Privacy policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Thunder Energy Services Ltd ("Thunder", "we", "us" or "our") collects, uses, shares and protects your personal data when you visit www.thunderenergy.co.uk, buy from us, contact us or use our services, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

1. Who we are

1.1  Thunder Energy Services Ltd is the controller of your personal data. We are registered in England and Wales (Company No. 17015962). Registered office: Belle House, 1 Hudsons Place, London SW1V 1JT.

1.2  For any question about this policy or your personal data, email support@thunderenergy.co.uk.

2. The personal data we collect

2.1  Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

(a)     contact details: your name, email address, phone number, and delivery and billing addresses;

(b)     order details: the products and services you buy, prices, order history and payment status. Your card details are processed by our payment providers and we do not see or store your full card number;

(c)     delivery information: delivery instructions, your agreed delivery day and access information for your address;

(d)     communications: emails, messages, phone calls and other communications you send us, and any enquiries submitted through our website;

(e)     returns and warranty information: photographs and videos you send us of products and installations, product serial numbers, fault descriptions and inspection records;

(f)      installation information: where we provide installation services, details of your property and electrical installation, installation certificates and network operator notifications;

(g)     savings calculator information: your postcode, electricity price, the system you select and your email address;

(h)     marketing preferences: whether you have agreed to receive marketing from us;

(i)      website and device information: your IP address, browser and device type, pages visited, and how you interact with our website and our adverts, collected through cookies and similar technologies (see Section 10); and

(j)      connected system information: if you choose to connect your system to a monitoring app or service provided by us, the information described in Section 5.

2.2  We do not intentionally collect special category data, such as health information. Our website and products are intended for adults, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

3. Where we get your personal data

3.1  We collect most personal data directly from you, for example when you place an order, use our savings calculator, contact us or make a claim.

3.2  We collect some data automatically through cookies and similar technologies when you use our website, in line with your cookie choices.

3.3  We may also receive personal data from:

(a)     our payment providers and delivery partners, for example payment confirmations and delivery status;

(b)     electricians and installers who carry out work on our behalf;

(c)     organisations, such as councils, housing providers or other business customers, that buy our products for use by their residents or tenants and give us contact details so that we can arrange delivery or installation; and

(d)     advertising platforms, which give us reports about the performance of our adverts.

4. How we use your personal data and our lawful bases

4.1  We use your personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so:

(a)     to process your order, take payment, arrange delivery and provide any services you buy. Lawful basis: performance of our contract with you;

(b)     to handle cancellations, returns, refunds and warranty claims. Lawful basis: performance of our contract with you and compliance with our legal obligations;

(c)     to respond to your enquiries and provide customer support, including by email, phone and messaging services. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in helping customers and potential customers, or performance of our contract with you;

(d)     to provide the results of our savings calculator and follow up on your enquiry. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in responding to requests for information about our products;

(e)     to send you marketing emails. Lawful basis: your consent or, if you are a customer, our legitimate interests in telling you about similar products and services, with the option to opt out in every message;

(f)      to show you adverts on other websites and platforms and to measure their effectiveness. Lawful basis: your consent through our cookie banner;

(g)     to contact you about product safety notices or recalls. Lawful basis: compliance with our legal obligations and our legitimate interests in keeping customers safe;

(h)     to keep financial and tax records. Lawful basis: compliance with our legal obligations;

(i)      to improve our website, products and services, including through analytics. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests or, where cookies are used, your consent; and

(j)      to prevent fraud, keep our systems secure, and establish, exercise or defend legal claims. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests and compliance with our legal obligations.

4.2  Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered your interests and rights and concluded that they do not override ours. You can ask us for more information about this assessment.

4.3  We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects on you. Our payment providers may use automated checks to help prevent fraud when you pay.

5. Connected systems and monitoring services

5.1  If you choose to connect your system to a monitoring app or service provided by us, we will collect:

(a)     device identifiers and serial numbers, and the configuration of your system;

(b)     your installation address and details of the installation; and

(c)     operating data, such as solar generation, battery state of charge, power flows between your home, battery and the electricity network, faults and alerts.

5.2  We use this information to provide the monitoring service, alert you to faults, support warranty claims and safety checks, and improve our products. Where possible, we use it in aggregated or anonymised form.

5.3  Energy data can indicate when a home is occupied, so we protect it carefully and limit who can access it. We may share aggregated or anonymised data, which does not identify you, with electricity network operators, researchers or public bodies to support the management of the electricity network. We will only share information that identifies you or your address with your consent or where the law requires it.

5.4  Where a monitoring service has its own terms, we will provide them to you before you connect.

5.5  If you use a third-party monitoring app supplied with your microinverter or battery, the app provider processes your data under its own terms and privacy policy. We do not have access to that data unless you give it to us.

6. Who we share your personal data with

6.1  We share personal data only where necessary, with:

(a)     our website and e-commerce platform providers, which host our website and online shop;

(b)     payment providers, which process your payments;

(c)     delivery partners, including couriers, pallet carriers, specialist battery carriers, warehouse and fulfilment providers, and suppliers who deliver products directly to you;

(d)     electricians and installers who carry out work on our behalf;

(e)     your Distribution Network Operator, where we or our electricians install a hard-wired system and must notify it under network connection rules;

(f)      IT, email, cloud storage and customer support service providers;

(g)     advertising and analytics providers, in line with your cookie choices;

(h)     product manufacturers, where needed to process a warranty claim. We share only what is needed, normally serial numbers, fault details and photographs, and remove your contact details where possible;

(i)      professional advisers, such as accountants, lawyers and insurers;

(j)      the police, regulators, courts and other public bodies, where the law requires it or to protect our rights or the safety of others; and

(k)     a buyer or successor, if our business is sold, merged or restructured, subject to this policy.

6.2  We do not sell your personal data.

6.3  When you register a plug-in solar device through the Energy Networks Association's myplugin.solar service, or contact your electricity network operator directly, those organisations process your data under their own privacy policies. We do not submit these registrations on your behalf.

6.4  If you contact us through a third-party messaging service, that service also processes your messages under its own terms and privacy policy.

7. International transfers

7.1  Some of our service providers may process personal data outside the UK, for example in the European Economic Area or the United States.

7.2  Where this happens, we make sure your data is protected by UK adequacy regulations (including the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, where the recipient is certified) or by other safeguards approved under UK law, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

8. How long we keep your personal data

8.1  We keep personal data only for as long as we need it:

(a)     order, payment and accounting records: 6 years after the end of the financial year in which the order was placed;

(b)     product, serial number and warranty records: for the warranty period of the product plus 6 years;

(c)     customer support, returns and claims records: up to 6 years after the matter is closed;

(d)     savings calculator and enquiry information, where you have not bought from us: up to 24 months after our last contact with you;

(e)     marketing preferences: until you unsubscribe. We keep a record of your opt-out so that we do not contact you again;

(f)      cookie data: for the periods shown in our cookie banner; and

(g)     connected system data: for as long as you use the monitoring service, and then for up to 12 months unless it is anonymised.

8.2  When we no longer need personal data, we securely delete or anonymise it.

9. How we protect your personal data

9.1  We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, such as limiting access to people who need it and using reputable service providers with appropriate security. No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs, we will notify you and the Information Commissioner's Office where the law requires it.

10. Cookies

10.1  Our website uses cookies and similar technologies:

(a)     strictly necessary cookies, which are needed for the website and shop to work, for example to keep items in your basket and to process your order;

(b)     analytics cookies, which help us understand how visitors use our website so that we can improve it; and

(c)     advertising cookies, including cookies set by our advertising partners, which help us show you relevant adverts and measure how well our adverts work.

10.2  We only set analytics and advertising cookies if you accept them through our cookie banner, which also shows the providers that set them. You can change your choices at any time using the cookie settings link on our website, or by adjusting your browser settings.

11. Your rights

11.1  You have the right to:

(a)     access your personal data and receive a copy of it;

(b)     ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data;

(c)     ask us to delete your data;

(d)     ask us to restrict how we use your data;

(e)     receive your data in a portable format, where the processing is based on your consent or our contract with you;

(f)      object to our use of your data where we rely on legitimate interests, and object at any time to direct marketing; and

(g)     withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent. This does not affect processing carried out before you withdraw it.

11.2  Some of these rights apply only in certain circumstances. To exercise any of them, email support@thunderenergy.co.uk. We will respond within one month. For complex requests, we may extend this by up to two further months and will tell you if we do. We may ask you to confirm your identity.

11.3  You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the link in each email.

12. Complaints

12.1  If you are unhappy with how we have used your personal data, please contact us first at support@thunderenergy.co.uk, with "Data protection complaint" in the subject line. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, investigate it and tell you the outcome without undue delay.

12.2  You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator: www.ico.org.uk, telephone 0303 123 1113, or write to Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

13. Links to other websites

13.1  Our website contains links to other websites, such as regulators, network operators and registration services. We are not responsible for their privacy practices, so please read their privacy policies.

14. Changes to this policy

14.1  We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. If we make significant changes, we will tell you by email or on our website where appropriate.

15. Contact us

15.1  Thunder Energy Services Ltd, Belle House, 1 Hudsons Place, London SW1V 1JT. Email: support@thunderenergy.co.uk.