District heating tariff

floppydisk1

MWT said:

Personal choice, but I wouldn't ever consider buying property dependent on a district heating scheme due to the lack of regulation and the complete uncertainty over future management and pricing of the service.

... if you are also not happy about the size it feels like the decision has become even more certain...

Are you intending to live there yourself or is this a BTL investment?

It all depends... I have disctrict heating ( no meaningful choice as no gas around here, leccy is way too expensive and oil heating is possible but expensive and cumbersome ) Good thing is we ( an anyone else ) pay  just under 7p /Kwh and standing charge is £ 160 . Size of the property is ok though and location I am happy with too

matelodave

My bro lives in an area where there's district heating and he's been there for around the last 40 years. There's no gas so the only alternative is electricity.

In the beginning it was a fixed cost, but people abused it so they were all fitted with heat meters and so had to pay for what they use, fair enough but with a fairly hefty "service" charge but then the cost of heat just crept up whereas the "service" charge increments were quite big and alarmingly regular. Apparently you still have to pay the service charge even if you don't use any of the energy as it's a condition of the lease/tenancy depending on whether you are an owner or tenant.

The other problem they had was that there were often outages, no heat or hot water for several days at a time whilst they got spare parts etc. and to cap it all around five years ago it was decided that the system was now beyond it's economical life.

All the households on the estate were  told that the system would be shut down and that they would be replaced by heatpumps. They were all given glossy brochures and invited to seminars to explain how wonderful all this would be. However after a couple of trials in a couple of the households, it was decided that the cost and aggro was too great as it would require the radiators and plumbing to be replaced in all the properties rather than just bunging a heatpump on the front.

The existing system is still hanging on by the skin of its teeth because it's now been decided to replace the central boilers and infrastructure and there was a lot of arguing about the cost and who will end up paying for it, around £10k per household has been mooted but as you can imagine no-one it everso happy about it.

I dont know whether it ever got sorted out, I'll have to ask him, but it would make me very reluctant to buy or move into a property with a district or centralised heating system where the cost is pretty well open ended and not under your control or even influence.

TBH I dont even like the idea of service charges where you don't have any say on the cost of where or how they get spent or how fast they rise - a licence to print money IMO

_Jem_

Who is the supplier? Eon? Personally i would stay well away for district heating not because of the cost just the fact its so rubbish, plenty of people including me complain about the constant vibrating/rattling sound that comes from it.  I think it depends on what HIU you have. but come to the winter it's never great when everyone has the heating on, EOn system can't cope. Are they still building houses?

Next thing their billing system is pot luck if you will actually get sent a email to say the bill is ready and other times you have to chase them to get the billing done, just because they say on the phone we have now done it doesn't mean they have. 

If it was me i would knock on people's doors and ask them what they think of district heating before i decided. 

_Jem_

Here we go again with EON district heating. I hope  the OP reads this. 

Last night radiators got nice and hot but today the heating is in real demand by every house because its been - 7 and snowing, i put the heating on for a hour that should of got the rooms nice and warm but the radiators barely got hot. This is so common every year this happens 🤬

macman

floppydisk1 said:

MWT said:

Personal choice, but I wouldn't ever consider buying property dependent on a district heating scheme due to the lack of regulation and the complete uncertainty over future management and pricing of the service.

... if you are also not happy about the size it feels like the decision has become even more certain...

Are you intending to live there yourself or is this a BTL investment?

It all depends... I have disctrict heating ( no meaningful choice as no gas around here, leccy is way too expensive and oil heating is possible but expensive and cumbersome ) Good thing is we ( an anyone else ) pay  just under 7p /Kwh and standing charge is £ 160 . Size of the property is ok though and location I am happy with too

That's a brilliant deal for now, but the question to ask is a) when does that tariff expire, and b) what happens to the pricing when it does? It could easily rise by 500% ore more overnight.

Mstty

_Jem_ said:

Here we go again with EON district heating. I hope  the OP reads this. 

Last night radiators got nice and hot but today the heating is in real demand by every house because its been - 7 and snowing, i put the heating on for a hour that should of got the rooms nice and warm but the radiators barely got hot. This is so common every year this happens 🤬

If it happens every year and you know it will happen when a cold spell hits....forewarned by all the media reports of cold. Why didn't you change your habit of just putting it on for an hour and put it on for more hours knowing it would be a lower temperature?

_Jem_

Mstty said:

_Jem_ said:

Here we go again with EON district heating. I hope  the OP reads this. 

Last night radiators got nice and hot but today the heating is in real demand by every house because its been - 7 and snowing, i put the heating on for a hour that should of got the rooms nice and warm but the radiators barely got hot. This is so common every year this happens 🤬

If it happens every year and you know it will happen when a cold spell hits....forewarned by all the media reports of cold. Why didn't you change your habit of just putting it on for an hour and put it on for more hours knowing it would be a lower temperature?

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 It's the problem with with eon hardly any heat putting it on. Like i said last night it was lovely and warm working as it should. This morning absolutely nothing. Just had to reactivate my Facebook account to see what others are saying. People have had to go out and buy some electric heaters. When i say it happens every year i mean no heating always something breaking at their end.

Edit: Zero heating for alot of people, luckily i phoned up early and they have given me a heater to use. I'm only going to use it if i really need it else their goes my credit on my electricity account. 

snowqueen555

rp1974 said:

So many alarm bells ringing regarding this property and it's developers,that alone would make me walk away instantly.
Unless it's otherwise an absolutely dream flat in every other respect I'd be looking elsewhere.
Lastly as you say yourself OP,it's potentially to small for your needs,I can't help but think buying this flat would leave you with regrets,maybe not initially but longer term.

The gov discount makes it cheap, it is new so nothing needing to be done. I am struggling to find anything in that price range, sorta need to find and extra £30k or more 😓 in the normal market.

snowqueen555

Thanks for all the replies. That's a good idea, I was thinking to walk around the development and ask people about the heating.

Not sure who the supplier is, the prices are set by the "management company" based on market rates and the billing etc is ran by someone called Ista.

I'll be sure to update this when the conveyancer gets back to me.

snowqueen555

_Jem_ said:

Mstty said:

_Jem_ said:

Here we go again with EON district heating. I hope  the OP reads this. 

Last night radiators got nice and hot but today the heating is in real demand by every house because its been - 7 and snowing, i put the heating on for a hour that should of got the rooms nice and warm but the radiators barely got hot. This is so common every year this happens 🤬

If it happens every year and you know it will happen when a cold spell hits....forewarned by all the media reports of cold. Why didn't you change your habit of just putting it on for an hour and put it on for more hours knowing it would be a lower temperature?

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 It's the problem with with eon hardly any heat putting it on. Like i said last night it was lovely and warm working as it should. This morning absolutely nothing. Just had to reactivate my Facebook account to see what others are saying. People have had to go out and buy some electric heaters. When i say it happens every year i mean no heating always something breaking at their end.

Edit: Zero heating for alot of people, luckily i phoned up early and they have given me a heater to use. I'm only going to use it if i really need it else their goes my credit on my electricity account. 

Is your tariff expensive for such a poor service? How do you get by with no hot water for showering etc?

Hot water is 19p khw and £1.05p daily standing charge.

Really have no idea how much it will cost.

The electric is British gas, so at least I'd be paying the same as the general population.