Get up to 25 Hours of Free Electricity with Uswitch’s ‘Power Hours’ Scheme
If you’re looking for ways to ease the pressure of rising energy bills, here’s a scheme you might want to check out. The online price-comparison service Uswitch has launched a new offer giving households up to 25 hours of free electricity this November, via their app. Note that you must have a working smart meter to take part in this.
How the scheme works
Here’s a breakdown of the key steps:
-
Download the Uswitch app (available for Android and Apple phones) and connect your smart meter. It’s free to join.
-
Sign up for ‘Power Hours’ by the deadline (you must register by 31 October 2025 to take part in the November campaign).
-
Choose your free-hours slot: For each weekend in November you’ll select a time slot (either Saturday or Sunday), from 7 am–12 pm or 12 pm–5 pm.
-
Over the five weekends in November you’ll accumulate up to 25 hours of free electricity — i.e., 5 weekends × 5-hour slot = 25 hours.
-
After each slot, Uswitch will calculate your usage from your smart meter during that time and apply your ‘free electricity’ value based on your consumption.
Who can claim the free electricity?
-
The offer is open to anyone with an electricity smart meter in the UK, regardless of who your supplier is.
-
The key requirements: you must have your smart meter connected in the Uswitch app, and you must sign up by 31 October 2025.
-
Your supplier and tariff don’t matter — as long as you’re a UK domestic household, you can participate.
How much free electricity can you claim?
-
You can claim up to 25 hours of free electricity across the five weekends in November — that’s one 5-hour block each weekend.
-
During each chosen 5-hour slot, your actual electricity use will be measured. The equivalent cost of that usage is then calculated and becomes your ‘free electricity value.’
-
Importantly, this value isn’t just a notional saving — it’s credited directly to your account once Uswitch has confirmed and processed the data from your smart meter. You can then withdraw the money to your bank account.
-
The maximum payout is £25 per campaign, or up to £5 per weekend across the five weekends in November 2025.
-
In other words, the more electricity you use during your Power Hours (within the stated limits), the closer you’ll get to the full £25 benefit.
What does £25 equate to in electricity usage?
Under the current UK electricity unit rate (approx 26.35 pence per kWh for the period 1 October to 31 December 2025):
-
If electricity costs ~26.35p per kWh, then £1 would buy about 3.80 kWh (i.e., £1 ÷ £0.2635 = ~3.80 kWh)
-
Therefore, £25 would buy roughly £25 ÷ £0.2635 ≈ 95 kWh of electricity usage
-
Put another way: if you used 95 kWh during your designated free-hours slots, you’d roughly reach the £25 maximum value (assuming that usage is entirely within the scheme slots and eligible)
-
On a ‘per-weekend’ maximum of £5, that’s ~£5 ÷ £0.2635 ≈ 19 kWh each weekend.
So, as a rough guide, you’ll want to use around 19 kWh in each 5-hour weekend slot (or a total of ~95 kWh over the five weekends) to come close to extracting the maximum value from this offer. Of course, if you use significantly more or less in that slot, your credited amount might vary (up to the cap of £5/weekend or £25 total).
Why it matters
With energy costs still elevated and many households looking for ways to save, this offer from Uswitch is a timely boost. Even if the ‘free hours’ don’t cover your entire weekend usage, they can help absorb some of the higher-cost usage periods. Also, by signing up you may gain additional insights via the Uswitch app into your energy usage, which may be helpful for long-term savings.
Important things to bear in mind
-
Make sure your smart meter is already installed and that you have access to it (in-home display or via your supplier) so you can connect it to the app. Uswitch says the set-up takes less than two minutes, and I can confirm this was the case for me.
-
You must act before the deadline (31 October 2025) if you want to participate in November 2025. After that, you may miss out.
-
While 25 hours is a fixed maximum, your actual ‘free electricity value’ depends on how much you consume during your chosen slots. If you use very little, the credit will be smaller.
-
The maximum reward you can earn under this campaign is £25 in total (£5 per weekend).
-
This offer applies for November 2025 weekends only. It’s a limited-time seasonal offer tied to Uswitch’s ‘Power Hours’ programme. It may be repeated in future months, but that is not guaranteed.
-
Keep an eye on the terms and conditions for any exclusions or fine print (for example, whether only certain types of smart meters are eligible, deadlines for claiming, etc).
If you’re already in another scheme
If you’re already taking part in a scheme such as EDF Energy’s ‘Sunday Saver’, that does not stop you from joining the Uswitch Power Hours offer — you can take part in both.
However, when you sign up to Power Hours, you’ll also be automatically enrolled in Uswitch’s ‘Reduce and Earn’ sessions, which are part of the National Grid ESO Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) scheme. You can only be registered with one DFS scheme at a time. If you’re enrolled in multiple DFS schemes when a session takes place, there’s a risk you’ll be disqualified from earning money in both until you’ve opted out of all but one. If that happens, simply opt out of your other DFS scheme, and you should be able to rejoin the Reduce & Earn sessions the following day.
Final thoughts
If you’re looking to lighten the load on your energy bill this winter, this scheme is definitely worth considering. By choosing to run higher-usage appliances (washing machine, tumble dryer, hoovering, etc.) during a designated 5-hour block each weekend in November, you’ll get more bang from the offer. Signing up is free, the app is straightforward, and the benefit — a real cash credit of up to £25 you can withdraw to your bank account — is clear.
Plus: with the current unit rate of ~26.35 p/kWh, hitting that £25 maximum means using around 95 kWh across the five weekends, or around 19 kWh each weekend slot. That gives you a practical target to aim for if you’re going to maximize the benefit.
Overall, it seems to me that this scheme from Uswitch offers a range of benefits and no major drawbacks, so I have signed up. I will let Pounds and Sense readers know in due course (by updating this post and/or adding a new one) how it works out for me. If you decide to give it a try as well, don’t hang around, as the closing date to apply for the November scheme is Friday 31 October 2025.
Lastly, a quick reminder that if you switch to EDF Energy (my own energy supplier) via my link below you can get a free £50 credited to your energy account (and so will I). Terms and conditions apply. For more info, click on https://edfenergy.com/quote/refer-a-friend/sunny-koala-9462 [referral link].
As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.