Most websites covering heat pumps, solar panels and government grants are run by companies that install them, or by lead generation businesses that sell your details to companies that do. That shapes what those sites tell you, usually in the direction of yes.
This page sets out who we are, how we make money, how the site is written, what that does and does not buy, and how to tell us when we have got something wrong.
Who writes this site
The Energy Upgrade is written and edited by Ben Jardine, who has been publishing online since 2014. It is an independent publication, not owned by or affiliated with any installer, manufacturer, energy supplier or trade body.
We are not heating engineers, electricians or retrofit assessors. What we publish is research: what the official scheme rules actually say, what the published figures actually are, and what the arithmetic actually comes to. Before committing to an installation you should take advice from a certified installer who has surveyed your property.
How we make money
At the moment, we don’t. The site carries no advertising, no affiliate links and no paid placements, and nobody pays us when you read something here or act on it.
That may change. If we introduce a commercial model, we will describe it on this page and in the footer before it goes live, not after. We would rather you knew exactly what our interests are than had to guess.
The honest test of whether that holds is whether we are willing to publish things that would cost us money. We think we are. Our guide to whether heat pumps are worth it tells a large group of readers that the right answer for them is to do nothing for now. Our battery guide concludes that, on a standard tariff, most home batteries will not pay for themselves within their warranty. Neither helps anyone selling installations. Both are true.
How the site is written
Our content is drafted with AI assistance, researched against primary sources, and edited by a human before publication.
We would rather tell you that than have you wonder. What it means in practice is that the drafting is faster than it would otherwise be, and that the checking matters more. Every figure, date and eligibility rule on this site is verified against the original source, because that is the step where AI assistance is least reliable and the consequences of getting it wrong are highest. Where we cannot verify something against a primary source, we say so on the page rather than asserting it.
Nothing is published without a human reading it, checking the numbers and deciding it is right. The judgements about what to include, what to leave out and when the honest answer is unwelcome are ours.
Where our figures come from
We work from primary sources wherever possible: Ofgem scheme guidance, government announcements, published price caps and the regulations themselves, rather than from other websites.
Every page carrying figures shows a last-updated date and a note saying what was verified and against what. That is not decoration. Energy prices change quarterly, grant rules change at short notice, and a page written in good faith in March can be wrong by October. The date tells you how much weight to put on what you are reading.
We review figures at least quarterly and whenever a scheme changes. When we correct something, we change the date.
When we get it wrong
We will. Grant rules are complicated, they change without much warning, and some of them are genuinely ambiguous until someone tests them.
When we find an error we correct it and update the date rather than quietly editing the page. Where a correction changes the substance of what we said, we say so.
If you spot something wrong, out of date, or unclear, tell us. Corrections from readers who have actually been through an application are more useful than almost anything else we could do, and we would rather hear it from you than leave it wrong.
What we will not do
- Tell you that you qualify for something when the rules say you do not
- Present an estimate as a quote, or a best case as a typical case
- Use countdown timers, fake scarcity or urgency language for schemes that are not actually urgent
- Cold call you, or sell your details to anyone who will
- Describe a scheme as free when someone is paying for it
Not advice
Nothing on this site is financial advice, and nothing on it is a substitute for a professional survey of your property. Grant eligibility is determined by the scheme administrator, not by us. Installation costs depend on a building we have not seen.
What we can do is make sure that when you talk to an installer, you know what the rules say, what the numbers mean, and which questions are worth asking.