Need help with your bills?
We provide free, expert, independent, one-to-one energy advice for residents of SE London.
1:1 Advice service for people struggling with their bills.
All services are free of charge. For the best advice, please bring a recent bill with you.
Our main service is in English, but we can give advice in-house several languages:
- Spanish / Español
- Portuguese / Português
- Bengali / বাংলা
- Urdu / اردو
- Arabic / عربي
We can:
-
- Offer impartial advice on how to pay less for your electricity and gas
- Give you advice about energy debt
- Guide you through applying for discounts and grants
- Share tips & tricks to reduce your energy usage
- Install energy- and water-saving measures in your home that could save you up to £200
- Refer you to our Heat Doctor to maintain your heating system, if you are a qualifying home owner or private renter.
1:1 Advice service for people struggling with their bills.
All services are free of charge. For the best advice, please bring a recent bill with you.
Our main service is in English, but we can give advice in-house several languages:
- Spanish / Español
- Portuguese / Português
- Bengali / বাংলা
- Urdu / اردو
- Arabic / عربي
We can:
- Offer impartial advice on how to pay less for your electricity and gas
- Give you advice about energy debt
- Guide you through applying for discounts and grants
- Share tips & tricks to reduce your energy usage
- Install energy- and water-saving measures in your home that could save you up to £200
- Refer you to our Heat Doctor to maintain your heating system, if you are a qualifying home owner or private renter.
Online Information
Current grants & supports
If you live in privately rented accommodation, your landlord must ensure your home has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of E or above. You can look up your EPC here.
Our energy advisors can check that your home is meeting minimum requirements and advocate with your landlord to provide upgrades if not.
London Renter’s Union support people with a variety of housing-related issues. They are not an advice service, a charity or, a law firm. Instead, they take action together by writing letters and peer support. Membership starts from £4 per month.
Landlords can also benefit from much of the funding available to homeowners. Means-tested grants will assess the eligibility of the tenant.
- Energy Company Obligation – grant funding for upgrades such as insulation, double or triple glazing and renewables for eligible households with an EPC of D or below
- Great British Insulation Scheme – free or discounted insulation for households with an EPC of D or below
- Boiler upgrade scheme – up to £7500 towards the cost of an air or ground source heat pump
- Energy Company Obligation – grant funding for upgrades such as insulation, double or triple glazing and renewables for eligible households with an EPC of D or below
- Great British Insulation Scheme – free or discounted insulation for households with an EPC of D or below
- Boiler upgrade scheme – up to £7500 towards the cost of an air or ground source heat pump
To find out more about plans for your home, contact your local authority.
- Energy Company Obligation – grant funding for upgrades such as insulation, double or triple glazing and renewables for eligible households with an EPC of D or below
- Great British Insulation Scheme – free or discounted insulation for households with an EPC of D or below
- Boiler upgrade scheme – up to £7500 towards the cost of an air or ground source heat pump
- Love your Loft – free loft insulation survey, handyperson service and £200 towards the cost of insulation for Lewisham and Greenwich homeowners
- Future Fit Homes – subsidised retrofit assessments and tailored support for Lewisham, Greenwich, Lambeth, and Newham households.
- Community solar – we use community finance to install solar panels on community buildings, cutting the organisations energy bills and carbon emissions while generating surplus to fund our energy advice
- LED-ing the way – we use community finance replace old inefficient and costly lighting systems with low energy lighting at zero up-front cost
- City Bridge Foundation Eco Audits – free Eco audits to help organisations be more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint
- VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme – new funding to help voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations in England to improve their energy efficiency.
Current grants & supports
If you live in privately rented accommodation, your landlord must ensure your home has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of E or above. You can look up your EPC here.
Our energy advisors can check that your home is meeting minimum requirements and advocate with your landlord to provide upgrades if not.
London Renter’s Union support people with a variety of housing-related issues. They are not an advice service, a charity or, a law firm. Instead, they take action together by writing letters and peer support. Membership starts from £4 per month.
Landlords can also benefit from much of the funding available to homeowners. Means-tested grants will assess the eligibility of the tenant.
- Energy Company Obligation – grant funding for upgrades such as insulation, double or triple glazing and renewables for eligible households with an EPC of D or below
- Great British Insulation Scheme – free or discounted insulation for households with an EPC of D or below
- Boiler upgrade scheme – up to £7500 towards the cost of an air or ground source heat pump
If you live in privately rented accommodation, your landlord must ensure your home has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of E or above. You can look up your EPC here.
Our energy advisors can check that your home is meeting minimum requirements and advocate with your landlord to provide upgrades if not.
London Renter’s Union support people with a variety of housing-related issues. They are not an advice service, a charity or, a law firm. Instead, they take action together by writing letters and peer support. Membership starts from £4 per month.
Landlords can also benefit from much of the funding available to homeowners. Means-tested grants will assess the eligibility of the tenant.
- Energy Company Obligation – grant funding for upgrades such as insulation, double or triple glazing and renewables for eligible households with an EPC of D or below
- Great British Insulation Scheme – free or discounted insulation for households with an EPC of D or below
- Boiler upgrade scheme – up to £7500 towards the cost of an air or ground source heat pump
To find out more about plans for your home, contact your local authority.
If you own your own home you could be eligible for the following support:
- Energy Company Obligation – grant funding for upgrades such as insulation, double or triple glazing and renewables for eligible households with an EPC of D or below
- Great British Insulation Scheme – free or discounted insulation for households with an EPC of D or below
- Boiler upgrade scheme – up to £7500 towards the cost of an air or ground source heat pump
- Love your Loft – free loft insulation survey, handyperson service and £200 towards the cost of insulation for Lewisham and Greenwich homeowners
- Future Fit Homes – subsidised retrofit assessments and tailored support for Lewisham, Greenwich, Lambeth, and Newham households.
- Community solar – we use community finance to install solar panels on community buildings, cutting the organisations energy bills and carbon emissions while generating surplus to fund our energy advice
- LED-ing the way – we use community finance replace old inefficient and costly lighting systems with low energy lighting at zero up-front cost
- City Bridge Foundation Eco Audits – free Eco audits to help organisations be more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint
- VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme – new funding to help voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations in England to improve their energy efficiency.
The Heat Doctor
Heat is expensive, let’s make sure your heating system works to its maximum efficiency to make you as warm as possible.
Simon, The Heat Doctor, is on a mission to help SE Londers who maintain their own boilers understand your heating system and make it run as efficiently as possible. He can deal with both minor and serious problems with your heating systems, or get more help if he can’t solve your problem, at no cost to you. For eligible households, he can:
- Provide demonstrations and advice on managing your heating system. Everything he does he can inform you about.
- Adjust the flow temperature on boilers.
- Bleed your radiators for you, and show you how to do it.
- Adjust the temperature and timing setting on a room thermostat and adjust individual thermostatic radiator valves.
- If your boiler isn’t working efficiently, he can adjust the pressure
- Carry out simple repairs such as removing leaking radiators or defective isolation valves.
- Source new parts and manage the budget for new parts if needed.
- Fit CO alarms (very important).
- Adding fernox/inhibitor
- If simple repairs are not possible, he can escalate issues to Gas Safe and support an application for grant-funded heating upgrades.
The Heat Doctor
Heat is expensive, let’s make sure your heating system works to its maximum efficiency to make you as warm as possible.
Simon, The Heat Doctor, is on a mission to help SE Londoners who maintain their own boilers understand your heating system and make it run as efficiently as possible. He can deal with both minor and serious problems with your heating systems, or get more help if he can’t solve your problem, at no cost to you. For eligible households, he can:- Provide demonstrations and advice on managing your heating system. Everything he does he can inform you about.
- Adjust the flow temperature on boilers.
- Bleed your radiators for you, and show you how to do it.
- Adjust the temperature and timing setting on a room thermostat and adjust individual thermostatic radiator valves.
- If your boiler isn’t working efficiently, he can adjust the pressure
- Carry out simple repairs such as removing leaking radiators or defective isolation valves.
- Source new parts and manage the budget for new parts if needed.
- Fit CO alarms (very important).
- Adding fernox/inhibitor
- If simple repairs are not possible, he can escalate issues to Gas Safe and support an application for grant-funded heating upgrades.
We now offer a number of fun and interactive workshops for community groups who have questions about energy at home. How can I reduce my energy bills? How can I make my home a comfortable temperature and energy efficient at the same time? How do solar panels work?
99% of our workshops are free and all are bookable for community groups in SE London.
Depending on the time available, these interactive workshops can cover information about Selce’s services, available discounts and grants, debt discussion, free and low-cost things people can do around the home to reduce energy and water usage, and invite participants to join the Save to Change Challenge.
Price: Free
Duration: 10-60 minutes
Participant Numbers: 5-20 people
Who’s it for: Community groups where people are responsible for paying their energy bills.
What we need: This workshop needs a focused room, chairs and a table. And, if possible, though not necessary a projector.
Depending on the time available, these interactive workshops can cover information about Selce’s services, available discounts and grants, debt discussion, free and low-cost things people can do around the home to reduce energy and water usage, and invite participants to join the Save to Change Challenge.
Price: Free
Duration: 10-60 minutes
Participant Numbers: 5-20 people
Who’s it for: Community groups where people are responsible for paying their energy bills.
What we need: This workshop needs a focused room, chairs and a table. And, if possible, though not necessary a projector.
Temperatures are rising in the UK, this short talk covers ways you can keep cool in the summer months. This talk can be incorporated into our energy advice workshop.
Price: Free
Duration: 10 minutes
Participant Numbers: 10+
Who’s it for: Community groups where people are responsible for paying their energy bills and who struggle to do so.
What we need: This workshop needs a focused room, chairs and a table
This interactive workshops covers how to install draught-proofing, low flow shower heads, radiator reflector foil, and a range of other products you can install in your home to reduce your energy consumption and cut your bills and your carbon footprint.
Price: Free
Duration: 20 minutes
Participant Numbers: 5-20 people
Who’s it for: Community groups where people are responsible for paying their energy bills and who struggle to do so.
What we need: This workshop needs a focused room, chairs and a table
This interactive workshop will take you on a whistle-stop tour of energy efficiency upgrades that can make your home cheaper to heat, more comfortable and better for the planet.
We’ll cover common issues caused by poor building-stock, the improvements that can be made to address these and the steps that can be taken to access available funding and support.
Price: Free
Duration: 30-60 minutes, depending on available time.
Participant Numbers: 5-30
Who’s it for: Anyone who would like to increase their knowledge and vocabulary about energy efficiency upgrades.
What we need: a focused room/space and tables and chairs for all participants.
Race against the clock to make Mr. Egg and his friends the most well-insulated home you can.
Using a range of materials, you’ll get to insulate your own model home and test your creation using one of our state-of-the-art thermal imaging cameras!
Learn about the fundamentals of insulation and heat loss with this fun activity for all the family.
Price: Free
Duration: 60-90 minutes
Participant Numbers: 10-30
Who’s it for: Children and families.
What we need: tables and chairs for all participants
Whether it’s lamb’s wool, recycled newspaper, or Yorkshire-grown hemp, learn all about the different materials that can be used to make your home cosier and better for pocket and planet.
A hands-on workshop covering the fundamentals of insulation and the different materials that can be used. We’ll go through their properties, the emissions associated with their production and how they work their magic.
Price: Free
Duration: 60 minutes
Participant Numbers: 5-30
Who’s it for: Homeowners who would like to increase their knowledge and vocabulary about natural materials that can be used to insulate their homes.
What we need: tables and chairs for all participants.
Solar panels are more and more common but how do they actually work? Well, you could watch a youtube video to find out, or you could actually make your own! Join this workshop dedicated to helping you make your own small solar panel. You’ll use soldering irons to put the cells together and create a usable panel to charge a phone from.
Price: contact us for a quote, (on average £60-70/head)
Duration: 1-day
Participant Numbers: Up to 15 per session
Who’s it for: This workshop is for people over 16 years of age, for safety reasons
We now offer a number of fun and interactive workshops for community groups who have questions about energy at home. How can I reduce my energy bills? How can I make my home a comfortable temperature and energy efficient at the same time? How do solar panels work?
99% of our workshops are free and all are bookable for community groups in SE London.
Depending on the time available, these interactive workshops can cover information about Selce’s services, available discounts and grants, debt discussion, free and low-cost things people can do around the home to reduce energy and water usage, and invite participants to join the Save to Change Challenge.
Price: Free
Duration: 10-60 minutes
Participant Numbers: 5-20 people
Who’s it for: Community groups where people are responsible for paying their energy bills.
What we need: This workshop needs a focused room, chairs and a table. And, if possible, though not necessary a projector.
Depending on the time available, these interactive workshops can cover information about Selce’s services, available discounts and grants, debt discussion, free and low-cost things people can do around the home to reduce energy and water usage, and invite participants to join the Save to Change Challenge.
Price: Free
Duration: 10-60 minutes
Participant Numbers: 5-20 people
Who’s it for: Community groups where people are responsible for paying their energy bills.
What we need: This workshop needs a focused room, chairs and a table. And, if possible, though not necessary a projector.
Temperatures are rising in the UK, this short talk covers ways you can keep cool in the summer months. This talk can be incorporated into our energy advice workshop.
Price: Free
Duration: 10 minutes
Participant Numbers: 10+
Who’s it for: Community groups where people are responsible for paying their energy bills and who struggle to do so.
What we need: This workshop needs a focused room, chairs and a table
This interactive workshops covers how to install draught-proofing, low flow shower heads, radiator reflector foil, and a range of other products you can install in your home to reduce your energy consumption and cut your bills and your carbon footprint.
Price: Free
Duration: 20 minutes
Participant Numbers: 5-20 people
Who’s it for: Community groups where people are responsible for paying their energy bills and who struggle to do so.
What we need: This workshop needs a focused room, chairs and a table
This interactive workshop will take you on a whistle-stop tour of energy efficiency upgrades that can make your home cheaper to heat, more comfortable and better for the planet.
We’ll cover common issues caused by poor building-stock, the improvements that can be made to address these and the steps that can be taken to access available funding and support.
Price: Free
Duration: 30-60 minutes, depending on available time.
Participant Numbers: 5-30
Who’s it for: Anyone who would like to increase their knowledge and vocabulary about energy efficiency upgrades.
What we need: a focused room/space and tables and chairs for all participants.
Race against the clock to make Mr. Egg and his friends the most well-insulated home you can.
Using a range of materials, you’ll get to insulate your own model home and test your creation using one of our state-of-the-art thermal imaging cameras!
Learn about the fundamentals of insulation and heat loss with this fun activity for all the family.
Price: Free
Duration: 60-90 minutes
Participant Numbers: 10-30
Who’s it for: Children and families.
What we need: tables and chairs for all participants
Whether it’s lamb’s wool, recycled newspaper, or Yorkshire-grown hemp, learn all about the different materials that can be used to make your home cosier and better for pocket and planet.
A hands-on workshop covering the fundamentals of insulation and the different materials that can be used. We’ll go through their properties, the emissions associated with their production and how they work their magic.
Price: Free
Duration: 60 minutes
Participant Numbers: 5-30
Who’s it for: Homeowners who would like to increase their knowledge and vocabulary about natural materials that can be used to insulate their homes.
What we need: tables and chairs for all participants.
Solar panels are more and more common but how do they actually work? Well, you could watch a youtube video to find out, or you could actually make your own! Join this workshop dedicated to helping you make your own small solar panel. You’ll use soldering irons to put the cells together and create a usable panel to charge a phone from.
Price: contact us for a quote, (on average £60-70/head)
Duration: 1-day
Participant Numbers: Up to 15 per session
Who’s it for: This workshop is for people over 16 years of age, for safety reasons
Home energy saving
tips & tricks
There are free things that you can do around your house to reduce the amount of energy that you pay for, but don’t use. We’re challenging you to make at least one change to deal with the sneaky little energy vampires that quietly suck pennies and pounds out of your bank account and ruin the atmosphere.
Home energy saving
tips & tricks
There are free things that you can do around your house to reduce the amount of energy that you pay for, but don’t use. We’re challenging you to make at least one change to deal with the sneaky little energy vampires that quietly suck pennies and pounds out of your bank account and ruin the atmosphere.
There are also a few low-cost and easy-to-install measures for your home that can help reduce energy waste, cut your bills and keep you more comfortable in your home.
There are also a few low-cost and easy-to-install measures for your home that can help reduce energy waste, cut your bills and keep you more comfortable in your home.
*Savings are annual and vary by household, dependent on energy usage and current per unit market rates. These prices are estimated based on a household of 2.4 people at Summer 2023 market rates.
*Savings are annual and vary by household, dependent on energy usage and current per unit market rates. These prices are estimated based on a household of 2.4 people at Summer 2023 market rates.
Your local, current energy advice bulletin to find out about the latest supports, grants, tips & tricks to keep your energy bills low,
Your local, current energy advice bulletin to find out about the latest supports, grants, tips & tricks to keep your energy bills low.
There’s a lot of information you can find online for yourself….
To find out if other energy companies can offer you a better deal on your bills try price comparison site Uswitch.
You can calculate how much energy you use at the Energy Cost Calculator UK website.
Get useful advice on saving energy and keeping your home warmer with the home energy checker tool.
Discounts
You may be eligible for a discount on your electricity bill. Apply for the Warm Homes Discount here – many of our clients qualify for this but don’t know about it.
We help households access other water, gas and electric discounts as well as home improvement grants through our phone advice service. If you would like to access this, please give us a call on 020 4566 5764.
Help with energy debt relief
Some of the bigger energy companies offer debt relief to their customers. You will need to fill out quite a long form – but it’s worth it if your debt is cancelled as a result. Contact your energy company directly for more information.
Additional help for older people, families with young children, or those with disabilities
Many energy companies have a Priority Service Register which gives special attention to vulnerable people including those who are disabled, elderly or under five years old.
If you are on this register, you will be given emergency electricity in the event of a power cut and the energy company may arrange for an engineer to read your meter if you cannot access it yourself. For more information, contact your energy company directly.
The Benefits Entitlement Checker enables you to make sure you are not missing out on any entitlements.
There’s a lot of information you can find online for yourself….
To find out if other energy companies can offer you a better deal on your bills try price comparison site Uswitch.
You can calculate how much energy you use at the Energy Cost Calculator UK website.
Get useful advice on saving energy and keeping your home warmer with the home energy checker tool.
Discounts
You may be eligible for a discount on your electricity bill. Apply for the Warm Homes Discount here – many of our clients qualify for this but don’t know about it.
We help households access other water, gas and electric discounts as well as home improvement grants through our phone advice service. If you would like to access this, please give us a call on 020 4566 5764.
Help with energy debt relief
Some of the bigger energy companies offer debt relief to their customers. You will need to fill out quite a long form – but it’s worth it if your debt is cancelled as a result. Contact your energy company directly for more information.
Additional help for older people, families with young children, or those with disabilities
Many energy companies have a Priority Service Register which gives special attention to vulnerable people including those who are disabled, elderly or under five years old.
If you are on this register, you will be given emergency electricity in the event of a power cut and the energy company may arrange for an engineer to read your meter if you cannot access it yourself. For more information, contact your energy company directly.
The Benefits Entitlement Checker enables you to make sure you are not missing out on any entitlements
