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Elliott Wood has something you’re probably going to want.
Like most of us, every month he gets a bill for his monthly energy use.
Only his bill… is free.
He’s living in a new breed of “zero bills” homes, which comes with solar panels, heat pumps and batteries.
Together, that technology generates more electricity than Elliot uses.
When combined with the right tariff – in his case a zero bills tariff with Octopus Energy – the excess electricity is sold back to the grid, and his bill comes in at a princely sum of £0 a month.
“It’s amazing… you just don’t have to worry,” says 26-year-old Elliott, who lives in a one-bedroom rental house with his partner in Milton Keynes.
“There is no stress at the end of each month, [wondering] ‘have we had too many showers, has the heating been on too much, have we used the microwave too many times?'”
Elliott’s home is equipped with heat pumps, solar panels, and batteries
The zero bills scheme does come with a few caveats: the tariff is only guaranteed for five to 10 years, and it doesn’t include electric vehicle charging.
But Octopus estimates it will save an average household of two to three beds approximately £1,758 a year on bills, based on current Ofgem price cap rates.
Now for the bad news…
But only a few hundred of these homes are up and running, meaning for most of us, the zero bill home remains a pipe dream.
In fact Britain has some of the most leaky, drafty and gas reliant homes in Western Europe – and that’s a major vulnerability.
Approximately 85% of homes rely on gas for heating, more than half of which we import, only for some of that hard work to go to waste as the heat drifts out through uninsulated Victorian brickwork.
That means cold, damp homes that are expensive to run, leaving a staggering 2.7m UK…
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