Fuel poverty terms explained
Climate crisis – Where human activity has led to irreversible changes to the global climate where highly dangerous weather events are more likely.
Cost of living crisis – The situation where the prices of essential goods and services, like energy and food, have risen faster than household incomes since late 2021, leading to a decline in real incomes and living standards.
Decarbonise – The process of cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that occur because of human activity, for example by replacing coal and oil with renewable energy sources.
District heating – A system that uses a central heat source to distribute hot water through a network of insulated pipes to multiple homes.
Energy efficiency – The ability to use less energy to achieve satisfactory results, minimising energy waste and adverse environmental impacts.
Energy regulator – Refers to a government agency or body responsible for overseeing and regulating the energy sector, like Ofgem.
Energy starvation – Where being restricted or cut off from energy use (due to pricing) leads to people struggling to meet their basic needs, such as heating their homes or cooking their food.
Energy For All – Fuel Poverty Action’s flagship campaign
Energy tariff – A pricing plan or contract with a unit rate and a standing charge.
Essential energy – the energy required for maintaining a minimum standard of living, which in the UK would include enough for adequate heating, lighting, cooking, hot water, refrigeration, charging phone and digital connectivity, and, where needed, medical equipment such as hearing aids, stairlifts and wheelchairs.
Fuel For Thought – Fuel Poverty Action’s educational series on fuel poverty and climate-related topics.
Heat pump – a device that takes heat from the air or ground around a building and increases it to a temperature that keeps a building warm inside.
Just transition – Moving towards an environmentally sustainable economy in a way that ensures no one is treated poorly in that process of change, particularly workers and communities which have relied on fossil fuel-based industries.
Marginal pricing – The practice of setting the price for a product or service with a marginal slightly higher than a variable cost of production.
Means-tested – Where eligibility for a payment or benefit is determined by an individual’s income or personal circumstances.
Nationalisation – the process of taking privately controlled companies, industries or assets and putting them under the control of the government.
Profiteering – the practice of making or seeking to make an excessive or unfair profit.
Renewable energy – energy sources like solar, wind and hydropower that are naturally replenished and not based on fossil fuels
Retrofit – any improvement work on an existing building to improve its energy efficiency, making it easier to heat and retain that heat for longer whilst also having good ventilation.
Standing charge – A fixed daily fee included on energy bills that covers the costs of maintaining the energy supply infrastructure and providing customer service.
Unit rate – The cost of electricity per kilowatt per hour.
Windfall tax – A levy imposed on companies that have benefited from high profits.
