Why we're attempting to assist our prospects use much less fuel this Winter

Why are we doing this?

As an power firm, our job is to present prospects entry to warmth and energy. However not solely that: we’re additionally right here to make it as easy and reasonably priced as attainable for our prospects to remain heat.

We take that position very severely. It begins with the fundamentals: all the time providing truthful, clear costs and not using a huge markup (on common we solely add 5% to the whole value of supplying your power to cowl all our prices of doing enterprise) and having a group filled with compassionate people armed with loads of methods to help you thru exhausting occasions.

For the shoppers who want it most, our £2.5 million Octo Help Fund, will help households struggling to pay, and we run particular initiatives like our yearly scheme loaning out thermal cameras to identify warmth loss in hundreds of UK properties and companies.

This Winter, fuel costs are larger than they’ve ever been. With the rise in shopping for fuel on the worldwide markets that means power payments throughout the board are up by a whole bunch of kilos, hundreds of thousands of households could battle to remain heat. The exorbitant tariffs in the marketplace aren’t right down to rip-off suppliers. Wholesale power prices have gone up 300% within the final yr – and firms promoting energy beneath value, or that haven’t purchased sufficient prematurely, are crumbling left proper and centre.

28 power suppliers went bust in 2021, leaving many individuals out of a job and displacing practically 6 million prospects. You’ll have seen our CEO Greg Jackson, speaking about what we try to do to assist prospects, within the BBC “We do not understand how excessive power payments could go” or The Guardian “Vitality boss says UK should discover £20bn to ease hovering family payments”.

There’s one other hitch too. All of us utilizing extra fuel to warmth our properties additionally means extra air pollution within the environment because the local weather disaster grows extra essential.

In such a dire state of affairs, we need to give you a plan to assist folks save considerably on payments, hopefully for years to come back, with out sacrificing heat.

The Octopus Winter Exercise

We hope that the Winter Exercise will help supply recommendation for our prospects to ship decrease payments, much less air pollution for the planet – all while staying heat.

There are many methods we will make our properties extra power environment friendly and save considerably on payments: however the bother is, power saving suggestions may be ten a penny. You’ll have seen the various listicles telling you to by no means depart the TV on standby, or solely fill the kettle with the water you want. It’s really easy to tune out recommendation you’ve heard time and time once more. Plus, for those who don’t understand how a lot you stand to profit, and you’ll’t measure how effectively they work, it may possibly really feel prefer it’s not well worth the effort.

We did our analysis, and requested Octopus heating engineers, physicists and impartial consultants from throughout our 2,000 robust international group, for the most effective easy, genuinely impactful, methods to make use of fuel extra effectively. Not compromising on heat, however making small changes you gained’t even discover, in order that the fuel you employ goes additional, and retains you hotter for longer. Stuff like adjusting your boiler’s circulation temperature, and discovering low cost methods to plug up drafts to maintain warmth in. We have additionally requested our Winter Exercise prospects to submit their very own suggestions they’d wish to share – while we will not formally endorse these, we’ll share as many as attainable with members for them to make up their very own minds.

Lastly, to assist encourage extra folks to get entangled in one thing they won’t’ve been smitten by earlier than, we’ve added a £1 million prize pool. Each Winter Exercise buyer is within the draw for weekly prizes to reward their nice efforts, and the extra suggestions put to good use, the extra possibilities prospects need to win a grand prize on the finish.

We have already spent £100 million during the last yr subsidising excessive power costs to maintain prospects’ payments decrease (and £2.5 million on prime of that added to our Octopus Help fund), and we determined to supply this prize pool as effectively to encourage prospects to participate in one thing just a little completely different.

Some prospects have requested ‘why do not you’re taking that £1 million off our payments’, however since £1 million unfold throughout all our 3 million prospects could be as little as a 30p low cost we thought a prize pool would imply extra. It offers prospects the prospect to win considerably, and (hopefully) encouraging many extra to have interaction with methods to make important financial savings on their payments.

In fact, any buyer who wins however doesn’t really feel they actually need the prize additionally has the choice to donate their winnings to fellow Octopus prospects in want by way of the Octopus Help Fund – and we’ll match it.