Terms and conditions
Who we are
We’re the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), a charity supporting people and organisations across the UK to tackle the climate emergency and end the suffering caused by cold homes. Our address and registered office is St James Court, St James Parade, Bristol BS1 3HL. We are a registered charity 298740, and registered company 2219673.
The Energy Choices Tool (ECT) has been developed with support from National Grid Energy Distribution and Northern Powergrid.
The legal bit...
These terms and conditions apply to your use and viewing of the Energy Choices Tool (called ECT available at https://ect.cse.org.uk/). Your use of the ECT indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions set out below. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, you must not use the ECT.
We may update and revise these terms and conditions at any time without notice. You are responsible for reviewing these terms and conditions on each occasion that you revisit the ECT site and if you continue to use the ECT after changes are made you are deemed to have accepted them. The ECT may contain content and links to other pages that may have other terms and conditions.
Intellectual property
The design of the ECT and its content is © Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), all rights are reserved. Nothing in the ECT should be taken as conferring any licence or right to use any trademark displayed on the ECT without the prior written approval of the trademark owner.
You may print off or download content as permitted under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) (sections 28 to 30) for the purposes of viewing it on your computer, research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting, provided that you do not alter it in any way and acknowledge us as the source of the content and the copyright owners. All other use or copying of any of the contents of this site, other than as expressly permitted by us or permitted by law, is prohibited. However, as a charity we want to promote the sharing of energy advice, so please get in touch if you wish to use or copy material from this site.
Content
We endeavour to keep the information on the ECT up to date, correct, not misleading and secure. However, it’s possible that occasionally the information is out of date, incomplete or inaccurate and we give no warranties, express or implied as to its integrity, completeness or accuracy.
The ECT includes links to other websites and resources. These links are provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement by CSE of the contents on such sites. As we have no control over such sites and resources, we cannot be held responsible for the content in any form whatsoever. Concerns regarding any external link should be reported to energychoicestool@cse.org.uk.
The ECT is designed to be used by people living in the UK, specifically in the areas that are within the electricity distribution licence areas operated by Northern PowerGrid and National Grid Electricity Distribution.
We do not guarantee that the ECT will be free of errors, bugs or viruses. You are responsible for your own virus protection software.
Privacy
CSE is committed to ensuring that all data gathered by the ECT is handled appropriately and securely. This section tells you what information we collect and what we use it for, how we store it, with whom we share it, and whether it may be transferred outside the European Economic Area.
To use the ECT we ask you to complete questions about your home and your energy use so we can provide you with advice about smart energy options. We ask for your email address so that we can send you a log-in code to allow you to return to the tool and view or amend your question responses at a later date. We also ask for your address to find out which Distribution Network Operator (DNO) area you live in. Unless you choose to opt in to the service satisfaction survey, we do not store your full address, only the first three digits of your post code (e.g. BS3) and the DNO area.
We store your email, your DNO area, and your answers to our advice questions in the tool for twelve months. After twelve months your information will be deleted. We store this information only for the purpose of providing advice. We will not share any personal data with anyone else or use it for any other purpose without your consent.
We use anonymised and aggregated data from the ECT to report on the ECT’s effectiveness. Each month we send reports to Northern Powergrid and National Grid Electricity Distribution about how the ECT has been used by people living in their network areas. You will never be identified in any information we share with your DNO.
CSE will also use anonymised data on tool usage to help us to monitor its effectiveness and to improve our services, as well as in our research into the uptake of smart energy options. We will not use any personal data and you will not be identified in our evaluation or research.
Once you have received your advice report from the ECT, you will be given the option to provide your contact details to take part in a feedback phone call. You do not have to take part in a feedback phone call and you do not have to provide your contact details. This will not affect the information you receive from the ECT in any way.
You will also have the option to answer some monitoring questions about yourself (like your age and ethnicity). This data is anonymous and is not linked to any personal data we hold. We use this anonymous data to evaluate which demographic groups are using the ECT. You do not have to answer these questions and choosing not to will not affect the information you receive from the ECT in any way.
You will also have the option to be contacted by an advice organisation in your DNO area if you require more advice on information you receive from the ECT. To enable us to do that we will share your personal contact details and the information that you received from the ECT with an advice organisation. You do not have to request further advice and you do not have to provide your contact details.
On completion of the ECT you will receive an email with a link to an online feedback survey. This is sent to the email address that you entered when first using the ECT. This email address is stored so that you can return to the ECT and review your results. You can choose not to provide feedback via the online survey.
We will not share any personal data with anyone or use it for any other purpose without your consent. You can remove your personal data at any time from the ECT by emailing energychoicestool@cse.org.uk with ‘delete my information’ in the subject line.
All information is stored on a cloud server, located within the European Economic Area. We view data security seriously and take appropriate technical and organisational measures against its unauthorised or unlawful processing and against its accidental loss, destruction or damage. CSE is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (registration number Z7115671). We manage data in accordance with the eight principles of the Data Protection Act 1998.
ECT has an SSL (HTTPS) certificate to ensure that personal data collected via web forms is secured against interception by a third party.
You have a statutory right to see a copy of the information we hold about you on payment of a fee – currently £10. Requests must be made in writing to the address above.
Further information about data protection issues including the Register of Data Controllers can be found at the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer’s hard drive by websites you visit. They help improve your browsing experience and collect non-personal data for statistical purposes.
The cookies we use collect no personally identifiable information and are used only for the collection of data such as the number of visits to the ECT and which pages were viewed.
To see the cookies used on the ECT, click on the icon on the bottom left of your screen.
We do not use ‘spyware’, including web bugs or hidden identifiers or other similar devices to gain access to information, store hidden information or to trace your activities. For more information about cookies and instructions on how to adjust your browser settings to accept, delete or reject cookies, see the IAB website at www.allaboutcookies.org.
Separate from the ECT, we are certified by Cyber Essentials, the Government-backed and industry supported scheme to guide businesses in protecting themselves against cyber threats.
Liability
Centre for Sustainable Energy shall not have any liability or responsibility whatsoever and howsoever arising for any content or information provided (or not provided) on the ECT.
We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:
- use of, or inability to use, the ECT; or
- use of or reliance on any content displayed on the ECT.
If you are dissatisfied with any portion of the ECT, your sole and exclusive remedy is to stop using it.
General
If any provision of these terms and conditions is held by any court or other competent authority to be void or unenforceable in whole or part, the other provisions of these terms and conditions and the remainder of the affected provisions shall continue to be valid. Nothing in these terms and conditions shall exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury due to its negligence or for fraudulent misrepresentation.
Your statutory rights are not affected by these terms of use. The failure to exercise or delay in exercising a right or remedy provided by these terms of use or by law does not constitute a waiver of other rights or remedies. These terms and the use of this ECT and its content will be governed by and construed in all respects in accordance with English law, and you agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.