We speak to over 30,000 customers each day and know that many people are worried and struggling to pay their bills this winter. We’re doing absolutely everything we can help customers through this – and today, we’re launching another new scheme.
We’re training hundreds of energy experts to visit customers’ homes around the country to share specially tailored, genuinely impactful energy-saving advice. We aim to visit 500,000 customers in most need of help with their bills.
We’ve been carefully trialling our new Energy Helper service over Summer, and gearing up hundreds more experts to help across the country this Winter. Here’s what Michelle, one of the very first customers to get an Energy Helper visit, had to say.
Having a person come and actually see where your energy usage problems are and how they may be able to be resolved is fantastic.
Every home is different and every person’s needs are different. Thank you for caring about each one of us. I can’t praise you all enough. David was wonderful, caring and understood our difficulties. He has given me a bit of hope for the winter. That means a lot.
Michelle from Nottingham
How can an Energy Helper home visit help?
Our Helpers will be trained to share genuinely impactful ways customers can use less energy (read more below), tailored to each home. As well as sharing useful tips at your doorstep, we’ll also be equipped with thermal imaging cameras in the colder months so that if you’d like us to, we can identify hidden draughts where heat’s escaping in your home and suggest low-cost ways to close them. We’ll also be able to support with account questions, booking smart meter upgrades and helping with meter readings.
The latest in a web of support
The brand new Energy Helpers scheme is the newest part of the ever-growing safety net we’ve built to get our customers through the crisis.
We’re doing all we possibly can to cushion the impact high prices are having on people.
We’ve already absorbed £150m of the cost increase on their behalf, and we’ve doubled our ‘Octo Assist’ fund from £15m to £30m this winter, sent out more than 8,000 energy efficient electric blankets to the most vulnerable households, and more.
Genuinely useful, targeted energy advice
What’s most critical is helping people find ways to lower energy consumption without compromising on comfort.
Perhaps the most eye-opening tip? Turning down the water ‘flow temperature’ on your gas boiler can shave up to 8% off your gas bills. At the prices households are facing in the crisis, that’s over £100 in savings, and you’ll not feel any difference in cosiness.
We may also recommend energy saving measures like electric blankets. Last winter, detailed analysis shows that the average customer with electric blankets saved an impressive 19% on their bills over winter. This is because, based on the current price cap rate (Apr’22), heating a whole home costs around £4.70 a day using a gas boiler, while an energy-efficient electric blanket can heat a person for just 2.7p an hour. This makes makes them a vastly more cost-effective way to stay warm: particularly for people with mobility issues, for example.
Winter Workout will be back in 2022 – and our new Energy Helpers scheme takes this energy efficiency work even further. The beauty of a home visit is that at the end of the day, every home is different. With bespoke help, tailored for each household, we can help you save much, much more.
Our Energy Saving Tips could save you £400
Find simple ways to use less energy on our blog: last year, our tips helped customers collectively save £5 million on their bills.
Look out for your local Energy Helpers this Winter
With Winter fast approaching, we’re deploying our Energy Helpers nationwide, visiting as many areas as we can and aiming to reach at least 500,000 customers with a particular focus on households struggling the most with their bills.
Customers don’t need to sign up to get the opportunity for a visit – we’ll just text you when Energy Helpers are in your area. But if you’re particularly keen, let us know you’d like an Energy Helper visit here and we’ll get in touch if we’re in your area in the future.
