Mayor visits UK's first not-for-profit home battery storage organisation putting households and communities first
The Mayor of Northampton, Councillor Mike Hallam, has visited a Northampton not-for-profit that is taking a different approach to rising household energy costs, providing home battery storage systems at cost and using any surplus to support charities and community projects.
The 22:23 Community Interest Company (CIC), founded by Northampton resident Matt Stockdale, is the UK's first and only not-for-profit organisation providing home battery storage systems at cost. With no shareholders taking profits, its model is designed to reduce the initial cost for households while ensuring that any surplus goes back into supporting good causes.
Councillor Hallam visited Matt at his home in Northampton to learn more about the organisation and see the results for himself. Matt showed the Mayor his own home battery system and the real-life data demonstrating the savings it has made to his household energy costs.
The visit comes at a time when rising energy prices and the wider cost of living continue to put pressure on household finances.
The idea for The 22:23 CIC began when Matt was researching home battery storage for his own property and discovered a significant difference between typical retail prices and the cost of sourcing systems directly from the manufacturer.
Recognising that individual households would not ordinarily have access to this route, Matt established The 22:23 CIC to use collective purchasing power to source systems directly from the manufacturer. By operating at cost rather than applying a traditional retail mark-up, the organisation can significantly reduce the initial outlay for households.
During the visit, the Mayor was impressed by the savings Matt was able to demonstrate and heard how the not-for-profit model is intended to create a wider benefit, helping households save money while supporting charities and community projects as the organisation grows.
Matt Stockdale, founder of The 22:23 CIC, said: “Having the Mayor visit my home and take such an interest in what we're doing was a real privilege. I was able to show him the actual savings we're achieving and explain why I felt there had to be a different way of making this technology available to more people.
“We're a small not-for-profit, but we believe we can make a big difference. If we can reduce the initial cost for households, help them bring down their monthly energy bills and then put any surplus back into charities and community projects, that's a model where the benefits go much further than the system itself.”
The 22:23 CIC is already putting that community focus into practice, having recently donated a home battery storage system to a local family to help reduce their monthly energy bills.
The organisation is now looking forward to seeing the impact the donated system has for the family over the coming months.