Free energy-saving sessions for every household to cut Brits’ energy bills by billions

05/10/2022
Engineer delivers a Bill Buster session via video between home visits

Two in five British households are missing out on £500+ in annual energy savings, despite soaring costs.

  • Study reveals that 40% of households are missing out on basic energy savings worth 22% or £546 of the current average energy bill
  • Savings worth £5.4bn across UK households could reduce the UK’s carbon footprint by the same as avoiding 31bn miles in an average car
  • Utilita Energy announces a national rollout of free community-based energy-saving sessions

FROM Monday 10th October 2022, every household in the UK is invited to access a free 45-minute workshop dedicated to showing  households how to cut their annual energy costs, courtesy of Utilita Energy.

The free-to-attend ‘Bill Buster’ sessions will be delivered by Utilita Energy – the UK’s only energy supplier created to help households use LESS energy. To enable every household to attend, the sessions can be accessed virtually via a live link, watched as a video, attended in person at any of Utilita’s High Street Energy Hubs, or by attending a community-based session at thousands of schools and community spaces across the UK.

Starting on 10th October, the vital energy education sessions will be delivered by an army of Utilita ‘Bill Busters’ – energy efficiency experts – who are making it their mission to educate the nation for a minimum of 12-months, or however long it takes to reach those who wish to take advantage. Building on Utilita’s award-winning Energy High 5 campaign, which has already educated millions of households on the five free and simple ways to save hundreds each year, the sessions will focus on an extended checklist of 15 simple ways to cut energy usage at home. The additional 10 ways to save cover cost-effective cooking and hot water use. Those attending sessions in-person will be able to claim a dedicated Energy High 5 pack to help speed up their savings, whilst stocks last. See the full list of savings here.

Utilita’s 15-point checklist has been through rigorous testing, and underwent a 5,000-household study, which revealed that the checklist would enable most households to save hundreds, if not thousands on their annual energy spend[4]. The biggest accumulative savings that are yet to be adopted by 40 percent of households are listed below:

ActionAnnual savings per householdAnnual saving across all households being missedEquivalent carbon emissions savings being missed (miles driven in a standard car)
Turn the heating down by 1°C (stay between 18-21°C)£229£2.2bn15.3bn miles
Turn down hot water tap temperature to 50°C£115£1.5bn10.8bn miles
Use more efficient cooking appliances£202£1.8bn4.9bn miles
TOTAL£546£5.5bn31bn miles

The inclusive sessions are designed to be delivered in 12 languages, including British Sign Language, upon request. Attendees will be able to ask questions during live sessions and will be invited to join thousands of households on Utilita’s dedicated online community where they can find even more energy-saving hacks, insights and advice.

Bill Bullen, Founder and CEO of Utilita Energy comments on why his firm is rolling out the sessions to every household free-of-charge:

“Through smart-enabling our customers’ homes, improved visibility and control has helped our customers to cut their energy spend by as much as a fifth. With the price of energy reaching unprecedented levels in recent months, this winter will be one of the worst imaginable for far too many households. In the absence of enough targeted support or any practical energy advice from the Government, we have taken matters into our own hands to give every household access to the information they need to make savings – no matter who their supplier is.

“Earlier this year, Utilita’s inaugural Household Energy Behaviour Index confirmed that most households are not in a position to consider big ticket items such as solar, electric vehicles and heat pumps – and instead they want to know about free or low cost ways to cut their energy costs – so we’ve worked really hard to provide that information in the simplest possible way.” 

Behind the UK’s most extensive energy-saving checklist is Archie Lasseter, Utilita’s Sustainability Lead – he comments:

“We acknowledge that millions of households will have done everything they can to cut back through lack of choice, but we also know that millions of households have been plunged into fuel poverty that – until now – hadn’t needed to consider cutting their energy spend.

“At Utilita we believe that the cheapest and greenest energy is the energy we don’t use, and the free sessions will help all households – no matter what their situation – to use less energy in the interest of the planet and the pocket.”

“With the new 2-year Energy Price Guarantee in place, households following this advice can be confident that the direct savings they will make will be relevant for this duration – after that, we will reflect the savings in line with the price cap.”

Energy-saving sessions near you

Anyone wishing to attend a free session in their local area can head here: https://community.utilita.co.uk/ and click the ‘Become a Bill Buster’ where sessions will be listed by region from early October.

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