Breakdown of natural gas consumption in households with smart meter data

In this study, we present a renewed method for the breakdown of natural gas consumption in households based on smart meter data with monthly gas meter readings. The new method has been tested on smart meter data from the reporting years 2022, 2023, and preliminary figures from 2024.
Natural gas consumption in households can be divided into a seasonally independent part for cooking and hot water heating (the base consumption) and a seasonally dependent part for space heating (the additional consumption). This study shows that the base consumption of a household is mainly determined by the number of inhabitants, while the additional consumption mainly depends on the floor area and energy label of the house. These trends can be used to predict the natural gas consumption for households that do not have a smart meter. In addition, the method can be used to determine year-on-year developments in natural gas consumption per type of end-use.
From this study, it appears that between 25% and 29% of the total natural gas consumption in households can be attributed to the base consumption. The additional consumption is the remaining part.

Groen, S.H.H., M.J.J. Mangnus, M.J. Linders, A.H. van den Brink (2025). Renewed method for splitting natural gas consumption in households into end-use with smart meter data (in Dutch). Discussion paper, Statistics Netherlands, The Hague/Heerlen.