Help Needed For District Heating

eileen_forward

I am hoping that soemone can help.

I live in a council house that has district heating. We have unlimited heating and hot water.
the council have now increased the amount I pay by 50%.
They said my new cost reflected the cost of heating my two bedroomed house. However only one of the bedrooms has heating.

I feel it is unfair as I cannot save any energy. It is there whether I turn it on or not. I cannot go to another supplier. Which I do with electricity. I also was encouraged by the council to get a water meter to save me money. Which it did

The cost of the heating and hot water has risen to £12.47 per week. I am on my own.

Is there anythng I can do?

chris1973

The cost of the heating and hot water has risen to £12.47 per week. I am on my own.

Do you really think you could get unlimited hot water and heating for £12.47 per week if you managed your own energy supplier and paid on a 'as you use basis'. I'd say, be careful what you wish for!. I also suspect that anything you 'overpay' in the summer months, will be quickly overriden in Winter if you were paying a supplier directly. You pay £648.44 per year for unlimited heating and hot water all year around, and some others pay £800 - £1000+ per year and have to watch carefully what they use.

Only having heating in one room seems unfair though. If all of the other flats have heating in both rooms, and they pay the same then i'd complain to the Council

eileen_forward

Thank you for the reply.

When you put it like that I should count my blessings. Working all day means my house is being heated up ready for my return. All that unused hot water heats up the airing cupboard nicely, and its handy for the one bowl of washing up per day.

C_Mababejive

I am on Eileens side with this. £12 per week is excessive for heating and hot water. I pay £50 pm for gas and electric.

The problem is that she is on a district heating scheme which is unmeasured. All the council do is add up how much gas they shovel into the very big communal boiler house and divi it up amongst all those tenants served plus maintenance costs. There will be hoards of people with big families on the estate,many of whom presumably sit at home all day warming their collective backsides whilst Ms Forward is out at work.


In addition,many will be having their rent paid for by to social and may take the attitude that..well its free heating..I'll have it on all the time and throw the windows open.

Many councils now either installed metered district heating in which you pay via a top up card...or else many have long since ripped out these systems and fitted individual boilers in premises. That soon tames the wasters..

Short of moving house Ms Forward, idont see what you can do..

pauletruth

we are paying £2400 a year for lighting and hot water plus another 38 for lpg ever two months then coal over the winter. we would love to have our heating costs at that level.

macman

Why does only one bedroom have heating? What are you entitled to under your tenancy agreement?
If it's due to a fault, then get the LA to fix it for you.

eileen_forward

there is nothing in my tenancy agreement that talks about the amount of radiators in each room. When my daughter lived at home I had to use an electric fan in that room to warm it up just before she shot under the duvet.

I can understand that other people pay much more and get less, but my complaint is that I have no choice but to pay and cannot save energy.

Having thought about this I have decided to talk to my local counciller. Being from the green party they may be able to tackle the obvious waste of resources in allowing unrestricted heating.

One further thought, all the elderly here who benefit most from unlimited heating and water also get £200 per person as a heating allowance each winter. That is £400 for some!

C_Mababejive

I wonder if there is an option to have it disconnected and maybe just use an immersion heater on economy 7 for hot water?

chris1973

From using Google, I unearthed these links

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=309367

http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/HousingPlanning/CouncilLeaseholdersAndFreeholders/RightsResponsibilities_EXTRA.htm#12

It seems that *some* councils will disconnect properties from District Heating upon request but for a charge (A £300 - £500 range is mentioned as examples from people on the thread who actually looked into it / did it), however you would then need to pay either for an independant C.heating system installed of your own (and possibly any additional 'local' metering which isn't already in place) or use a cheaper (from an installation point) alternative such as Portable Electric Heaters and 'local' water heating

Obviously it depends on what your own Councils' policy towards voluntary disconnection is.

Also bear in mind that some alternative self installed heating can also be just as wasteful, for example I have E7 storage heating and listened to the local weather forecast at midnight last night which suggested Autumnal conditions, heavy rain and the remnants of a hurricane bringing extremely unpleasant weather through here today, and so I had one storage heater on its lowest setting overnight in preperation for these 'Autumnal conditions', what we actually have got today is 23c, high humidity and continuous sunshine!. Even with the heater on minimum damper, heat is still leaking and effectively cant now be 'turned off'.

just use an immersion heater on economy 7 for hot water?

If, as the OP states, her only requirement for daily hot water is "A bowl of washing up per day" and her main goal is to Save Energy then heating a full 90 - 120 litre hot water cylinder overnight, which is then stood heating her airing cupboard all day, will be just as wasteful for this task as the district heating doing the same IMO.

All that unused hot water heats up the airing cupboard nicely, and its handy for the one bowl of washing up per day.

In the absence of any Combi supplied DHW then probably a fast boil kettle or a small Electrically heated urn would be a better investment for this task rather than heating an entire cylinder.