Clare Naylor去年冬天非常留意自己和家人的能源使用量，靠热水袋和额外的毯子取暖，以确保不超支。而今年，她完全不用操心，因为她保证收不到账单。
lare Naylor paid close attention to how much energy she and her family were using last winter, filling hot-water bottles and bringing out extra blankets to ensure they didn’t go over budget. This year, she won’t have to worry as she is guaranteed not to receive a bill.
尽管数百万英国家庭从今天起面临三年来最高的能源费用——价格上限上调4%，且预计明年1月还将再涨16%——但Naylor家的房屋升级改造意味着她无需支付任何费用。
While millions of British households face the highest energy charges in three years from today after a 4% rise in the price cap and predictions of a 16% increase in January upgrades to Naylor’s home mean she will not have to pay anything.
这套位于米尔顿凯恩斯的四卧室独立住宅最近安装了热泵和17块太阳能板，车库里还装了一块大型电池来管理发出的电力。
The four-bedroom detached home in Milton Keynes was recently fitted with a heat pump and 17 solar panels, and a large battery was installed in the garage to manage the energy generated.
这些新技术加上四个新暖气片，让该房屋能使用一种特殊能源套餐，保证她五年内不用付任何账单。实际上，这房子就像一个微型电站，将多余电力回馈电网。
The new technology, as well as four new radiators, means the house can use an energy tariff which guarantees she will not pay any bills for five years. In effect, the house behaves like a mini-power station that feeds excess energy back to the grid.
只要Naylor一家保持在“合理使用”额度内，Octopus Energy就保证不向他们收取取暖、照明以及一家三个10岁以下孩子所用设备的任何费用。
As long as the Naylor family stay within a “fair usage” limit, Octopus Energy guarantees they will not be billed for heating, lighting or any of the devices that a family with three children under 10 use.
“我们一直都很节省，”Naylor说，“暖气从未设定超过18℃[虽然]亲戚来访时可能会调高。否则就是穿拖鞋、抱热水袋、套毛衣——这就是过冬的方式。”她说今年会在孩子放学回家前就把屋子暖好，这是以前不敢想的事。
“We were always fairly careful,” says Naylor. “Our heating was only ever set to 18C [although] we might boost it if the family were coming around. “Otherwise [it was] slippers, hot-water bottle, jumpers – that’s how you get through the winter.” This year, she says she will heat the house before the children come home from school, which is something that did not used to happen.
这家人的能源账单原本就不高——她称每月约130英镑，现在他们打算把这笔钱用来度假。
The family’s energy bills were relatively low – she says they were about £130 a month, a sum they now plan to spend on holidays.
这栋建于1980年代的房屋，由Santander免费改造，作为一项研究如何为家庭节能改造提供资金的项目的一部分。如果Naylor自掏腰包，在申请政府补贴后，太阳能板、热泵和电池的费用也将接近2万英镑。
The house, which was built in the 1980s, was retrofitted for free by Santander as part of a project to examine how to fund homes towards better energy efficiency. If Naylor had to pay for the works, the solar panels, heat pump and battery would have come to just under £20,000 after a government grant was applied.
自五年前推出以来，“章鱼能源”（Octopus）的“零账单”套餐已在全国数百栋新建住宅中投入使用。该公司目前正在测试该套餐在像内勒（Naylor）夫妇家这样较老、需要进行节能改造的房屋中的运行情况。
Octopus “Zero Bills” tariff is operating in hundreds of new-build homes around the country since it was launched five years ago. The company is now testing how it works in houses, such as the Naylors’, that are older and need to be retrofitted.
房屋需要具备良好的绝缘保温、太阳能电池板、热泵和蓄电池，以便能够产生比消耗更多的能量。“零账单”项目技术总监奈杰尔·班克斯（Nigel Banks）表示：“通常情况下，这些房屋一年内产生的能量会比我们预计它们消耗的能量略多一些。最根本的要求之一，就是我们需要通过向电网回售电力来获得足够的收入。”为了符合该套餐的资格，房屋必须不使用天然气（甚至不能用于做饭），因此内勒夫妇不得不拆除了他们的燃气锅炉。零账单的承诺不包括给电动汽车（EV）充电的费用。
Properties need to have good insulation, solar panels, a heat pump and a battery so that they can generate more energy than is being used. “Typically the homes generate slightly more energy over a year than we’d expect them to use,” said Nigel Banks, the technical director of Zero Bills at“One of the fundamental requirements is we need to make enough revenues from selling power back to the grid.”To qualify for the tariff, homes must have no gas, even for cooking, so the Naylors had to have their gas boiler removed. The zero-bill promise does not cover charging electric vehicles (EVs).
班克斯表示，通常而言，进行改造的最佳候选房屋是近10年内建造、保温水平良好的住宅。每栋房子的使用上限都会有所不同，这是根据它们通常会消耗多少能量来设定的，并且会额外留出一个余量。
Typically, the best candidates for the retrofitting work are homes built in the last 10 years with good insulation levels, said Banks. The usage cap will be different for each house and is set depending on how much energy they would normally use, with a margin on top.
桑坦德银行（Santander）正在研究如何为需要借款来资助改造项目的家庭提供融资。与此同时，如果使用其利率为6.4%、期限为五年的家居装修贷款，一个2万英镑的项目意味着每月需还款389英镑。
Santander is working on how to offer financing for households who need to borrow money to fund retrofitting projects. In the meantime, using its home improvement loan, at a 6.4% interest rate over five years, would mean repaying £389 a month for a £20,000 project.
来自桑坦德银行的米克·泰勒（Mick Taylor）表示：“我们面临着一项巨大的挑战。我们拥有150万个按揭贷款账户，其中绝大多数账户都在支付每月的能源账单。消费者担心能源账单只会一路走高——对于大多数家庭来说，这很可能是第二或第三大支出。”
Mick Taylor from Santander said: “We’ve got a big challenge. We’ve got 1.5m mortgage accounts and the vast majority of those are paying monthly energy bills. Consumers are concerned that energy bills are only going one way – they’re probably the second- or third-biggest outgoing for most households,” he said.
“面对如此庞大的住房抵押贷款组合，我们能做些什么来帮助国家迈向净零排放？显然，我们自己也有一份责任。”内勒说，她将在即将到来的冬季努力让家中始终保持温暖。“然后教我的孩子们随手关门，那一定会很有趣，”她补充道。
“What can we do to help the country move towards net zero with such a big mortgage portfolio? We’ve obviously got a role to play.”Naylor says that she will try to keep the home at a constant warm temperature during the coming winter. “And then train my children to keep the door shut, which will be fun,” she adds.