With bills rising, tech evolving and regulations shifting, managing your energy use at home isn’t just a nice idea. It’s starting to feel essential. 

In the first episode of Next Time Around, titled “The Electric Future: Cutting Costs and Carbon with Raya,” Lauren Forster and Richard Britton unpack the energy cost crisis and dig into what it really means to have control over the systems that power our homes.

They cover:

Why energy feels out of control

Electricity bills have grown, and they’re still growing. On top of external pressures like global tensions affecting supply, electricity is also taking on a bigger role in our lives. 

EVs, heat pumps, even cooking – more of it now runs on power, not gas. And the UK energy system is still catching up. 

As we move from fossil fuels to renewables like wind and solar, that’s brilliant for the planet – but it also means the energy we use is more dependent on the weather. And the grid needs expensive upgrades to keep up. That cost ends up in your bill.

Then there’s the price cap. It’s meant to protect consumers on variable tariffs from being overcharged, but volatility is baked in. 

“With the energy cap, […] it changes frequently. So every three months, the price will be reassessed and then that cost will either increase or decrease for the consumer,” points out Lauren. “So a fun fact is that last year in 2023 was generally paying £2,500 per year under the price cap.”

Richard’s pithy reply to that eye-watering sum? “That doesn’t sound much fun to me.”

What can you actually do?

The good news: there are practical ways to get more control, reduce your emissions and cut your costs. All without needing to become an energy expert.

Here’s what Lauren and Richard suggest:

1. Get your home ready

Start with what you’ve got. Home insulation is a smart move: from small tweaks like draught excluders and radiator reflectors, to bigger upgrades like loft insulation or double glazing.

2. Look into solar and battery storage

If you can afford the up-front cost, solar panels can be a long-term way to generate your own clean power and bring bills down. Richard’s already done it himself, and says the payback period is getting shorter as tech improves and prices fall.

Adding a battery helps even more, letting you store that solar power and use it when prices are high – or even sell it back to the grid.

3. Know your tariff, and switch if needed

“Most people that we talk to in our line of work, and most consumers won’t be able to tell you what tariff they’re on,” says Richard, pointing out that people aren’t taking the extra step of looking “…carefully at [tariffs] to understand if they were on the best deal […] as frequently as they should.”

For example, a fixed tariff can protect you from peak prices, while time-of-use tariffs let you save money by using energy when it’s cheaper.

4. Automate the hard bits

Modern energy tech is great—but trying to manage it all can get overwhelming fast. One app for your EV, another for your solar, something else for your battery… it adds up. And keeping track of what’s using what, when, and why? That’s a full-time job in itself.

Automating your energy means less hassle, lower bills, and smarter use of cheaper, greener power, without you needing to think about it.

The quiz that says a lot

To round out the episode, Lauren and Richard took on a rapid-fire quiz covering some eye-opening facts about the UK’s energy system. A few highlights:

• Making cities (plastic, concrete, and steel) is far more carbon intensive than looking after cattle, despite what media hype might have led you to believe.
• The UK actually gets 42% of its energy from renewable sources as of 2023, with wind generating the most renewable energy.
• 50% of UK homes have smart meters, and installing a smart meter is one of the easiest ways to get control of their energy usage.

It’s a fun end to the episode – but it also shows how little most of us really know about how energy works day to day. 

That’s not our fault. The system was built to be opaque. But the good news is: it doesn’t have to stay that way.

Making it easier to ‘unthink’ energy

At Powerverse, our job is to make energy feel simpler, and to take it off your mental load. 

Our intelligent energy assistant, Raya, lives in the Powerverse app and works with your home’s tech,  from EV chargers to solar panels, so you can track, automate and reduce your energy use all in one place. Lauren goes into greater detail, saying

“What Powerverse and Raya do is allow you to connect a broad number of devices in one app and help you control your overall energy usage. It provides tracking so you can see how much you’re spending. And it adapts to your lifestyle.”

Final thoughts

Energy can seem really complicated (not to mention expensive), so getting more control is one of the best moves you can make. 

As Next Time Around makes clear: you don’t need to know everything, but a few smart choices now can save you money, carbon and stress later on.

With Powerverse and Raya doing the heavy lifting, smart energy decisions can run quietly in the background. Book a demo with our team and see how.