Heating bill

amcc1

@danco - some more questions / thoughts:

Does your flat have a MVHR system (mechanical ventilation, heat recovery)? Separate to the heating/cooling system? Or maybe one and the same? Are there any ceiling hatches inside the flat for changing filters?

Do you have wall mounted thermostats - make & model? (photos?). There's a tiny possibility they might have some data logging built in. Or do you set the required temperature on a single display/controller?

Ceiling vents aren't going to be optimally efficient for heating (better for cooling), so maybe another reason to experiment with an oil filled radiator or two, to compare costs/comfort levels. Or maybe another resident has tried this already?

I think you mentioned before that a consultant had been tasked to investigate. Did they produce any report? demandlogic.co.uk (no association) might be an interesting site to look at. They've existed for several years and mostly operate in office environments and certainly used to claim that few building managers had a good handle on the BMS system, leading to huge wastage. They must be in quite some demand now..

Regarding communal heating and pricing - it's not so much a lack of understanding as a lack of regulation/standards. The management will be buying in energy on a commercial contract (huge costs!) and have to recoup this somehow.

Sorry - maybe too many questions / stating the obvious etc.

danco

Yes, a separate MVHR system. We have been advised to keep them on all the time. The filters for the MVHR are easily accessible parts of the unit. We have been told that there are no filters for the heating/cooling.

There is a wall-mounted controller made by Mitsubishi. I don't think there is any data logging built in.

I may well try other heating methods, but for the moment I am concentrating on trying to understand the system provided, for the benefit of other residents as well as for myself.

Unfortunately the consultant made a statement that vastly confused the issue. He claimed that heating for the communal areas had been attributed to the flat, which was flatly denied by the managing agents. When asked for more details, he just never replied. As regards that aspect, one can say that it is hard to understand why he should have said this if he didn't have evidence that it was true, but it certainly is not what we expect. I'll take a look at demandlogic.

I don't as yet (one of the questions I will be asking) know how long the current contract for energy lasts. The price per unit seems quite reasonable. My original question was, and remains, whether the usage in kWh claimed by the metering firm is likely to be accurate given the temperature I have set and the size (and energy rating) of my flat.

danco

I don't know if demandlogic would have any interest in a block of flats, but I found their site helpful, and have dropped them an equiry. Thanks.

amcc1

Ah! Important details!

Is it possible that your heating and MVHR systems are working against each other? Does the MVHR have a summer/winter setting? You don’t want it dumping your warm air outside. Have you any data in your owner’s pack showing that it was properly commissioned? Changing the MVHR filters on a 6 monthly basis (though expensive) might help efficiency.

Someone, in an earlier post, mentioned possible heat losses in the ‘distribution’ part of the heat network. Maybe this is what the consultant was referring to. It’s likely your EPC doesn’t take this into account. Heat networks are/were controversial for this very reason.

amcc1

You could ask tado.com if they support your Mitsubishi controller. Tado produce quite nice graphs for daily consumption.

danco

I couldn't find anything on Tado (I had their thermostat in my old flat) covering my heating/cooling). I think Tado for heating/cooling systems required a remote control, not a fixed controller, but I could be wrong.

Yes, I know about changing the filters on the MVHR. There's no summer/winter setting that we can control, but I suppose that the HR part does mean that any air removed does have the heat recirculated (obviously, with losses). I will take a look at the owner's pack, which certainly reports on various items, but I have no reason to assume tit wasn't commissioned properly.

No, the consultant absolutely confused us by the statement he made, and has simply not come up with an explanation. He was employed by the freeholders in at attempt to understand the system, and he hasn't been paid as he never completed his report!! It's amazing just how little the management knows about various aspects of the block, partly because there hasn't been a proper listing of systems that carries over when members of their team change.