User guide

What's involved

The Energy Choices Tool helps you to understand which smart energy options are most suitable for you and your home. These are tools which will help you to reduce your energy use, save money and be more sustainable. With the tool you will:

1. Explore our resources.
2. Complete questions about you and your home.
3. Get results of suggested smart energy options you can adopt and make the best use of.
4. Choose smart energy options you want more information on.
5. Generate and download your report.
6. Further information and feedback.

Step 1: Explore our resources (optional)

You may not have heard of 'smart energy' before, and it can be a confusing topic. What we mean by 'smart energy options' is anything - a product, tool or service - that helps you to reduce your energy use and save money. This can be through ensuring you're using your energy the most efficiently, switching up the times you use energy or upgrading to renewable energy sources.

We’ve put together some helpful information on smart energy in the Advice pages and Resources. A good place to start is ‘Where do I start with smart energy options?’ This page outlines suggested first steps when thinking about your home and energy use.

We also have guides about smart meters and energy monitoring, a section on digital skills, and a grants guide.

Step 2: Answer questions about your home

The Energy Choices Tool works by learning information about your home and circumstances. By completing the questionnaire, we can provide you with personalised recommendations.

Simply click on the ‘Find smart energy options’ button to get started. The short questionnaire should only take around 5 to10 minutes to complete. As you complete the survey, you'll receive helpful information about energy. This will explain why we're asking certain questions and start to give you deeper insight into your energy use.

Step 3: Get your results

Exploring your smart energy options

You’ll be presented with a list of smart energy options split into four categories - ‘cheaper, greener’, ‘heating’, ‘solar PV’ and ‘heat pump’.

Each smart energy option has a red match bar indicating its suitability based on your questionnaire answers. The more it’s filled in, the more likely it is that this option is suitable for your home and current circumstances.

If you click on ‘More details’, you can see more information for each smart energy option. You’ll be able to see key details such as what this option does, whether it can save you money, roughly how much it costs, and how to get it installed.

Filtering your results

Your smart energy options are grouped into four colour-coded categories. If you want to look at just one category at a time, simply uncheck the other category filter boxes.

There’s also another way to filter your results . Just underneath the category filters, you’ll find a drop-down for ‘advanced filters’ – click on the arrow to expand this section. Here, you can search by budget, potential savings, carbon reduction and more. This gives you complete flexibility to focus on options you’re most interested in or ones that feel most achievable, such as low-cost or low-effort options.

Hidden smart energy options

At the bottom of each category, you may see a box saying, ‘Also worth considering…’. We’ve hidden these smart energy options from your list because you’re missing some essential requirements, meaning that they are not currently suitable for you.

However, you may still want to take a look at these options. Click the drop-down arrow to expand the list, then click on ‘More details’ for each option you’re interested in. Right at the bottom of each information box, you can find details of the changes you would need to implement you wanted to implementtake up that smart energy option.

Step 4: Choose smart energy options

Once you’ve decided which smart energy options you would like to include in your report, check the ‘Add to report’ box next to them. You can also select ‘Add all to report’ if you’d like to include a whole category of smart energy options. Make sure you do this for each category.

As soon as you start adding smart energy options to your report, a ‘Generate report’ button will appear in the bottom right of the screen. Next to this button, you can also select Add all smart energy options’ to add your whole list to the report.

Step 5: Generate you report

The final step is to generate your bespoke report by clicking on the ‘Generate report' button.

Your report includes:

• Recommendations for next steps based on your questionnaire answers.
• Full details of the smart energy options you selected, including any necessary factors currently missing.

The report is a good starting point for exploring smart energy options that are appropriate for you. Everyone’s home and circumstances are unique, so it’s important you do further research before purchasing or installing any smart energy option. Your report will outline your best next steps so you can make informed decisions now and into the future.

You can print your report or save it as a PDF. After saving or printing , click on ‘Next’. This will exit the report and take you to some final optional questions.

Step 6: Further information and feedback 

Optional fedback and information

On the next screen, you’ll have the chance to opt in to providing feedback on the Energy Choices Tool and sharing personal information that can help us understand who is using the tool.

Your feedback is valuable as it’ll help us to improve the tool so that more people can be better informed about their energy use.

Further Advice

You will also have an option to request further advice from an energy advisor by completing a very short form. The Centre for Sustainable Energy’s advisors are trained to offer bespoke advice and can help you to make sense of the information you received and what you can do next.

Follow-up email

You’ll receive an email from Centre for Sustainable Energy the day after you’ve used the Energy Choices Tool. It contains a link to a very short anonymous survey. We would love to hear what you think about using the tool – what you liked and any suggestions for improvements. Your participation is valuable so we can continue adapting and improving the Energy Choices Tool for others.

Returning to the Energy Choices Tool

You can return to the Energy Choices Tool at any time. When you enter your email address, you will be sent a six-digit code to log in to the tool. You can also edit your answers if you return after you’ve made changes or upgrades to your home, to get the most up to date results.

FAQs

What if I don’t understand the meaning of a word?

We know that the language around smart energy options can involve technical terms, which we’ve tried to limit. Please check the Glossary if there’s a term you’re not sure about.

I haven’t finished answering all the questions. Can I complete them another time?

A progress bar above each question indicates how far you’ve got. You can come back to answer questions by logging in again with your email address. You will be taken back to the question you last completed.

Can I change my answers?

When you’ve completed the questionnaire, you can edit your answers. You could also change your answers to explore different scenarios e.g. if you don’t currently have a smart meter and you got one, what smart energy options might then be suitable for you.

Does the website have accessibility features?

Yes - you can change the font size, site theme colour, background colour or switch to greyscale mode in Settings (the gear icon in top righthand corner).

How do you calculate costs, savings and carbon reductions for smart energy options?

We update these figures annually, using an annual UK average for fuel tariff prices and carbon intensity. For electric heating we calculate running cost savings and running cost risk are compared to gas central heating.

Who has access to my questionnaire responses?

Anonymised answers are shared with National Grid Electricity Distribution and Northern Powergrid (Distribution Network Operators) to inform their future services and for Ofgem reporting purposes.

Who has access to my personal information?

Anonymised personal information is shared with National Grid Electricity Distribution and Northern Powergrid (Distribution Network Operators) for Ofgem reporting purposes.

How is the Energy Choices Tool updated?

Centre for Sustainable Energy researchers regularly monitor the smart energy options markets for new types of products, services and tariffs. As new smart energy options emerge, they will be added into the Energy Choices Tool as part of an annual update.

What if I have a question or want to give further feedback?

Please send an email to energychoicestool@cse.org.uk.