Home Energy Scotland Toolkit

A multicoloured, knitted caterpillar draught excluder

Home Energy Scotland, from the Scottish Government, provide clear and impartial advice on how to keep your home warm and cosy. They help people access financial support to make energy efficient improvements to their home, such as a new heating system or insulation. This toolkit has been designed to help you support the Home Energy Scotland campaign and raise awareness with your own audiences.

The Home Energy Scotland campaign raises awareness that advice and financial support is available to help heat your home more efficiently and cheaply. People are encouraged to get in touch by phoning Home Energy Scotland on 0808 808 2282 to find out what funding they can get, no matter what their circumstances. 

Visit the Home Energy Scotland website to find out more.

With your support we can make people across Scotland aware that there is help out there, with the following messages:

  • Find out how you can get help to heat your home more efficiently and save £300 on your yearly heating bill.
  • Find out how you can get help worth up to £5,000 for improvements to make your home warmer, like a new heating system or insulation.

All your activity should direct people to contacting Home Energy Scotland on 0808 808 2282 or visiting homeenergyscotland.org.

Campaign background

Home Energy Scotland, funded by the Scottish Government, is a network of local advice centres covering all of Scotland. They provide free and impartial advice on reducing heating costs and carry out a property assessment over the phone to identify ways to make a home more energy efficient. They will also check if householders can receive free support worth around £5000 for improvements like loft and cavity wall insulation or a new heating system. 

The Home Energy Scotland campaign runs from Wednesday 17th November 2021 to Sunday 27 February 2022 across TV, press, digital social media and PR.

The primary audiences for the campaign are those who may be struggling to heat their home, although advice and support is available to everyone, no matter what their circumstances. Increased funding of £18 million has been made available to support householders install energy efficient measures in their homes and save on heating bills, so the campaign encourages people to contact Home Energy Scotland by phoning 0808 808 2282 or visiting their website www.homeenergyscotland.org.

Key messages for the campaign

  • Energy bills can be a struggle for many over the winter with people spending more time indoors.
  • People in Scotland are being urged to act now to cut their bills and make their homes warmer and more energy efficient, as part of a Scottish Govern-ment campaign.
  • This year’s Home Energy Campaign, from the Scottish Government, aims to:
  1. target homeowners to contact Home Energy Scotland who can provide help and advice on reducing heating costs   save energy by heating their home more efficiently and make Scotland greener.
  2. help people to reduce bills and save energy, whilst keeping warm this winter.
     
  • Home Energy Scotland from the Scottish Government provides clear and impartial advice to make your home warmer. Their helpline is a one-stop-shop for support, so call now 0808 808 2282 or visit www.homeenergyscotland.org to fill in an online form and request a call back.
  • The Scottish Government has extended the range of Home Energy Scotland funding support to eligible householders for installing a variety of measures such as solid wall insulation or a new boiler. To find out exactly what you are eligible for - whatever your circumstances - call the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland hotline now on 0808 808 2282 or go to www.homeenergyscotland.org 
  • A warm energy efficient home is good for your physical and mental health as well as your finances. Funded by the Scottish Government and managed by the Energy Saving Trust, Home Energy Scotland is here to help people in Scotland create warmer homes, reduce their bills and use energy more effi-ciently. Their expert advisors offer free, impartial advice on energy saving, keeping warm at home, renewable energy, greener travel, cutting water waste and more.
  • Curl up and get cosy and find out how you can get help to heat your home more efficiently and reduce your heating bills by up to £300 a year.
  • Show bills the door and find out how you can reduce heating bills and get help worth up to £5,000.

Key facts and figures

  • Since 2008 the service has saved Scottish householders over £1 billion collectively on their energy bills, as well as over 6 million tonnes of CO2.
  • There has been a 35% increase in average weekly call volumes to the Home Energy Scotland hotline since March 2020. 
  • 24,000 households in Scotland have already benefited from free financial support to install energy efficient improvements like a new heating system or insulation.
  • A recent report by Home Energy Scotland revealed: 61% of Scottish residents have used more energy this year as a result of the pandemic, 59% have noticed a rise in their energy bills and 73% think home energy savings and domestic energy efficiency play an important role in tackling the climate emergency.
  • Energy bills have risen considerably in recent months. Of gem recently announced annual increases of up to £153 in annual bills — the biggest jump since the cap was introduced. The latest rise, on top of a £96 hike in April, will see those on default tariffs paying £139 more, up to an average of £1,277 a year. Prepayment customers, among them some of the poorest and most vulnerable, will be hit even harder, with a £153 increase taking av-erage bills to £1,309.

Home energy saving tips and fast facts

  • Did you know that by turning down your home thermostat by just 1°C can help cut your annual heating bill by 10%? 
  • Fitting a thermostat can help maintain the temperature of a room, hot water cylinder or boiler while not wasting excess energy.  
  • Insulation keeps the heat in your home and making sure your home is properly insulated is a great way to save energy, money and do your bit for the environment. 
  • Insulate your hot water tank to keep your water hot for longer. By insulating your hot and cold water pipes you can make sure your water runs at the right temperature more quickly.  Pipe and tank insulation is cheap and you can do it yourself. 
  • Wall insulation can really help keep the heat in your home - it also doesn’t cost much and can be really effective in helping cut your energy use which is great news for your bank balance and the environment.
  • Wind whistling through the living room? Draught proofing is an easy and cost-effective way to reduce heat loss, with most materials available from DIY stores. 
  • Did you know that heat can also be lost through the floor? Insulating under the floorboards on your ground floor will save you around £60 a year, and you can seal the gaps between floors and skirting boards to reduce draughts.
  • Check the energy efficiency ratings of white goods to make sure you are get-ting the most energy efficient models.
  • Learn more about saving energy in the home.

Campaign Assets

We have various assets for this campaign that you may find useful to illustrate the story on your own channel. These are available to view and download in the links below.

Social assets and films

WeTransfer

Dropbox

Supporting social media content

We’d be grateful if you could support the campaign via your social media channels. You can share content from Home Energy Scotland or post your own.

Home Energy Scotland Facebook

Home Energy Scotland Twitter

Home Energy Scotland website

Here are a few examples social media posts you may want to send out to your followers to show your support:

Twitter: Have your heating bills risen?

Get in touch with Home Energy Scotland for support and funding to help save energy and heat your home more efficiently this winter.
If the cost of heating your home is a struggle, then Home Energy Scotland, from the Scottish Government, can help. They give free and impartial advice on how you can reduce your heating bills and get help worth up to £5,000 to make your home warmer. Contact Home Energy Scotland today on 0808 808 2282.

Facebook and Instagram: Struggling to heat your home?

Home Energy Scotland can help. Get in touch to find out how you could save on bills and get help worth up to £5,000 to make your home warmer. You could receive funding to make improvements like home insulation, draught proofing or even a new heating system. Over 24,000 households in Scotland have benefitted so far. Find out more – contact Home Energy Scotland today on 0808 808 2282.

Content for your organisation's channels

The editorial content below includes information on the campaign, feel free to use this copy (or relevant sections of it) on your intranet, e-newsletter or blog platforms:

The Scottish Government has made an additional £18 million available this year to help householders install energy efficient measures and reduce their heating bills, bringing the total support available through Home Energy Scotland to £50 million in 2021-2022.

People are being urged to seek support and advice now from Home Energy Scot-land to help make their homes warmer and reduce their heating bills, which can on average be up to £300.

Financial support worth up to £5,000 is also available to make homes more energy efficient through improvements like home insulation, draught proofing or a new heating system.

Home Energy Scotland also supports households with practical advice and, where appropriate, install energy efficient improvement – making homes more energy efficient and saving householders money.

With more people spending more time at home over the past 18 months due to coronavirus, energy usage has been greater than ever. But help is out there, and Home Energy Scotland want to be able to support even more people to make energy saving improvements to their home. 

Did you know that a home that isn’t well insulated can lose more than 50% of its heat through its roof and walls so making improvements can help your finances and make your home more energy efficient, comfortable and cheaper to heat while helping lower emissions in Scotland? 

Home Energy Scotland provides clear and impartial advice to make your home warmer. The one-stop-shop for support is funded by Scottish Government and de-livered by Energy Saving Trust. Calls are free to 0808 808 2282 or vis-it www.homeenergyscotland.org/contact to request a call back.

Home Energy Scotland, the Scottish Government’s free energy efficiency advice service, helps people access funding for energy efficient measures along with a range of other financial support and impartial advice. If it looks like you might be eligible for help, you will be referred for an initial survey to be carried out of your home before measures are installed.

To find out exactly what you are eligible for – whatever your circumstances – call the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland hotline now on 0808 808 2282 or go to www.homeenergyscotland.org/contact.

Contact details and useful links

For any enquires including media opportunities and for additional information, please contact:

Stripe Communications

Email: homeenergy@stripecommunications.com

Tel: +44 (0) 131 561 8628