Heat Network customers - please help

Gettingheated

I'm researching bills for heat network customers and find it very difficult to gather accurate information on typical kWh charges, connection charges, disconnection charges, daily standing charges etc., without being a customer. 

If there are any forum members willing to mention where they are, who supplies them (obviously do not disclose anything personal) and what they pay, that would be an enormous help in my studies. 

Example billing firms/suppliers include Eon Heat and Vital Energi. Heat networks come in all shapes and sizes, burning hospital waste to provide heat heat one council estate, to large networks like Leeds Pipes.  I'm interested in all types of systems, heat exchangers to ASHP, Ground Source, direct hot water etc. 

Many heat network customers are getting a poor deal from inefficient old systems and terrible standing charges, and it's long been a bit of a wild west with little regulation and very little abilty to compare systems and suppliers.

That is slowly changing. Many new heat networks are springing up to meet local gov net-zero targets, and Ofgem are bringing in new regulations, so hopefully they become a much fairer option soon. 

If you are supplied by a local area heat network, I would love to hear from you.

Thank you so much for reading, and moderators, feel free to delete if this survey-type question is against the rules. 

GingerTim

What are you 'researching' for? People might be more inclined to respond if they know what are doing.

Gettingheated

I'm researching for my renewable energy MSc. 

MattMattMattUK

Gettingheated said:

I'm researching for my renewable energy MSc. 

Not allowed according to forum rules without prior approval from MSE.

Gettingheated

Ok thanks. I will think on about other ways to reach end users, appreciate the reply. 

MattMattMattUK

Gettingheated said:

Ok thanks. I will think on about other ways to reach end users, appreciate the reply. 

You can ask them for permission. 

Whoever is supervising your masters should be able to advise. Your university should also have a data protection policy for students looking to collect data from members of the public, information collected via random emails on a forum will certainly not be compliant, so you really need to speak to them about that as well.

QrizB

MattMattMattUK said:

Whoever is supervising your masters should be able to advise. Your university should also have a data protection policy for students looking to collect data from members of the public, information collected via random emails on a forum will certainly not be compliant, so you really need to speak to them about that as well.

As well as permission and data protection, there's the question of data hygiene. Unsolicited submissions from random individuals on the internet are unlikely to result in a meaningful dataset.
Just for example, I could message you and say that I'm on a heat network that charges me 20p/day standing charge, 2p/kWh and supplies free ice cream if the temperature exceeds 25C. That would be entirely untrue but would leave you with the dilemma of whether to include it in your dataset, or not.