Case or no Case?

Airpump11

We live in a family association house and pay full rent. Back in 2019 notified the housing association that the solar panels weren't working. They finally got repaired a few months back after keeping on at them. Since 2019 we couldn't understand how our electricity usage was so high. Over the following years we tried contacting our electricity supplier to see if they could look into this for us. They said everything was fine our end and that there must be something using electric our end hence the high usage. We tried sourcing the possible appliance to no avail. Going back a few months ago we decided to to switch a random switch off in where the solar panel cupboard and hey presto our electricity usage halved in price!!! When the family association sent out an engineer to take a look at the solar panels a few months back I asked him what the switch was. He said he was unsure and that he would have to strip it back first. When he done that he identified it as the emersion switch. He said that because the solar panels hadn't been working that the emersion was cutting in and using the electricity to heat the water. We spoke to housing officer at the family housing association who agreed with us that this was their fault and that we would be due compensation for over usage of electricity. A few months down the line they have now said that they will not be compensating as this is not in their compensation policy. I have evidence of repair requests dating back to 2019, none of which were dealt with. Do we have a case to take this further? any advice appreciated, thanks in advance!

born_again

You can ask, but I would not hold out much hope.

Surely you noticed that the hot water was still hot, despite solar not working?
In effect you have not been using extra electric, as your water has been heated. It will only heat water when temp drops below a certain point, not all the time.

Airpump11

Thanks for the reply. Yes we noticed the water was still hot but assumed that was the gas boiler heating it.  Since switching the emersion switched off we have gone from averaging £8 a day down to £4, surely that's evidence in itself?

Jenni_D

Has your gas consumption increased? Was the water still getting hot after you switched off the immersion heater?

PS I think this might be better in the House Buying etc. board.

Airpump11

and the fact that the solar is now working is making a difference?

Aylesbury_Duck

Isn't the immersion a "user-operated" facility?  Or was it left switched on in a locked cupboard to which you've only just had access?  If it wasn't locked away, I'm struggling to see how it's the housing association's fault that you left it switched on all that time.  As someone has pointed out, it's done its job of providing hot water over the period, and you'll have saved on gas consumption that would ordinarily have heated the water.  I appreciate that electricity is more expensive per unit of energy.

If I left my immersion switched on, I'd have to pay for the electricity used by it. To me, the solar panel problem is a separate matter.  You'd still have had to cover much of the cost of the immersion being left on, because working solar panels are unlikely to meet the energy demands of a hot water cylinder.  Where you might have a viable claim is if your bills were generally supposed to be lower as a result of the panels, and because of the HA's tardiness in getting them fixed, you haven't benefitted from them.  You'll have to read your tenancy agreement to see exactly what the deal with the panels is.

Okell

Jenni_D said:

Has your gas consumption increased? Was the water still getting hot after you switched off the immersion heater?

PS I think this might be better in the House Buying etc. board.

I agree - this ought to be on the Housing board as it's more of a tenancy issue than a consumer issue.

(Although I'm surprised the immersion heater switch wasn't labelled as such...)

Airpump11

Thanks for the comments. We requested repairs of the solar system dating back to 2019, then on numerous occasions thereafter. They did send an engineer out who took a look and said that parts would need to be ordered and that they would get back to us. No repairs were carried out until a few months back when eventually came and replaced a lot of the parts that weren't working. Had we known that the immersion switch was constantly switched on we would have switched it off. It wasn't until the engineer pointed out what it was. Even he had to strip it back to check that it was the immersion switch. Shouldn't this have been done by the original engineer who called out anyway? The solar panel controls aren't locked away but when we moved in we were told not to touch any of the controls as it was a complicated system and just to leave it do its own thing. Since they repair the engineer has now shown us how the system works and has now labelled up all the switches (of which there are many) so that we know what they are.