Since moving into one of the UK’s first ‘zero-bills’ housing estates two years ago, Mark Puddicomb has not spent a penny on household energy costs.
The father-of-three moved into the £599,000 four-bedroom property on the Nexa Fields estate, Exeter, in November 2023 because he liked the design and efficiency of the homes.
But he said it has been a “real bonus to not have to worry about electricity bills”.
Puddicomb, a 51-year-old building surveyor, said he used to spend around £200-£250 a month on electricity and gas in his previous house – a 1905 detached Edwardian property with single glazed windows.
The new property, he said, is well-insulated, and totally powered by renewable electricity, with solar panels on the roof, a battery in the garage and a heat pump in the back patio area.
It is also fitted with automatic lights and heat recovery on the ventilation, which is a cutting-edge system that brings fresh air inside while capturing and reusing the heat from stale, outgoing air.
“It’s great to have no pressure or worry about energy bills, which can be very high and variable,” Puddicomb told The i Paper. “I still try not to waste energy but I don’t worry about costs of heating, as this tends to be the main cost in energy.”
Zero-bills homes are fitted with solar panels on the roof“Everything works well and every month, I get an email from Octopus saying, your balance is nil and your amount today is nil, which is great,” he added.
Puddicomb lives in one of Octopus Energy’s “Zero-Bills tariff” homes, launched in 2022.
The scheme lets customers who live in homes fitted with green technology pay zero energy bills for at least five to 10 years.
It comes as the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, is set to outline plans for more zero-bills homes, with grants for homeowners to install solar panels, heat pumps and battery storage.
He is reportedly expected to announce the plans for his £13bn “warm homes fund” next month in a bid to meet Labour’s manifesto of cutting bills by £300 by the next election.
Puddicomb welcomed the strategy, saying: “I can see no negatives in having that set up…. If they can build houses this way for the future, it’s a great idea.”
The house came with an air source heat pumpAt current rates set by the Ofgem price cap from October to December 2025, a typical household could save around £1,755 per year on the zero bills tariff, Octopus said.
The energy provider has already approved eligibility for over 5,000 zero-bills homes through partnerships with developers, and aims to deliver 100,000 by 2030.
Puddicomb, who has three daughters aged 13, 16 and 19, said the zero-bills scheme means he has more money available in his monthly budget for essentials.
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“It just means, I suppose, I’ve got more money available,” he said. “It gets spent on things [for] the kids and that sort of stuff.”
But most of all, it was the efficiency and modern design of the house that won him over: “I like the thought of being able to tread a bit more lightly and just use a bit less energy or be a bit more efficient.
“I like efficiency all around, anyway. So it’s a nice, efficient home.”
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