Pricing and free places

Learn more about Energy Sparks’ support packages, our prices and when you will be invoiced. Find out how and when we can offer free places

Audience

This page provides help for anyone using the Energy Sparks website.

How much does Energy Sparks cost?

Energy Sparks charges an annual fee to help cover the cost of maintaining and improving our school-specific energy management tool, educational resources and support package.

Check our current prices. 

We will invoice your school or Trust for the school’s account once we can display data for at least one utility (gas or electricity). 

If you have a Trust contract benefiting from discounted prices, we expect to be able to issue one invoice to the Trust for all schools, rather than individual invoices to each school.

Most contracts with Energy Sparks are for one year, but we can offer multi-year contracts on request. There is no auto-renewal and we will be in touch towards the end of your contract to confirm whether you wish to continue using our services for another year.

What support is provided?

Energy Sparks provides an inclusive support package to help schools engage with their whole community to maximise energy savings. 

This includes:

A dedicated school support officer
  • Helps all school users with technical problems and queries.

Metering support 
  • Guidance on upgrading to Smart or half-hourly meters and resolving meter problems.

Onboarding support
  • Resource packs and guidance to help you launch Energy Sparks at your school or across your Multi-Academy Trust.

Teacher and staff training
Online training sessions for school leadership, premises managers and teachers on: 

  • Using the Energy Sparks tool effectively.
  • School energy management.
  • Using Energy Sparks in the curriculum and with pupil eco-teams.

Communications 

Competitions 
  • An annual scoreboard competition to celebrate the most engaged schools.
  • Holiday switch-off and heat saver competitions.

Specialist support 
  • Access to our energy and carbon reduction consultant and our educational lead to provide additional support.

To learn more, visit our product page.

Do you have free places available?

Funding from charitable trusts and foundations, community energy companies and corporate partners allows Energy Sparks to provide its services free of charge, or at a subsidised rate, to a limited number of schools in certain regions of the UK. Most funded places are prioritised for schools with 25% or more pupils receiving free school meals.

Most funded places are allocated at the start of the school year. To join the waiting list for a funded place, please complete our enrolment form. 

Please bear in mind that most schools using Energy Sparks can save around 10% off their energy bill in the first year of use, which means that most secondary schools and larger primary schools can recover the cost of an Energy Sparks subscription in a very short time. 

Expectations if you have a free place

Schools receiving free use of Energy Sparks must ensure that they meet the following engagement expectations:

  • Appoint at least three staff members as Energy Sparks users, including a member of the senior leadership team, an estates manager and a teacher. If a registered user leaves the school, they must hand over their Energy Sparks user role to another suitable staff member.
  • Staff users are encouraged to attend at least one Energy Sparks training webinar per school year.
  • Staff users should sign up to receive weekly Energy Sparks alerts. These allow you to find out quickly about changes to the school’s energy consumption, understand  the cost and carbon implications, and see recommended actions to resolve the issue.
  • Staff users should receive at least one Energy Sparks newsletter. The options are:
    • Getting the most out of Energy Sparks: Tips, ideas and inspiration to help you maximise energy saving and pupil engagement across your school estate. 
    • Engaging pupils in energy saving and climate: Activity suggestions, resources, inspiration and success stories from other schools to help you engage pupils in energy saving and climate action. You’ll also receive updates on fun competitions. 
    • Energy saving leadership: Advice, tips and inspirational success stories. We have advice for leaders within schools (including sustainability leads), as well as those from Multi-Academy Trusts. 
  • Use Energy Sparks with a pupil eco-team or other pupil group across the school year.
  • Complete at least one Energy Sparks programme of pupil activities (consisting of around four to ten activities) over the year.
  • Carry out and record at least one adult action per long school term based on Energy Sparks’ recommendations for your school.
  • Nominate at least one named staff member to carry out a holiday switch off before each holiday.

What happens when a free place ends?

If your school meets our engagement expectations during your first funded year, we may be able to offer a free place for a second year. This is not guaranteed, as some of our grant funding is for one year only. 

Towards the end of your funded year of Energy Sparks, we will contact the registered Energy Sparks account administrators at your school to confirm whether we can extend the funded place for another year. If this is not possible, you will be offered the option of moving to a paid-for account or archiving your account. If your account is archived, you can reactivate it at any point in the future by emailing hello@energysparks.uk.

What additional services are available?

In addition to our core energy management tool, education resources and inclusive support package, Energy Sparks offers a range of additional paid-for services to help schools maximise their impact. These include:

We offer in-school workshops for a variety of audiences, including:
  • Whole school or key stage assemblies.
  • Sessions for eco-teams and classes.
  • In-person training for estate staff, business managers and sustainability leads on how to use the Energy Sparks tool.

  • On-site energy audits include a site visit, energy consumption data analysis and thermal imaging, followed by a report and action plan. 
  • Desktop energy reviews include an online meeting with school staff and an energy action plan. 

Private energy management portal account, accessible only to staff
We recommend that schools opt to make their Energy Sparks account and data publicly visible to maximise engagement across the school community. However, we do also offer the option of a private account at additional cost. A private account is not available to schools receiving free access to Energy Sparks. 

How do I sign up to Energy Sparks?

  1. Read the overview of our energy management tool, which summarises all the key features. You can also watch a demo or contact us if you need more information.
  2. Check the current Energy Sparks prices for your school or Trust. 
  3. Read how to enrol your school, Trust or Local Authority