Brits told to cut energy usage as Government unveils £1bn insulation support
Households will be advised to lower boiler flow temperatures, turn down radiators in empty rooms and draught proof windows and doors, as part of an £18m public information campaign launched by the Government.
The ambition is to provide Brits with meaningful advice to ease record energy bills without sacrificing comfort, and also cutting down usage amid the threat of blackouts this winter.
Energy bills have risen to an all-time high of £2,500 per year for average use, even with the support of vast subsidies such as the Energy Price Guarantee.
It calculates cutting the temperature a boiler heats water before it is sent to radiators (known as the boiler flow temperature) from 75⁰C to 60⁰C could save £160 per year.
The campaign is part of a wider package announced today by Business Secretary Grant Shapps, which also includes confirmation of a £1bn energy efficiency programme.
The new Energy Company Obligation (ECO+) scheme will extend support to households, who do not currently benefit from any other Government support to upgrade their homes.
The programme will operate alongside the existing £6.6bn such as the ‘Help to Heat’’ energy programmes, which includes the social housing decarbonisation fund, the home upgrade grant and local authority delivery scheme.
It also follows Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s unveiling £6bn in funding earlier this month, which will be available from 2025 to 2028 to boost energy efficiency installations.
The Government is targeting a 15 per cent reduction in energy consumption from buildings and industry by the end of the decade.
Since it was launched in January 2013, the ECO scheme has delivered 3.5m energy-efficiency measures in around 2.4m homes.
The ECO+ scheme, which will run from Spring 2023 for up to three years, extends that support and will aim to provide hundreds of thousands more households with new insulation, saving them over £300 per year.
Around a fifth of the fund will also be targeted to people who are the most vulnerable, including energy users on means tested benefits or in fuel poverty.
Business Secretary Grant Shapps said: “A new ECO scheme will enable thousands more to insulate their homes, protecting the pounds in their pockets, and creating jobs across the country. In the short term, our new public information campaign will also give people the tools they need to reduce their energy use while keeping warm this winter.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt added: “In the longer term, we need to make Britain more energy independent by generating more clean, affordable, home-grown power, but we also need more efficient homes and buildings.
Government scrambles to boost insulation rates
Installation rates have dropped sharply in the past decade from over two million homes per year to just tens of thousands after former Prime Minister David Cameron slashed previous efficiency schemes – according to the Climate Change Committee.
Earlier this year, EDF published a study in partnership with Swift revealing the average insulation age of UK homes was 46 years.
The energy giant surveyed 2,000 UK homeowners, revealing more than than half (58 per cent) the country’s households only meet the insulation standards of 1976 or older.
Less than a tenth of homes scrutinised by the firm have an insulation age of 20 years or younger.
The latest Government data reveals that the number of homes with an energy efficiency rating of C or above has risen from 13 to 46 per cent and rising since 2010 – and is targeting all homes to meet EPC band C by 2035.
The Government intends to outline legislation for the scheme to launch in spring 2023 and run until March 26.
It also plans to work with energy suppliers to explore some earlier delivery in 2023.