Disconnecting gas supply new build

jmmo20

Hi

I have just moved in to my new build and received the first bill from Eon. I had no idea my house was connected to the gas network because everything in the house is electric, as heating is done via an air source heat pump. I have been charged a £13 standing charge. 
I explored the outside of the house and saw a utility box where the gas meter is. There's a gas pipe coming in, but no pipe coming out of the meter since the house has essentially no gas installation. The meter is off.

How do I go about having this removed? I have no idea why the developers thought it was a good idea to install a gas meter when the house does not use any gas!!!

Thanks

thorganby

eon will have paid the developer a bung to supply gas and electricity on the site.   

Win win for eon.

Most savvy people would prefer to use gas for heating than electric!

Browntoa

Yep normal development stitch up 

Bung to supply gas and electric by one company.

Bung to fit air source heating , clash with above.

Probably also an exclusive tie in for broadband and phones

Gerry1

Why are you choosing to use a noisy and inflexible heat pump that will probably double your heating bills when you could have gas central heating? After your first cold winter you may not be so keen on being all electric !

If you remove the gas supply you will devalue your property and make it harder to sell.  Indeed, if boilers in new builds are banned from 2025, your property is likely to attract a premium if it can still have GCH.

Consider keeping the supply on a tariff with the lowest daily charge and lowest annual minimum usage.

MWT

jmmo20 said:

How do I go about having this removed? I have no idea why the developers thought it was a good idea to install a gas meter when the house does not use any gas!!!

As you have never used the gas supply you can contact E.ON to have the standing charge removed:

https://www.eonenergy.com/help/billing-and-payments/standing-charge.html

jmmo20

thorganby said:

eon will have paid the developer a bung to supply gas and electricity on the site.   

Win win for eon.

Most savvy people would prefer to use gas for heating than electric!

The heating is using an air source heat pump, which is not the same as electric heating.

Gerry1 said:

Why are you choosing to use a noisy and inflexible heat pump that will probably double your heating bills when you could have gas central heating? After your first cold winter you may not be so keen on being all electric !

If you remove the gas supply you will devalue your property and make it harder to sell.  Indeed, if boilers in new builds are banned from 2025, your property is likely to attract a premium if it can still have GCH.

Consider keeping the supply on a tariff with the lowest daily charge and lowest annual minimum usage.

For starters, it's way more ecological than burning gas.
Second, it's not noisy at all
Third, it's more efficient, assuming the house is properly built.
Lastly, I'm not asking opinions on ASHP vs GCH. Thank you.

jmmo20

MWT said:

jmmo20 said:

How do I go about having this removed? I have no idea why the developers thought it was a good idea to install a gas meter when the house does not use any gas!!!

As you have never used the gas supply you can contact E.ON to have the standing charge removed:

https://www.eonenergy.com/help/billing-and-payments/standing-charge.html

Thank you,I'll have a look

jmmo20

Browntoa said:

Yep normal development stitch up 

Bung to supply gas and electric by one company.

Bung to fit air source heating , clash with above.

Probably also an exclusive tie in for broadband and phones

The issue I guess is that only a subset of the houses have ASHP installed, the higher end ones.Every other home has gas central heating.
As for broadband, we have both Virgin and Openreach FTTP so from that point of view, the choice is excellent.

Petriix

If the house is well insulated then ASHP is a great option. If you have solar panels then even better, especially if you can use it in cooling mode in the summer. An ASHP can work out a bit more expensive than gas but you have the potential of using a time-of-use tariff like Octopus Agile and make use of the cheaper electricity and more than offset the difference.

macman

Switch to a zero-standing charge tariff and retain the meter. You may not want gas, others in the future may do.

jmmo20

Petriix said:

If the house is well insulated then ASHP is a great option. If you have solar panels then even better, especially if you can use it in cooling mode in the summer. An ASHP can work out a bit more expensive than gas but you have the potential of using a time-of-use tariff like Octopus Agile and make use of the cheaper electricity and more than offset the difference.

that's a great comment thank you. I was initially hesitant about the ASHP because of insulation as you say but after moving I'm sure insulation is actually extremely good. I think some people think of storage heaters when they hear heat pumps. Or the old style AC units with heat output.

We don't have a cooling unit with the ASHP but do plan on getting PV solar panels at some point in the near future.

I'm not sure this ASHP control unit can be programmed to avoid specific peak hours but I can ask! Octopus Agile seems quite cool too. Thanks for the suggestion.