Octopus Energy is offering a special new tariff which promises customers will pay nothing for their electricity for five years.
The energy supplier is introducing a new tariff called Octopus Zero Bills, which does exactly what it sounds like and promises that customers will not pay anything for their energy for five years.
The scheme is being run in tandem with housing developers. A house built with renewable energy items including solar panels, a heat pump, battery storage and electric heating, will qualify for the Octopus Zero Bills scheme, using the renewable energy sources built into the property to power the home instead.
Heat pumps are powered by electricity and take air from outside before heating it and pushing it into the property. They are more expensive to buy than a boiler but there are various grant schemes to slash the cost of installing one. It is hoped by many that heat pumps will fully replace traditional fossil fuel boilers in the long term.
Solar panels combined with a battery will also pay for themselves in their lifetime, even without taking into account the Octopus offer.
Octopus said: “We’ve just launched Octopus Zero Bills, the next generation energy tariff with zero energy bills for five years, guaranteed, for new homes kitted out with the right combination of solar panels, home battery and heat pump.
“It’s not magic, but could just as well be. If you live in a brand new, specially built Zero Bills home, you’ll not receive an energy bill – no costs, no worries.
“With domestic heating currently responsible for 14% of the UK’s total carbon emissions alone, Zero Bills represents a crucial step on our journey to net zero.
“ First, we’re taking on newbuild homes – all 200,000 of them built each year in the UK. But we’re also working hard to maximise retrofit applications of Zero where possible. With the UK’s housing stock recently ranked the worst in Europe, we’ve got no time to lose.
“By Zero-ing energy bills for eligible households, we’re hoping to give our customers one less thing to worry about.
“ And while we can’t change the system overnight, the good news is that we’re fast approaching cost parity between low-carbon tech and their gas-guzzling counterparts – meaning that a zero carbon, zero bill world is far from a distant reality for everyone.”
