Key takeaways
- Typical bill: £2,200-£11,000/year across gas and electricity depending on size, before tax.
- Refrigeration eats 35%: the single biggest line, mostly fixable through seal checks, defrost cycles and temperature discipline.
- Two-rate or three-rate meter: any restaurant trading past 8pm saves 15-25% on the right meter profile.
- 1°C heating drop: shaves around 8% off the heating bill, with no detectable change for diners.
Where a restaurant's kWh actually go
Average UK restaurant load split. Tap a slice to focus.
Total load RefrigerationCookingHVACLightingDishwashingOther
100% 35%25%20%12%5%3%
How much you should be paying in 2026
A restaurant bill is built from four lines: unit rate (p/kWh), standing charge (per day), 20% VAT, and the Climate Change Levy at £0.00812/kWh on both gas and electricity in 2026. The table below shows the typical annual spend across both fuels for the three SME size categories.
| Restaurant size | Electricity (kWh/yr) | Gas (kWh/yr) | Total annual bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro (under 10 staff, < £2m turnover) | 5,000-15,000 | 5,000-15,000 | £2,200-£4,500 |
| Small (10-49 staff, < £10m) | 15,000-25,000 | 15,000-30,000 | £4,500-£7,800 |
| Medium (50-249 staff, < £50m) | 25,000-50,000 | 30,000-65,000 | £6,500-£11,000 |
Approximate. Site-specific quotes vary by location, opening hours and trading profile.
Want to compare against other types of business? See our guides on energy for shops and hairdressers.
What to compare on a restaurant supplier quote
Three features deserve careful attention when reviewing 2026 supplier quotes for a restaurant.
Fixed-rate contract length
Two-year fixed contracts dominate in 2026, with three-year options available at a small premium. Variable rates only make sense if you have the bandwidth to monitor wholesale weekly.
Plunge Pricing & TOU
If the supplier offers a Time-of-Use tariff with Plunge Pricing, dishwasher and ice-machine loads can be shifted to off-peak windows for a £50-£200 annual gain.
Price Cap protection
On variable tariffs, look for a per-kWh cap (typically 35 p/kWh) that prevents bills exploding during wholesale price spikes. Without one, a single bad winter week can wipe a month's margin.
Eight interventions, ranked by payback
Optimise the fridge & walk-in
Keep doors closed, check seals quarterly, defrost every 2 months, separate heat-producing equipment from cold storage. Set product temperatures to the legal minimum, not below: each 1°C of over-cooling adds around 4% to the compressor bill.
Drop heating by 1°C
Fit TRVs on every radiator, set kitchen dishwash water to 60°C (legal minimum), and stop heating the stockroom and toilets. Service the boiler annually and fit boiler cover.
Switch to LED lighting
Up to 25% of restaurant electricity is lighting. Replace halogens and T8 fluorescents with LEDs (10,000-25,000 hour life). Add motion sensors in bathrooms, stockroom and corridors for another 25% on those circuits.
Switch supplier
A bespoke quote on your actual kWh routinely beats a standard renewal by 15-25%. Compare every 18 months. The conversation takes 30 minutes and is the highest hourly rate any restaurant owner ever earns.
Consolidate deliveries
Every delivery means an open walk-in door and lights cycling on. Combining two or three deliveries into a single window cuts the refrigeration recovery load by around 30% on each delivery day.
Strategise the menu
Match menu pricing to cooking energy intensity. A slow-cooked dish that ties up the oven for four hours has a real energy cost ; build it into the margin. Software like KitchenCUT can quantify the cost per dish.
Kill standby loads
POS systems, microwaves with clocks, coffee machines and music systems can draw 70% of their operational power on standby. A master switch by the back door, flipped off at close, removes the bill entirely.
Upgrade to A+++ appliances
When commercial fridges, freezers and dishwashers reach end of life, replace with the highest-efficiency rating available. The lifetime saving on a A+++ fridge versus a 7-year-old unit is around £600 over its working life.
Storage temperatures: meeting the legal minimum without over-cooling
Refrigeration is the single biggest restaurant electricity line. Every 1°C colder than legally required adds around 4% to the compressor bill. The table below shows the minimum temperatures that satisfy FSA / EHO standards.
| Code | Temperature | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|
| L1 | Below -15°C | Ice cream, frozen foods |
| L2 | Below -12°C | Frozen foods (shorter shelf life) |
| M0 | -1°C to +4°C | Poultry, fresh meat |
| M1 | -1°C to +5°C | Meat and dairy |
| M2 | -1°C to +7°C | Processed meat and dairy |
| H1/H2 | -1°C to +10°C | Produce, drinks |
Standby loads worth knowing about
Vampire loads run 24/7 and collectively add 3% to a typical restaurant's electricity bill. The biggest offenders, in watts on standby:
Kitchen vampires
- Microwave with clock — 4.9W
- Coffee machine standby — 2.7W
- Gas range with electronic ignition — 1.7W
- Ventilation control — 1.0W
- Walk-in alarm — 0.5W
Front-of-house vampires
- POS terminal in sleep — 8.6W
- Card reader — 4.9W
- Music system standby — 5.6W
- Reservation tablet charger — 1.0W
- LCD menu board — 3.5W
UK business energy suppliers
Compare tariffs and contracts from every active UK business electricity and gas supplier.
Swipe to see all suppliers
Frequently asked questions
A typical small restaurant (5,000-15,000 kWh electricity + 5,000-15,000 kWh gas) pays around £2,200 to £4,500 a year across both fuels, before VAT and CCL. A medium-sized one (25,000-50,000 kWh electricity + 30,000-65,000 kWh gas) pays £6,500 to £11,000. Pubs and gastropubs with high evening trade typically land at the top of each band.
Three categories dominate. Refrigeration (35%): walk-ins, fridges, freezers, drinks cabinets, all running 24/7. Cooking (25%): ranges, ovens, grills, fryers, almost all gas in UK kitchens. HVAC (20%): extractor hoods plus heating and cooling. Lighting accounts for around 12%, and dishwashing/laundry takes the remaining 8%.
Yes if you trade past 8pm. A two-rate (evening-and-weekend) meter typically saves 15% to 25% versus a single rate for a restaurant open 5pm to 11pm seven days. Late-night sites that consume serious electricity past 11pm benefit more from a three-rate meter that adds a cheaper night window. The MPAN prefix on your bill tells you which one you have ; the supplier will swap meters for free at contract renewal.
Only if your monthly consumption per supply stays below the de minimis threshold (1,000 kWh of electricity or 4,397 kWh of gas), or you are a registered charity. Most for-profit restaurants exceed these limits and pay the full 20% VAT. The exception is some micro-cafes, food trucks and pop-ups, which can sit below the gas threshold and claim 5% via a VAT declaration to their supplier.
A full lighting refresh from halogen / fluorescent to LED typically pays back in 10 to 18 months in a restaurant. The reason is the long operating hours: a dining-room lighting circuit runs 50-60 hours a week, where a domestic equivalent might run 10. Total saving for a typical 60-cover restaurant: £400 to £700 a year on the electricity line alone.
Plunge Pricing is a feature of certain time-of-use business tariffs where the unit rate falls below zero during periods of grid surplus (typically very windy weekends and bank holidays). The supplier pays you to use electricity during those windows. For a restaurant, the only loads worth shifting that far are dishwashers, ice machines and walk-in fridges set to over-cool overnight. Net annual benefit: £50 to £200 for most restaurants, useful but not transformative.