About Frank
Why Frank
For general questions about home energy, any AI bot is fine. For the questions that cost real money or could damage your home, generic AI is dangerous — because it’s often so confidently wrong. Frank’s better than that.
Here’s what he does that other bots can’t.
1. Frank always cites his sources
Every number Frank gives you links to its source — a methodology document, a gov.uk page, or a calculation against your property. ChatGPT can’t show you where its answers come from. Ask both what the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is: ChatGPT gives a confident answer that may be out of date; Frank gives you the current amount and the link to the source.
2. Frank looks up your actual property
ChatGPT doesn’t know whether your home has an EPC, whether you’re off the gas grid, or whether your walls are solid or cavity. Frank does. The right answer to “should I get a heat pump?” depends on roughly thirty facts about your home — Frank gathers the data so his answers are based on facts, not generics or averages.
3. Frank refuses to give you the wrong answer
Ask a general bot about internal wall insulation for a Victorian terrace and it’ll happily explain the benefits. Frank won’t recommend it without checking your damp history — because internal wall insulation for the wrong wall type causes mould and structural damage. PAS 2035, which Frank has been trained on, exists specifically because of this kind of mis-recommendation.
4. Frank knows what he doesn’t know
When Frank can’t recommend a solution confidently, he says so. When a recommendation needs an in-person survey, he routes you to a certified professional. When your property is pre-1919, listed, or in a conservation area, he points you to specialists.
5. Frank remembers your home
You ask ChatGPT about loft insulation today. Eighteen months later, when you’re ready to do the work, you start over. Frank doesn’t work that way — your property, goals, budget, and plan can all be saved. The more Frank knows about your home, the better his recommendations get.
Where Frank isn’t the right tool
Frank isn’t general-purpose. He’s slower than some chatbots, doesn’t do casual exploration, won’t help with anything outside UK home energy. If you want a fast general bot, use one. If you want an advisor who’ll get to know your home and provide honest, fact-based, methodologically grounded advice based on current UK regulations, use Frank.
How it works
Step 1
Tell Frank what you’re trying to do
Whether it’s a single product question, a high bill, or a full home plan — Frank will help determine what you actually need.
Step 2
Frank checks the facts that matter
Your property, your tariff, your grants, your sequencing — looked up live, not guessed.
Step 3
Frank provides clear honest advice
Specific products, named installers, exact grant amounts. With sources. And he can save your plan for next time too.
Methodology & sources
Frank’s job is to be defensible. Every number he quotes, every recommendation he makes, comes from a deterministic tool call against a real source — not from training-data pattern-matching.
Property data
Frank looks up your property via the DLUHC Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) register, the official UK source for residential energy ratings. He uses the EPC as a starting point — not the whole picture — and asks you to fill in what the certificate doesn’t cover (or got wrong).
Energy modelling
Energy use, costs, and savings ranges come from a property-archetype model based on RdSAP 10, the UK’s Reduced Standard Assessment Procedure. When Frank compares tariffs he calls the Smart Home Energy tariff engine.
Sequencing rules
When Frank recommends multiple measures, he validates the order against PAS 2035 — the UK retrofit standard that says “repair damp before insulating, fabric before heating system, ventilation alongside airtightness, renewables after fabric.” This is non-negotiable.
Grants
Frank checks a curated database of UK retrofit grants — Boiler Upgrade Scheme, ECO4, GBIS, Warm Home Discount, Nest, Home Energy Scotland, Affordable Warmth, plus regional schemes. Every entry carries a last-verified date and links to the official application page.
Methodology corpus
When Frank cites a methodology principle (PAS 2035, BS 5250 moisture, MCS 020 noise), he retrieves it from a curated corpus of authoritative documents — gov.uk, Energy Saving Trust, Standards Institute publications, BRE — tiered by authority. Citations are returned verbatim and never fabricated.
Products
Frank’s product recommendations come from a small, curated catalogue of UK-available products that we’ve reviewed for fit, regulatory status, and value. When the catalogue doesn’t have a match, Frank falls back to a web search — and is honest with you about which is which.
Installer routing
When a recommendation needs a qualified survey or installer, Frank routes you to the appropriate UK public register: MCS for heat pumps and solar, TrustMark for retrofit work, Gas Safe for boilers, OZEV for EV chargers. For pre-1919 / listed / conservation properties, Frank routes to the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance and Historic England.
Commercial disclosure
When Frank recommends a product or service, the link sometimes goes to a partner who pays us a commission if you buy. Frank tells you which links are commercial and which aren’t. The methodology decides what Frank recommends — never the commission. If a measure isn’t right for your home, Frank says so.
Heavy users — those who want unlimited follow-up questions, multiple property plans, or what-if scenarios — may be asked to pay a small fee.
We don’t sell your data. We don’t take payment from installers to rank them higher. We don’t hide which recommendations are commercial.