Milton Keynes family moves into five-year zero-bill energy trial

A family in Milton Keynes has moved into a home designed to operate without energy bills for five years under a trial tariff from Octopus Energy. The four-bedroom house belonging to Clare Naylor’s family was fitted with 17 solar panels, a heat pump, a battery and four radiators. The system allows the home to use electricity it generates and send surplus power to the grid.

Octopus guarantees that the family will not be charged for heating, lighting or household devices, provided they remain within a fair-use limit. Electric-vehicle charging is excluded from the promise. The property must have good insulation, solar generation and battery storage, and it cannot use gas, including for cooking.

The family therefore had its gas boiler removed. Naylor said her household had previously kept heating at about 18C and used blankets and hot-water bottles to control costs. Its energy bills had been about £130 a month.

She said the family planned to use the money saved for holidays and expected to heat the home more consistently this winter. The retrofit was provided free by Santander as part of a project examining ways to improve household energy efficiency. The equipment would have cost just under £20,000 after a government grant.

Octopus technical director Nigel Banks said homes needed to generate slightly more energy annually than expected consumption so that the company could earn revenue by selling electricity back to the grid. Santander is examining financing options for similar projects; a £20,000 loan over five years at 6.4% would cost £389 a month.