Pensioner says she won't be able to claim £400 energy rebate
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British households are currently reeling from the worst impacts of the global fossil fuel energy crisis that has caused the wholesale price of natural gas to spike to record levels in the past year. As a result, UK industry regulator Ofgem has announced that by October this year, the price cap on household energy bills will be increased somewhere around £2,800 per month.
In the midst of the energy crisis, Octopus Energy, a UK based company, has announced that its new energy efficiency scheme, Octopus Electric Blankets, has seen customers reduce their bills by 19 percent.
An analysis by Octopus Energy’s data team, which looked at the smart meter data of 4,190 customers who opted into the scheme, showed that customers who received electric blankets reduced their energy bills by up to £300.
This means that when accounting for the £2,800 a year price cap increase, these electric blankets could save up to £532 on energy bills.
The company has so far handed out 7,000 free electric blankets to customers, helping them to reduce their energy consumption and lower their bills.
Experts predict that this dramatic price increase, more than twice as much as it was a year before, will put about 12 million households in the UK in a state of fuel poverty.
As a result of the April increase to £1,971 a year, there are 6.5 million people in fuel poverty.
According to a statement from Octopus Energy, “Electric blankets are an incredibly efficient way to heat a person and save customers from paying to heat an entire home.
“It currently costs less than 3p an hour to keep a person warm with an electric blanket, whilst heating a whole home could cost around £4.70 a day.”
While the scheme has now closed, Octopus has announced that it will restart it next winter, offering more electric blankets to consumers for free.
As well as blankets available for free for those most in need, Octopus is partnering with a major electric blankets supplier to provide half-price blankets to any customer.
Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Octopus Energy Group, comments: “Octopus is determined to do all we can to help customers through the crisis.
“We’ve subsidised prices by over £100m, created the OctoAssist fund that’s directly helped over 50,000 customers with real cash assistance and helped 250,000 customers through our Winter Workout.
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“We started sending electric blankets out to customers who qualified under our financial assessment scheme after one of our scientists highlighted the energy efficiency of “heating the human, not the home” – especially for those with limited mobility.
“This analysis proves just how much difference it makes – with savings of £300 this is perhaps the single biggest thing many people can do to stay warm affordably in these tough times.
“This crisis is real – but alongside the government’s welcome support package, there is a lot that energy companies can do and Octopus will be relentless in finding ways to help.”
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