Business energy for dental practices Sort your practice's next energy contract without the broker calls.

DESNZ doesn't publish a figure for dental practices alone. Its Building Energy Efficiency Survey groups them with GP surgeries as health centres, which used a median of about 70 kWh of electricity per square metre a year in England and Wales in 2014-15, with a median size of 140 m². That gives an estimated 9,800 kWh a year for a 140 m² practice. DESNZ publishes both medians rounded to the nearest 10, so treat it as a rough guide. Your bill shows what your practice actually uses.

Because DESNZ doesn't publish energy figures for dental practices alone. Its Building Energy Efficiency Survey, which our estimates and electricity split are based on, groups dental practices with GP surgeries as health centres. The survey collected 62 health centre records, 10 of them from dentists, and used 52 in its results without saying how many of those were dental. DESNZ's newer statistics (ND-NEED) don't separate them either: they only go as far as all health buildings, hospitals included. So treat the figures as a rough benchmark rather than a dental-practice average. Your bill shows what your practice actually uses.

There's no official figure for dental practices, but at an estimated 9,800 kWh a year, a 140 m² practice would pay about £3,760 a year before VAT, or £310 a month, at the provisional Q2 2026 average paid by businesses using up to 20,000 kWh a year (38.36p per kWh, including every charge except VAT). Because a practice usually can't reclaim all of its VAT, the VAT is part of the cost too. If your practice is heated by gas, that's a separate bill on top.

Usually not all of it. HMRC says dental care and treatment is exempt from VAT whether you provide it privately or on the NHS, and that you can't normally reclaim VAT that relates to exempt supplies. Purely cosmetic work and separate sales such as toothbrushes are usually standard-rated, and overheads such as utility charges often relate to both taxable and exempt supplies: for those you can normally reclaim only the share linked to your taxable supplies. If all your supplies are exempt, you can't register for VAT at all. Your accountant can confirm your recovery rate. That's why the VAT rate on each energy bill is worth checking: for a practice, VAT charged at too high a rate usually can't come back through a VAT return, so ask the supplier to correct it.

It depends on each bill. HMRC treats electricity averaging no more than 33 kWh a day (1,000 kWh a month) as domestic use, so there's no Climate Change Levy, no certificate needed and a lower VAT rate instead of 20%: 0% in Great Britain from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, then 5% again, and 5% in Northern Ireland. At the median use per square metre DESNZ found for health centres (GP and dental surgeries), a 140 m² practice would average about 27 kWh a day, under the limit, and one bigger than about 170 m² would average over it, so a practice near that size can fall either side from one bill to the next. If a bill averages 33 kWh a day or less and still shows 20%, ask your supplier to correct it: a practice usually can't recover that VAT through a VAT return. Gas has its own limit, 145 kWh a day, and stays at 5% within it.

Possibly not. NHS Property Services says it recovers utilities costs for the space you occupy exclusively through the service charge, so the energy contract is likely to be the landlord's rather than yours. Check your lease. If it makes paying the energy supplier your responsibility, the 2022 business energy advice Ofgem wrote with Citizens Advice and Energy UK says you can still switch, even if the lease ties you to a default supplier. Check it for clauses saying you must tell your landlord before you switch, or return the supply to a particular supplier when you leave.

If the energy is still in the seller's name, tell the current supplier as soon as you can, with a meter reading if you can take one: Ofgem says both the business moving in and the one moving out should. The supplier can ask for evidence such as your lease, property sale documents or title deeds, and reviews it within 10 working days. You're responsible for any energy you use before your own contract starts, and moving in without arranging one puts you on a deemed contract, at rates Ofgem says are usually higher than negotiated ones.

It can, even with 10 or more staff. Ofgem says you qualify as a microbusiness with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than £2 million, and that you can also qualify if you use up to 100,000 kWh of electricity or up to 293,000 kWh of gas a year. At an estimated 9,800 kWh a year, a 140 m² practice is well under the electricity limit. Microbusinesses get extra protections, such as clear information about their contract and renewal prices before it ends. Ofgem notes that some suppliers use either your business size or your annual consumption when deciding which contract or protections apply, so check with yours.

There's no official figure for dental practices alone. DESNZ's figures for health centres, which group dental practices with GP surgeries, put heating first, at almost two thirds of all their energy, most of it from gas. On the electricity bill, lighting comes first at about a third, then computers and office equipment at about a quarter, and DESNZ's survey found consulting rooms and small offices tended to be over-lit. DESNZ doesn't measure compressors, suction or sterilisers separately, so there's no official figure for what dental equipment adds. Your bills show what your whole practice uses.

A flat 1p per kWh, and you only pay it if you switch through Meet George. For a practice using an estimated 9,800 kWh a year, that's £98 a year. The same 1p per kWh applies to gas. Electricity switches happen online; gas isn't on the platform yet, so for now our team arranges gas contracts with you directly. You pay the fee through your energy supplier, and it's itemised on every quote, never buried.