Energy supplier EDF must ensure its ads are not “likely to mislead”, after a radio commercial claimed people could receive “zero-pound bills” if they installed solar panels.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched an investigation after the EDF commercial stated: “Your electricity bill could be nil. Yep, nothing. Because when you install solar panels and a battery with EDF, you don’t just get electricity when it’s sunny, you can store it for a rainy day too.”
It went on to say: “For potential zero-pound bills, buy ten to twelve of our solar panels, a battery, and join Empower Exclusive.”
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However, a number of complainants challenged the claim “you don’t just get electricity when it’s sunny, you can store it for a rainy day too”. They said it was misleading because they believed the solar panels and battery would not generate and store enough power to provide electricity during the winter months.
In defence of the ad, which was heard on 7 September 2024, EDF Energy Ltd (trading as EDF) said electricity generated while it was sunny could be stored and used on days when it was “less sunny”.
The firm said there was nothing in the claim that implied the electricity stored “would be sufficient to meet months’ worth of usage during the darker months, and they would not expect consumers to understand the claim in that way,” according to the ASA’s report into the complaint.
EDF went on to say, the claim that power generated on one day could be stored and used on a different day, “was factually correct”. They also provided technical data to support the claims made in the ad.
The ASA upheld the complaint and said: “Consumers would understand from those claims that if they bought ten to 12 EDF solar panels and a battery, surplus energy generated by the panels on sunny days could be stored in the battery for use on days when it was too dark for the panels to generate enough power to meet their needs.”
The regulator concluded the ad was “likely to mislead” and must not appear again in the form complained of.
“We told EDF Energy … to ensure future ads made clear the basis of any claims, where the omission of that information was likely to mislead,” said the ASA.
