Trust Electric Heating – Advertising Standards Association

The Advertising Standards Association investigated energy saving claims made by Trust Electric Heating Ltd related to their Neos electric radiator.

During the investigation, Trust Heating Ltd conceded that they did not hold any evidence to support their claims.

In the absence of any evidence, Trust Electric Heating gave assurances that they would:

1. Remove references to the NEOS having 50% lower running costs than some electric heaters from their website and all other marketing.
2. Remove references to the NEOS being 59.4% more effective than some electric heaters from their website and all other marketing.
3. Not describe the NEOS as being a “hybrid” electric radiator and avoid suggesting that the NEOS radiator is a combining of a storage heater and a direct acting radiator/heater.
4. Amend the TV advert to remove the claims “they’ve saved nearly 50% on their heating bills” and “keeping you warm for less” and make sure that any future version makes clear the basis of the comparison for any savings claim (provided always that they hold robust evidence to support any such savings claim). 

The Trust Neos electric radiator is a direct acting electric radiator. As such it has the same efficiency of all electric heaters i.e. 100% efficiency in terms of fuel converted to heat. 1kWh of electricity input = 1kWh of heat output. It therefore has the same running costs as all electric heaters or electric radiators.

The efficiency of electric resistance heating is entrenched in the laws of physics, specifically Joule’s Law and the Laws of conservation of energy. All electric heaters have always been 100% efficient and always will be.

The Trust Electric Heating ‘running cost guide’ and ‘running cost report’ were stated on their website to be from University of Huddersfield. In fact this was an in house test conducted by an employee in a Trust Electric Heating office space. The test was conducted in such a way as to present their product as energy saving when in fact it is not.

If you read of any electric heater or electric radiator that is claimed to have lower running costs or lower energy use, please don’t fall for it and we would urge you to report the claims to Advertising Standards or Trading Standards.

The only electric heating products that can offer reduced running costs are Heat Pumps due to their greater efficiency and High Heat Retention storage heaters due to their efficient use of cheaper off peak electricity and their ability to store the cheap heat for very long periods of time.