Ad description
A magazine ad, seen in November 2016, for Sunflow Ltd, an electric heating systems company, stated "Quality British Heating ... An alternative to night storage, Gas and Oil Find out the facts from Sunflow Our amazing kiln clay electric heating technology is built with 21st century British know-how, saving up to 40% on energy bills compared to night storage heaters".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim "saving up to 40% on energy bills compared to night storage heaters" was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Sunflow Ltd said the claim "saving up to 40% on energy bills compared to night storage heaters" was based on the technology of their product and how it was used. They said manual night storage heaters were only 58% efficient, whereas their heaters were 100% efficient with advanced computer control. They explained that the majority of night storage heaters were manual with no timer or electric thermostatic control function with a seven-hour electric charge at night, which was controlled by a central clock on the electricity supply. Each manual storage heater had a mechanical damper that allowed a marginally quicker or slower release of the stored heat during the day. They explained that, because of their inefficiency and running costs, night storage heaters were no longer allowed to be installed in new-build homes.
Sunflow said their heaters were thermostatically controlled in every room, allowing the room temperature to be adjusted, whereas a night storage heater would continue to release heat at the set level. Their internet based control system allowed users to switch heating up or down and on or off from any smart communication device, which no manual night storage heater was able to do. They believed substantial savings could be made by not heating a house to full temperature at night and only heating the rooms used at any one time.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claim “saving up to 40% on energy bills compared to night storage heaters” to mean that a Sunflow heater would be up to 40% cheaper to run than night storage heaters. We understood that the Sunflow heaters allowed consumers to adjust the heating in each room as required, whereas a manual night storage heater was more difficult to adjust and would take some time to cool down. Although we acknowledged that adjusting the heat to the required room temperature was likely to provide some energy saving, we nonetheless saw no evidence that the Sunflow heaters would save customers up to 40% on their energy bills as claimed. We therefore concluded that the claim “saving up to 40% on energy bills compared to night storage heaters” was likely to mislead consumers about the type of savings they could make when compared to using night storage heaters.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation) and 3.33 3.33 Marketing communications that include a comparison with an identifiable competitor must not mislead, or be likely to mislead, the consumer about either the advertised product or the competing product. (Comparisons with identifiable competitors).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Sunflow Ltd to ensure they held evidence to support savings claims made in their advertising.
