Octopus Zero Bills accredited

We are happy to assess any housing stock for Octopus Zero compatibility, but practically the thermal characteristics must be at least as good as current new build regulations. Retrofit that achieves this works as well as new build for the purposes of the proposition.

The house must be off the gas grid, i.e. have electric heating, as well as solar (likely minimum 3 kWp) and battery (likely minimum 5 kWh). We will assess, for a given design, the exact minimum hardware requirements to be eligible for Octopus Zero.

Complete the attached spreadsheet, with one row per plot that you would like to assess for eligibility. We will then run our analysis and get back to you to let you know which plots are eligible and potential changes to the design that would unlock eligibility for others.

Yes - as long as the design is able to fulfil the requirements we are happy to offer the Zero Bill. In Scotland, that is likely to mean a larger solar array and better thermal insulation as minimum requirements.

We currently guarantee to offer the Zero Bill for 5 years but this will be updated over time.

To make it as simple as possible, we have only one Fair Use Allowance - on total electricity across the year. This is set at approximately double the expected usage, so customers should only exceed this if they have very high heating preferences.

The customer will be billed at our Flexible Octopus unit rate (still no standing charge) for any electricity imported above the Fair Use Allowance, with billing done on an annual basis.

Customers are always in control of their comfort control but as above, we set the Fair Use Allowance at a very high level to ensure that customers are never penalised for keeping warm.

Customers must agree to keep the hardware turned on and well maintained, and to leave the PV and battery settings unchanged from how we remotely program them. They must also have a continuous WiFi connection and import and export smart meters.

If the above conditions are not met, we reserve the right to move the customer to a different tariff (likely SVT + SEG), however, we would not do this for the short period while the hardware was fixed.

Yes. EV charging is not included within the Zero Bill allowance, but will be billed separately at Intelligent Octopus tariff unit rates - while the rest of the home’s energy needs remain free.

Customers must be living in a Zero Bills approved home to be eligible for Zero Bills. If they move to another Zero Bills home then they would need to contact Octopus to make the change, or if they move to any other home they would need to contact Octopus to move tariff.

We very much intend to offer Zero Bills on an ongoing basis, so while we can’t guarantee it beyond 5 years, our expectation would be to continue to roll it forwards.

Once a homeowner or tenant moves into their new home, activating Zero Bills is really simple and can be done by visiting a dedicated Octopus Energy weblink (shared within their new home welcome pack) and following a few steps online.