Major energy supplier to give households 16 hours of free electricity every week from tomorrow

A MAJOR energy supplier is giving away four days’ worth of free electricity to thousands of households from tomorrow.

The offer will be available to customers on four Sundays from tomorrow.

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These will include May 18, May 25, June 1 and June 8.

The scheme is part of EDF’s Sunday Saver Challenges, which give customers the chance to earn free electricity on Sundays by shifting when they use electricity during the week.

To be eligible, bill payers need to move their energy usage away from the weekday peak hours of 4pm to 7pm every week from May 5.

The more electricity customers shift away from these hours, the more free electricity they can earn, with between four and 16 hours up for grabs each week.

The electricity is then added as credit to your account.

For example, if you move 50% of your peak usage, you can earn up to 16 hours of free electricity to use the following Sunday.

You could earn this by not using your dishwasher or washing machine during peak times, for example.

Or you could batch cook your meals at the weekend and reheat them during the week.

To be eligible for the free electricity you needed to have signed up for this challenge between April 28 and May 4 by visiting the Energy Hub in your MyAccount.

But if you missed out this time, then do not worry.

EDF frequently launches these challenges so check your emails and the My Account page regularly to ensure you sign up for the next one.

You also need a smart meter that can send readings every half hour, or you must be able to set it up for 30-minute reads.

You can adjust your smart meter settings by visiting edfenergy.com/myaccount/login.

Next go to the “About Me” section, select “Smart Meter Preferences” and choose the half-hourly option.

You can track how much free electricity you have earned each week in the Energy Hub.

It should also tell you which Sunday you can use it.

Sunday Saver participants have earned more than six million free hours since last year, which are worth more than £1.6million.

EDF is not the only energy supplier that will give you free electricity.

E.ON Next is giving new and existing customers free electricity on every bank holiday until March 2026.

The next one is on the Spring Bank Holiday on May 26.

E.ON Next has said its offer could save households £3.50 on every bank holiday - which would save you around £21 over the course of a year.

To be eligible you need to sign up for the supplier’s Pledge tariff.

The tariff is fixed for a year and offers rates that track below the Ofgem price cap, which is currently £1,849 a year for the average household.

Ovo Energy is giving households two hours of free electricity every week during the summer.

The free electricity is available to customers who signed up to Ovo’s free rewards programme, Ovo Beyond.

The hours will be available from May 5 until August 31.

Every week, customers can choose when to use their free electricity in a variety of weekday and weekend time slots.

These include:

• 9am - 10am on specified weekdays
• 1pm - 2pm on specified weekdays
• 9pm - 10pm on specified weekdays
• 10am - 12pm Sundays

The sessions avoid peak hours to help reduce pressure on the grid.

You will need to choose your time slot for the following week in a selection window.

Customers simply need to sign up to the rewards through the Ovo app or their account.

The supplier is also giving customers the chance to win free energy if they reduce their consumption at peak times.

The Power Move offer allows customers the chance to win up to £2,000 of free energy if they use 85% or more of their energy at off-peak times.

For every month a customer’s peak energy usage is less than 15% they are entered into a prize draw.

Five customers win the top prize of £2,000 worth of energy to use over one year.

Meanwhile, 300 win £50 prizes and 26,695 receive £2 of free energy.

To sign up visit ovoenergy.com/power-move.

Scottish Power’s Power Save scheme gives customers the chance to access half-price electricity between 11am and 4pm every Saturday and Sunday.

Customers need to register to become a Power Saver to have half of the cost of the energy they use during these hours refunded.

The supplier will also occasionally launch an ad-hoc Power Saver event during the week.

You need to have a smart meter to become a Power Saver.

To sign up visit the Scottish Power website.

Octopus Energy customers who sign up for “Octoplus” can take part in free electricity sessions when the wholesale price falls below zero.

The sessions last for an hour and customers can use electricity and receive credits for using more electricity than they usually would.

All customers with a smart meter, including smart payment meters, receive an alert the day before a session.

When the sessions begin they can up their energy usage, for example by charging gadgets or cooking.

Any extra electricity they use beyond their normal usage is credited back to their account.

The average dual fuel energy bill for those on a variable tariff rose from £1,739 a year to £1,849 last month.

This was a 6.4% increase and will add £111 a year to household bills.

The increase impacted 22 million households in England, Scotland and Wales that are not on a fixed energy tariff.

At the same time, council tax and car bills also rose.

If you are struggling with costs then you can take action as you could be missing out on free boilers and energy bill discounts.

You may also be able to get a free energy grant to help you with your bills.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].

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