Privacy Notice
How ESME Energy collects, uses, shares and protects your personal data across our website, quote tool, app and installation services.
Last updated: 22 October 2026
01Who we are
ESME Energy Ltd (“ESME”, “we”, “us”) is the controller of the personal data described in this notice. It covers our website (esme.energy) and any of its subdomains, including our quote tool; the ESME app; and our installation and advice services.
We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer. Questions about this notice or your data go to the privacy contact above.
02What we collect
We collect what you give us, what your devices send when you use our services, and a small amount from other sources.
| Where | What we collect |
|---|---|
| Quote tool | Postcode and address; your electricity meter number (MPAN); property details; energy use, tariff and bills; the system options you choose; your quote; name, email and phone; your consent choices; the link or advert that brought you; recordings and notes of any call we make to confirm your details |
| ESME app | Account details (name, email, phone); your system and inverter data, such as generation, battery, import and export readings; tariff settings; how you use the app |
| Installation and advice | Property details, site survey notes and photos, installation records, warranty and service history, payment records |
| Website | Pages visited, device and browser type, IP address, and cookie data where you allow it |
| Contacting us | What you tell us by email, phone, chat or social media |
| Other sources | The addresses and electricity meter numbers (MPANs) registered at your postcode, from the electricity industry’s meter data service; property identifiers and location for your address, from public property registers (such as the Energy Performance Certificate register) and address-matching services; roof and solar data for your property, from solar mapping services; details from an install partner if they referred you to us; details you submit through a lead form in one of our Facebook or Instagram adverts |
We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. We do not ask for special category data such as health information.
03How we use it and why we are allowed to
Each use of your data has a lawful basis under UK GDPR. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Work out your savings and show your quote | Steps you asked us to take before a contract |
| Email you your comparison | Steps you asked us to take before a contract |
| Pass your details to the named install partner so they can contact you about your quote | Your consent (the tick box naming the partner) |
| Contact you ourselves about your quote | Your consent (the same tick box) |
| Install, service and support your system; run the ESME app | Contract with you |
| Send you news and offers | Your consent, or for existing customers our legitimate interests (you can opt out at any time) |
| Keep records of consents, quotes and leads passed to partners | Legal obligation (to show we have consent) and legitimate interests (resolving disputes with partners) |
| Improve the quote tool and our services using usage data | Legitimate interests |
| Analytics and advertising cookies | Your consent |
| Prevent fraud and keep our systems secure | Legitimate interests |
| Accounting, tax and warranty records; finance introductions | Legal obligation; steps you asked us to take |
You can see your quote without agreeing to share your details with a partner.
You don’t have to give us your details. Without contact details we can’t email your comparison or pass it to an installer, and without ticking the box nothing is shared with a partner.
04Install partners
We only pass your details to an install partner if you tick the box that names them. We never sell your details to anyone else, and we never pass them to more than one partner without asking you again.
How it works
- When you enter your postcode, we choose one installer who covers your area. This may be ESME or one of the partners below.
- Before you give your contact details, we show you that partner’s name.
- If you tick the box, we send that partner your name, email, phone number, address and quote details so they can contact you about this quote.
- If you don’t tick the box, you still get your comparison by email and nothing is shared.
What partners may do with your details
Each partner becomes a separate controller of your details once they receive them, and their own privacy notice applies. Under our agreement with them, a partner may only use your details to contact you about this quote and any installation you agree to. They may not sell or pass your details on, or send you marketing unless you agree to it with them directly. They pay us a fee for each introduction.
Our current partners
| Partner | Area | Privacy notice |
|---|---|---|
| Cahill Corporation Limited, trading as Cahill Renewables (company number 08460430) | Postcode areas CO, CM and IP (Colchester, Chelmsford and Ipswich) | cahillrenewables.co.uk/privacy-policy |
We will add any new partner to this list before we pass details to them.
If you came to us through a partner’s link or advert
Some customers reach our quote tool through a partner’s own advert or website. We still run the quote tool and are the controller of your data while you use it. The tick box names the partner who referred you, and we only pass your details to them if you tick it.
If your installer changes
If a partner cannot take your enquiry, we will not pass your details to a different installer without asking you first. If you agree, we will ask the first partner to delete your details.
Changing your mind
To stop a partner contacting you, email hello@esme.energy or use the unsubscribe link in our emails. We will tell the partner within 5 working days, and they must stop contacting you. You can also contact the partner directly.
If a partner contacts you in a way you didn’t agree to, or after you’ve asked them to stop, tell us at hello@esme.energy. We will look into it and take it up with the partner.
05Calls and automated assistants
Before we pass your details to an install partner, we may call you to confirm your details and check you still want to hear from them.
- The call may be made by our team or by an automated (AI) voice assistant. An automated call tells you at the start that it is automated and calling for ESME.
- You can ask to speak to a person at any time, or tell us you don’t want automated calls. This won’t affect your quote.
- We record these calls, and calls you make to us. We tell you at the start of the call.
- The assistant only records your answers. It does not decide whether you can get a quote or what you are offered.
We make these calls because you asked to be contacted about your quote (the tick box). We record calls in our legitimate interests: keeping an accurate record of what was agreed, training our team, and resolving complaints.
06Other people we share with
Apart from install partners, we share your data only with the service providers who run our systems, our finance partner if you ask about finance, and where the law requires it.
Service providers (processors)
These companies process data on our instructions under a contract and may not use it for themselves.
| Provider | What they do for us | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database and back end for the quote tool and app | EU |
| Vercel | Hosting for the quote tool | US |
| Squarespace | Hosting for esme.energy | US |
| Customer.io | Sending our emails and texts | EU |
| Notion | Our customer records | US |
| n8n | Automated workflows between our systems | EU |
| Email, documents, and (with your consent) analytics and advertising | US | |
| Meta | Advertising measurement, with your consent | US |
| YourCalls AI | Making and recording calls to confirm your details | EU |
| Trigger.dev | Running scheduled jobs such as app notifications | EU |
| Expo | Sending notifications to the ESME app | US |
Finance
ESME Energy Ltd is an Introducer Appointed Representative of Ideal Sales Solutions Ltd (Ideal4Finance, FRN 703401). If you use our finance calculator or apply for finance, Ideal4Finance receives the details you enter and becomes a separate controller under its own privacy notice.
Others
- Professional advisers such as lawyers, accountants and insurers.
- A buyer or investor if we sell or restructure our business, under confidentiality.
- Police, regulators or courts where the law requires it.
We may publish statistics that do not identify you.
07Marketing
We only send you news and offers if you have agreed to them, or if you are an ESME customer and have not opted out. Messages about your quote, installation or account are not marketing and still come to you.
- New contacts: we ask for your agreement separately from the install-partner tick box.
- Existing customers: we may email you about similar ESME products and services. You can opt out when we collect your details and in every message.
- Phone calls: we only call about your quote if you ticked the box. We do not make marketing calls to numbers on the Telephone Preference Service unless you have agreed to calls from us.
- Partners: install partners may not send you marketing using details we passed to them.
To opt out, use the unsubscribe link in any email, reply STOP to a text, or email hello@esme.energy. We keep your opt-out on a suppression list so we don’t contact you again.
08Cookies
We only use cookies that are needed to run our sites, unless you agree to more. When you first visit, a banner lets you accept, reject or choose, and you can change your choice at any time through the cookie settings link on our sites, or in your browser settings.
| Type | What it does | Needs your consent |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Keeps the site and quote tool working, remembers your cookie choice, and records which link or partner brought you so your quote is routed correctly | No |
| Analytics | Shows us how people use our sites so we can improve them (for example Google Analytics) | Yes |
| Advertising | Measures which adverts bring people to us and may show you our adverts elsewhere (for example Google Ads and the Meta Pixel) | Yes |
When you request a quote and have accepted advertising cookies, we may send Google or Meta a scrambled (hashed) copy of your email or phone number to measure our adverts. This is still personal data. If you haven’t accepted advertising cookies, we don’t send it.
09Keeping your data secure
We protect your data with measures suited to the risk, including:
- encryption when data is sent and where it is stored;
- access only for staff who need it, with individual logins and multi-factor authentication;
- service providers chosen for their security and bound by contracts to protect your data; and
- data protection training for our team.
We require install partners to meet minimum security standards in our agreement with them.
No system is completely secure. If a breach puts your data at risk, we will report it to the ICO within 72 hours where the law requires, and tell you without undue delay if it is likely to put you at high risk.
10Data outside the UK
We store your data in the UK or EEA where we can. Some providers, such as Google, Meta and Notion, may process it in the US or elsewhere.
When data leaves the UK, we make sure it is protected by one of these:
- a UK adequacy decision (this covers the EEA);
- the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, where the US provider is certified;
- the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement, or the Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
Ask us for details of the safeguard used for a particular provider.
11How long we keep it
We keep data only as long as we need it, then delete or anonymise it.
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Quotes that don’t go ahead | 24 months from your last contact with us |
| Record of your consent and of any lead passed to a partner | 6 years, so we can show consent and settle disputes |
| Install partners | Set out in our agreement with them: no longer than 24 months if no installation goes ahead |
| Installation, warranty and service records | Your warranty period plus 6 years |
| ESME app account | While your account is open, plus 2 years |
| Accounts and payment records | 6 years from the end of the financial year |
| Emails and calls with us, including call recordings | 2 years, or longer if part of a complaint or claim |
| Analytics data | 14 months |
| Marketing opt-outs | Indefinitely, so we don’t contact you again (we keep only what’s needed for this) |
12Your rights
You can ask us to do any of the following, free of charge. We reply within one month, or tell you within that month if we need up to two more.
- Give you a copy of your data.
- Correct data that is wrong.
- Delete your data, where we don’t need to keep it.
- Limit how we use your data while a concern is checked.
- Stop using your data where we rely on legitimate interests, and always for marketing.
- Send your data to you or another company in a common format.
- Withdraw your consent, without affecting what we did before.
- Tell you which install partner, if any, received your details.
If you ask us to delete or stop using your data and we passed it to an install partner, we will pass your request on to them.
We may ask you to prove who you are before we act on a request. We may refuse, or charge a reasonable fee for, a request that is clearly unfounded or excessive, and will tell you why.
Automated matching
The quote tool chooses an installer by your postcode automatically. It does not decide whether you can get a system or what price you are offered, and it has no legal or similarly significant effect on you. You can ask a person at ESME to review it.
Complaints
Please contact us first at hello@esme.energy. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Other websites
Our sites link to other websites, including install partners’ sites on your results page. We are not responsible for how they handle your data, so please read their privacy notices.
Changes to this notice
We will post any changes here with a new date. If a change affects how we use data you have already given us, we will tell you by email before it takes effect.