-one, it would be far more expensive to run than a gas boiler.

But it does not. And that is the whole point.

A gas boiler is about 90% efficient: burn 1 kWh of gas, get roughly 0.9 kWh of heat. A heat pump is 300–400% “efficient” — not because it breaks physics, but because it moves heat from the outside air rather than creating it. Feed it 1 kWh of electricity and you get 3–4 kWh of heat.

So the fair comparison is cost per unit of heat delivered:

On a standard tariff they are neck and neck. The tariff is what breaks the tie.

Dedicated heat-pump tariffs (such as Cosy Octopus) offer cheap off-peak windows. Blended across the day, they can bring your effective electricity rate down to around 17p per kWh.

Run the same sum: 17p ÷ 3.5 = about 4.9p per kWh of heat — comfortably cheaper than gas at 7.2p. That is how a heat pump ends up cheaper to run than a gas boiler despite electricity costing more per unit.

There is also a standing-charge angle: going all-electric lets you disconnect from gas entirely and save the gas standing charge, roughly £105 a year.

Policy is actively working to close the gas–electricity price gap by shifting levies off electricity bills, which would make electric heating cheaper still relative to gas over the coming years. Combined with falling heat pump prices and the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, the running-cost case for electric heating is strengthening, not weakening.

The reason this question confuses people is the “spark gap”: in 2026 electricity costs roughly 24p/kWh and gas roughly 7p/kWh, so electricity is about 3.4× more expensive per unit. On that basis gas looks unbeatable — and for a direct electric heater (which is 100% efficient, no more) it is.

A heat pump changes the maths completely because it does not turn electricity into heat — it moves heat. For every 1 kWh of electricity it delivers 3–4 kWh of heat. So the real comparison is cost per unit of useful heat:

So although electricity is more expensive per unit, a heat pump uses roughly a quarter of the units, and the cost of actual heat ends up lower than gas — decisively so on the right tariff. The spark gap is only a problem if you heat with resistance electricity; a heat pump turns it into an advantage.