Helping other organisations give good advice on electric heating

Over 280,000 Scottish households use electricity to power their heating. Lots of these are properties that aren’t connected to mains gas, but electric heating is likely to become more common across Scotland as we look to decarbonise the way we heat our homes.

People with electric heating often find it challenging to keep their home warm and comfortable, and their energy costs affordable. Citizens Advice Scotland published a report on this, which showed that households with electric heating face specific challenges in getting advice, information and a choice of supplier, and need tailored support to overcome this.

If your organisation gives advice about energy and billing, you’ll know how important, and challenging, helping people with electric heating can be. To support organisations like yours, we’re offering a free training course called Electric Heating, Metering and Billing, which covers everything an advisor needs to know to be able to give sound advice on electric heating.

The course explains how different electric heating systems work and are controlled. We cover electricity supply and the different ways customers pay for it through their meter and tariff type, including Economy 7, Economy 2000, Total Heat with Total Control and ComfortPlus tariffs.

You’ll also get access to our supporting factsheets to help you put your knowledge into practice. The factsheets cover:

• Electricity meters, billing and restricted meter types
• Changing a restricted meter to a single rate type meter
• Changing a restricted meter to an E7 type meter
• Replacing electric storage heaters

More than 60 organisations across the country have already received the training, including Citizens Advice Bureaux, housing associations and local advice organisations. We’ve had some great feedback from the sessions so far – recent attendees said that “trainers were very knowledgeable, excellent at explaining and addressing questions” and that it was an “excellent session, demonstrating good knowledge about the topics and professionally delivered.”

You don’t need to have a technical background, but an awareness of how householders interact with the energy market will be helpful. The training takes three hours or can be split into two sessions, and can be delivered online. We can even tailor the training to suit the participants’ level of knowledge, or focus on the heating and metering combinations relevant to the people you work with.

• Get in touch to find out how this could benefit your organisation
• Check out our case study to see what kind of support your advisors could provide for customers with electric heating

Here’s a closer look at what the course covers:

• An introduction to the main electric heating appliances and systems used in homes, including their controls
• The main types of electric meters, including restricted meters and tariffs, such as Economy 7, Economy 2000, Total Heat with Total Control and ComfortPlus
• Which heating systems and electric meter types are compatible 
• Ways householders can improve their circumstances, including better use of heating controls and changing their heating system or meter

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain how electric heating systems and appliances are designed and operated
• Spot differences between meter types for homes with electric heating, including restricted meters
• Consider other electric heating systems in relation to restricted meters
• Explain the running costs associated with electric heating systems and meter arrangement
• Explain how different restricted meters and their associated tariffs work
• Give advice on upgrading or removing electric storage heaters
• Give advice on switching from restricted meter tariffs
• Help customers work out their next steps

If you’d like a copy of the course outline, or have any other questions, just get in touch. We also offer a course on heat pumps.