More support for homes with electric heating

Households with electric heating are now being offered even more advice and support when they contact Home Energy Scotland.

The change follows research by Energy Saving Trust into how the Home Energy Scotland service, which has saved Scottish households over £1 billion in energy bills since 2008, could offer more in-depth advice to those living in electrically heated homes.

Around 282,000 households in Scotland have electric heating. They’re statistically more likely to be in fuel poverty, with 51% fitting the definition (compared with around 25% of Scottish households as a whole). This means they’re likely to be on low incomes, live in inefficient properties and face higher energy costs than most other Scots.

As examined in Citizens Advice Scotland’s report, Hard-Wired Problems: Delivering effective support to households with electric heating, these households face additional challenges and disadvantages compared with homes connected to mains gas or renewables systems. These include accessing competitive tariffs, switching suppliers and getting tailored information and advice.

Since its launch, Home Energy Scotland has offered tailored advice on all types of heating systems; the recent work with Energy Saving Trust has led to the development of new training for advisors that focuses not only on how to control and manage the system itself, but on advice around meters, tariffs and suppliers too.

This helps householders, as consumers of energy, make informed choices about how they use and pay for energy. Advisors across the network’s five centres received the new training in October, with more training planned in December to share best practise and work through examples of real situations.

New fact sheets for householders will support the advice given through the Home Energy Scotland service. Sitar Ramsay, Partnerships Manager for Home Energy Scotland, said:

“We’re deepening our advisors’ understanding and knowledge around electric heating, which is going to help consumers feel more confident in managing their energy consumption and bills – crucial for a group of households that’re twice as likely to be in fuel poverty as the rest of Scotland.”

If you’ve got electric heating and want to get in-depth, tailored advice about your system you can speak to one of our friendly advisors – call free on 0808 808 2282 or go online at homeenergyscotland.org