Man ‘overjoyed’ to slash energy bills and get paid £90 by supplier

A man has been able to slash his energy bills by investing in some upgrades to his home – and his energy supplier has even paid him some money.

Denis Bassom, 54, is going through the process of improving his home with new features to improve its energy efficiency.

He had some solar panels installed in February 2023 and in May he paid just £36 for his energy and his supplier reimbursed him £90 for the energy generated from his solar panels.

He said: “I’ve been overjoyed by the return I’ve seen on my energy bills – not only have they hugely decreased, but my energy provider actually reimbursed me £90 last month for the energy the solar panels had provided.

“I’m recommending solar panels and the Greener Home Reward to any colleagues or friends who will listen.”

He paid £9,400 for the solar panels, which he covered himself, but then received a £1,000 Greener Home Reward.

This reward is given by Barclays to customers who install eco upgrades to their property, such as solar panels, insulation or a heat pump.

Mr Bassom, from Ware in Hertfordshire, previously fitted loft insulation in his home in efforts to bring down his energy bills.

When considering the solar panels, he created an excel spreadsheet to work out when he would see a return on his investment.

He worked out he would get a return on his investment within six and a half years, based on his situation.

Talking about his motivation for investing in the home upgrades, Mr Bassom said: “We moved to our current home in 1999 and plan to stay there at least another decade, in which time we are likely to move to a single pension income, so the ultimate aim is to make our home work as hard as possible for us financially.

“This has driven my interest in exploring ways to make my house more energy efficient, and earlier this year my retrofitting research led me to the Barclays Greener Home Reward scheme.

“Being a mortgage customer of theirs already, I immediately applied for it and was pleasantly surprised by the ease at which it was accepted.”

Many Britons will see their energy bills drop from July as the Ofgem energy price cap dropped, with the average bill for a typical household now at £2,074 a year, down from £2,500 a year.

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