Bag a smart thermostat under the Green Homes Grant scheme

There are many things which can be done to make a home more energy efficient. Let’s begin with the low hanging fruit by reducing the amount of heating that is wasted by heating empty homes. Everyone does it. A thermostat warms up multiple rooms but many or all are unoccupied, some are hotter than they need to be, or the heating is left on when nobody’s home or when a schedule changes.

Users are saving on average around 22% on their energy bills after installing a tado Smart Thermostat. For less than £200, homeowners can invest in a smart thermostat which is covered by the Green Homes Grant.

A smart thermostat like tado° automatically turns down the heat when nobody is home and also gives residents individual multi room heating control with Smart Radiator Thermostats. They also automatically reduce the heating when open windows are detected and adapt to outside weather for maximum efficiency. These work seamlessly in the background or can be controlled via the device, an app, or voice for convenience.

Christian Deilmann, CPO of tado° commented: "We were delighted to hear the announcement by Rishi Sunak of the Green Home Grant. Earlier this year, tado° ran a study of over 100,000 tado° households in Europe and found that British homes lose heat faster than any other country, which is perhaps not so surprising as Britain has the oldest housing stock in Europe. So although there are many beautiful and historical homes this does not bode well for energy efficiency."

He continued: "The average annual dual fuel bill is around £1,200 with the majority of this going into your heating and hot water. So, we fully support this huge opportunity to make a positive impact on both personal finances and the environment."

Smart thermostats also provide a higher level of transparency to give residents a better idea of how they use their heating and how savings can be made. tado°, for example, has an Energy Savings Report which shows users when the heating was on, in which rooms, and where the savings were made. Saving energy doesn’t have to mean reducing the heat at the expense of comfort, it means using your heating in a smarter way.

An investment like this for £200 typically pays for itself within a year. Measures like better insulation or switching from a gas boiler to a heat pump will, of course, make a positive impact, but the cost, disruption, and effort are significantly higher.

Once homeowners start to better understand how energy is being used it can also improve behaviour in that people start to take more interest in making energy improvements after  better seeing the impact and results of individual actions.

Eligibility to apply for the Green Homes Grant

To apply for the voucher, you must either:

• Own your home (including park home owners, long-leaseholders and shared ownership)
• Be a private or social landlord
• Your property must be in England to be eligible for the scheme.
• Landlords cannot apply for the low-income portion of the scheme.
• New-build properties that have not previously been occupied are not eligible for the scheme.
• You cannot apply for the scheme if you have already received a grant from your local authority as part of the Local Authority Delivery Scheme.
• It must be carried out by an accredited installer.
• You have to invest in a primary measure to take advantage of a secondary measure (like smart thermostats) in order to be eligible to claim it under the Green Homes Grant

More info on the Green Homes Grant from gov’t-backed Simple Energy Advice here.