We are reaching out to funders to help us with the £3,950 cost of installing a battery and emergency sockets for our son Thomas.

Thomas has multiple disabilities, and the equipment necessary to meet his caring needs—including a hoist, stair lift, wash dry toilet, and wheelchair accessible EV—consumes an awful lot of juice and thanks to a faulty smart meter, we found ourselves over £3,000 in energy arrears with our direct debits skyrocketing to an alarming £465 a month, plunging us into fuel poverty.

In response to this, we raised an executive complaint and have worked hard with our energy supplier to replace the faulty smart meter and secure an appropriate tariff for our needs. Thanks to their support, we have managed to reduce our legacy debt to just under £1,000, primarily for winter gas usage. Additionally, they fitted a solar array on our property through their partner company, Contact-Solar which has transformed our energy consumption by slashing our bills by more than half.

However, we recently learned that adding a Sunsynk battery would further enhance our system's efficiency at a cost of £2,495. This battery would allow us to time-shift our cheap overnight charging tariff and retain more of the energy generated by our solar panels.

After experiencing a power cut where we were unable to utilise the energy from the panels for Thomas's essential equipment, we realised that installing emergency sockets directly from the inverter is crucial for his care. The cost for these emergency sockets is £750. Furthermore, before installation can occur, we need an earth rod fitted and tested at an estimated cost of another £750.

Having these emergency sockets will ensure that Thomas's hygiene suite remains operational during power outages as it relies on a macerator pump due to its location below the drain work.

The total costs for all necessary work amount to £3,950.

With the help of EDF Energy and Contact Solar, we have gone a long way in reducing our energy demands. Please help us to achieve our goal so that we can continue to provide Thomas with the care he deserves without fear of losing power during critical times.