The rates for the three months to 31 December 2026
In Ofgem's own words, if you are on a standard variable tariff (default tariff) and pay for your electricity by Direct Debit, you will pay on average 26.32 pence per kilowatt hour, with a daily standing charge of 54.83 pence. For gas on the same terms the figures are 7.97 pence per kilowatt hour and a daily standing charge of 29.68 pence.
| Fuel | Unit rate | Daily standing charge |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity | 26.32p per kWh | 54.83p a day |
| Gas | 7.97p per kWh | 29.68p a day |
Standard variable (default) tariff paid by Direct Debit, published by Ofgem on 26 August 2026. Averages across Great Britain; your own rate varies by region and payment method.
Alongside the rates, Ofgem put a figure on the typical bill this time: £1,723 a year for a household paying by Direct Debit for both fuels, a rise of £60 or 4% on the £1,663 that applied over the summer. Worth holding on to, though, is what a cap actually caps. It limits the price of each unit and each day, not the total on your statement, and the total is still decided by how much energy the house gets through. Two homes on the same tariff in the same street pay the same rate and very different bills.
The rise is gas, and gas is the fuel windows touch
This is the part worth slowing down on, because the headline hides it. The 4% is an average across two fuels that did not move together at all. Ofgem reports gas bills rising by 8%, while households that do not use gas see an increase of less than 1%. Set the two quarters side by side and the split is stark.
| July to September | October to December | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity unit rate | 26.11p | 26.32p | up 0.21p |
| Electricity standing charge | 57.19p a day | 54.83p a day | down 2.36p |
| Gas unit rate | 7.33p | 7.97p | up 0.64p, about 8.7% |
| Gas standing charge | 29.04p a day | 29.68p a day | up 0.64p |
Both quarters are published by Ofgem, on 27 May 2026 and 26 August 2026. The change column is our own subtraction of the two published figures, not an Ofgem statement.
That matters here more than it does on a general money page. A window changes one thing: how fast heat leaves the building. In most UK homes that heat is bought as gas, which is the fuel that went up nearly 9% on the unit rate. Electricity moved by about a fifth of a penny. So this quarter's rise lands almost entirely on the side of the bill that a fabric improvement is working on, which is not something you can say about every cap announcement.
The reason the electricity line is so flat is a separate change arriving the same day. VAT on domestic electricity drops from 5% to 0% on 1 October, and Ofgem states plainly that without that intervention the cap figure would have been around £45 higher. Gas gets no equivalent relief.
What this does, and does not do, to glazing payback
A window upgrade buys a fixed reduction in heat loss, measured in kilowatt hours you no longer have to buy. That reduction does not change when the price of a kilowatt hour changes. What changes is what those avoided units are worth in cash, so when the gas rate rises the same physical improvement returns a little more each year and the payback period shortens. That is the entire honest relationship.
It is tempting to go one step further, take the new rates, multiply by an assumed heat loss and publish a fresh and bigger saving figure. We do not, because a number built that way traces back to nothing. The published figure stands: replacing single glazing with A-rated double glazing saves around £85 a year in Great Britain, and around £140 a year in Northern Ireland, on a typical semi-detached house. Those are two national figures rather than a range, and a reader in Leeds should be working from the £85 one.
For a number shaped to your own house rather than a typical semi, our energy savings calculator sizes it against your property and current glazing, and our guide to whether double glazing is worth it sets that saving against what the work costs. If you are replacing single glazing rather than tired sealed units, check the grants and funding routes before anything else, because ECO4 runs to 31 December 2026 and a grant moves payback far harder than any single quarter of unit rates.
A cap rise is the easiest sales call in the calendar, and the savings figure on the doorstep always goes up by exactly as much as the price of gas. It does not work like that. The kilowatt hours you stop losing are set by the windows and the walls, not by Ofgem, and the only thing this announcement changed is what those units cost. Higher gas genuinely does shorten your payback. It does not rewrite the saving.
Double Glazing Cost Calculator Team
The part of the bill glazing cannot reach
Standing charges are 54.83p a day on electricity and 29.68p a day on gas, paid for being connected at all rather than for anything you use. No window, no loft insulation and no amount of draught-proofing reduces them by a penny. The one piece of good news in this quarter sits there: the electricity standing charge fell by 2.36p a day, worth roughly £8.60 over a year on our own arithmetic, and it fell whatever your windows are made of.
Glazing bites only on the unit-rate side, which is why any quote built on your whole bill shrinking in proportion deserves a hard look. The same inflated arithmetic tends to reappear whenever a deadline creates pressure to retrofit, including around the EPC C deadline for landlords.
Read this page with its date attached
This article covers one quarter: 1 October to 31 December 2026. Ofgem will announce the levels for 1 January to 31 March 2027 on 25 November 2026, so these rates have a short and entirely predictable shelf life. The quarter before this one is still on the site at the July to September cap, kept as a record of what applied then rather than as current pricing.
The directional point outlives all of it. Whichever way the cap moves, it moves the cash value of a fixed reduction in heat loss with it, and the physics of the window does not change, only the price tag on the heat it keeps in. That is why fabric measures hold their place in longer-term policy such as the Warm Homes Plan, which is built on cutting demand rather than on any one quarter's price. It is also why the rest of our double glazing news and policy coverage tracks the rules and the schemes rather than chasing the rate.
Sources: Ofgem, "Changes to energy price cap between 1 October and 31 December 2026", published 26 August 2026, for the unit rates, standing charges, the stated cause and the 25 November 2026 announcement date; Ofgem press release, "Energy price cap will rise by 4% from October 2026", 26 August 2026, for the £1,723 typical bill, the £60 and 4% change from £1,663, the 8% rise in gas bills, the under 1% figure for households without gas, and the statement that the figure would have been around £45 higher without the VAT change; Ofgem, "Changes to energy price cap between 1 July and 30 September 2026", 27 May 2026, for the previous quarter's figures used in the comparison; Energy Saving Trust for the £85 Great Britain and £140 Northern Ireland annual saving, last verified 29 July 2026.
Frequently asked questions
For 1 October to 31 December 2026, a household on a standard variable (default) tariff paying by Direct Debit pays on average 26.32 pence per kWh for electricity with a standing charge of 54.83 pence a day, and 7.97 pence per kWh for gas with a standing charge of 29.68 pence a day. Ofgem published these levels on 26 August 2026 and puts the typical dual fuel household at £1,723 a year, a rise of £60 or 4%.
Ofgem states that the increase is a result of higher wholesale gas prices, caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. That is why the rise is so unevenly spread: Ofgem reports gas bills rising by 8%, while households that do not use gas see less than 1%.
No. The 4% describes a typical household using a typical amount of both fuels. Your own bill moves with your own usage and your own fuel mix, so an all-electric home sees under 1% and a gas-heated home in a draughty property sees more than the headline. The cap limits the price of each unit and each day, not the total.
Because a separate tax change lands on the same day. VAT on domestic electricity drops from 5% to 0% on 1 October 2026, and Ofgem states that without that intervention the cap figure would have been around £45 higher. Gas gets no equivalent relief, which is why the two fuels moved so differently this quarter.
Directionally, yes, and this quarter more than most. A window buys a fixed reduction in heat loss, and heat in most UK homes is bought as gas, which is the fuel that rose. When the gas unit rate goes up, the cash value of that fixed reduction goes up with it and payback shortens. The saving figure itself does not move: the Energy Saving Trust puts replacing single glazing with A-rated double glazing at around £85 a year in Great Britain and £140 a year in Northern Ireland, on a typical semi-detached house.
Yes, the electricity standing charge. It went from 57.19 pence a day in the July quarter to 54.83 pence, a fall of 2.36 pence a day. That is worth roughly £8.60 over a year on our own arithmetic. No glazing, insulation or draught-proofing work changes a standing charge either way, because it is charged for being connected rather than for what you use.
Ofgem will announce the levels for 1 January to 31 March 2027 on 25 November 2026. If you are reading this after that date, the rates here describe a quarter that has been superseded.