Nesta has called for the government to launch an energy-saving campaign as part of its review of the Energy Price Guarantee.
Madeleine Gabriel, Director of Sustainable Future at Nesta, said:
“A Government energy saving campaign is the missing plank of a responsible long-term plan for energy bill support.
“Many households will continue to need direct financial support while energy prices remain high, but by subsidising all homes’ bills for two years, the original Energy Price Guarantee looked like a risky blank cheque. While it considers how best to target future support, the Government can help save itself money, and cut consumer bills, by helping households who can save energy to do so.
“Five free energy saving measures, if adopted by all eligible households, could together reduce household gas use by ten per cent. That would save £3 billion for households over a year and £1.5 billion for the Government by reducing its current subsidy for people’s bills. Many people aren’t aware of the most effective energy saving measures, so the Government should look to tackle this by launching a drive to help people save energy, including easy wins like lowering boiler flow temperatures and adjusting radiator controls.”
Last week Nesta launched a tool to help people who have combi boilers turn down their flow temperature. More than 40,000 people have already used the tool, which can save households around £112 per year. Research commissioned by Nesta found that less than half of the general public are unaware that it’s possible to change the flow temperature on a boiler.
Nesta calculates that five free energy saving measures could reduce household gas use by 10%, if adopted by all eligible homes. These are:
- reducing flow temperature to 60°C for combination boilers;
- reducing the cylinder temperature to 60°C for system boilers;
- turning off pre-heat facilities on combination boilers;
- reducing hot water temperature to 42°C in homes with combination boilers; and
- readjusting existing thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) outside the living room to 1.5°C cooler than before.
Rolling out additional ‘low-cost’ measures (under £300 each) to all eligible homes, including topping up loft insulation, installing smart thermostats and installing TRVs where these are not already present, could bring total savings up to £7 billion, shared across consumers and government. Millions of households could make these types of changes, and Nesta estimates that supporting them to do so could reduce total household gas consumption by nearly 20% over a year.
