Heat Network Rip-Off + Evading Addressing Issue

[adridude]

HI,

 

I moved into a new property  early 2021. Upon moving in, I was greeted by a company called Ginger Energy who stated that the building has a Neat Network (basically one central boiler, which pushes hot water around to the properties BUT), the hot water doesn't go direct to the taps, it runs through a HIU (Heat Interface Unit). SO they charge us for whatever energy we take out of the network, fair enough.

 

As the months went on I noticed my bills creeping up at an alarming rate (Despite the whole building - the network - running on gas).

 

Upon approaching Ginger Energy, they stated that it's correct and that they were charging me:

0.2850 standing charge

0.2800 / kWh of heat usage

 

I queried this as I didn't see any of the £400 the govt was supposed to help Heat Network users with.

 

There is a grey area in the law which allows the heat network to "pass on a fair amount" of the EBRS which they get to the tenant, so we get 1p / unit (thats it). I have since come to find out that they infact are the ones benefiting from it as they are claiming EBRS whilst we're capped at a low rate.

 

The building gets charged:

 

0.079p / kWh of gas

£12 / day standing charge (for the building

 

None of these savings are passed onto us at all.

 

Last december, we noticed a big spike in our heating bills (the whole building), but oddly on one particularly cold day the central boiler stopped working for a good 18 hours. I took advantage of this and straight away turned on my boiler, opened my hot taps (which were obviously stone cold and heating just ran cold water around the radiators).

 

I did this to see if they would bill us as I wasn't convinced that its being done correctly. Come my bill, I got charged £16... yes, 16 for that day.. As my boiler was left running and was literally taking 1 degree out of the network. They work this out as follows:

 

Main flow = Hot water from the building is measured in m3

Main flow temperature MINUS the return temperature = what I've taken out of the network obviously

 

Which seems fair. They stated that the meter takes a reading once every 15 minutes, so I asked for my enture years worth of readings, shoved them through Microsoft BI and came up with a chart that literally shows that the network under-supplies the heat units to keep them drawing heat.

 

By this I mean that on the heat unit itself, it states CLEARLY that minimum flow temperature is 65C, but looking at the last years worth of readings, 50% of the money I've lost goes towards that inefficiency. This is happening purely because they're turning it down to minimize on has expense and maximize on income through sly trickery...

Keeping the HIU's below an optimal temperature would cause them to constantly try and pump heat around, resulting in extra high bills. I personally keep my house at 17C, its really well insulated.

 

Furthermore, I've noticed that even when my water and heating is NOT in use the units tick up... Ginger energy stated the following:

 

Quote

To even further explain, in the below screenshot you have taken, the water event occurred sometime between the snapshots at 10:45 and 11:15. As the water event wasn’t at the instant the data snapshot was taken, there isn’t a read showing a high flowrate or power draw. However, it is clearly visible by the flow and return temperatures. At 11:15 the flow temperature is up at 51°C, due to a hot water event which has recently occurred, and the water in the HIU is now cooling down again to ambient.

 

Here is a pic to a screenshot of the excel spreadsheet: 

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There's no explanation on there at all other than a temperature change, but basic (Heat transfer through a medium of x heat capacity, in this case water) physics:

kW = kg /s (of water)   x   (kJ ÷ kg ÷°C)  x °C
kW = kg / s   x  (4.186 ÷ °C) x °C

Anyway works out nothing like what they're throwing at me.

No where do I see a flow either. 

 

I've approached them about this, but nobody will entertain it. The building management really don't care and point me to Ginger ENergy, ginger energy state they "only handle billing" and that I need to get hold of the landlord (building owner), which happens to be a shell company based in the Barbados. The actual address of the owner (this shell company) is some cottage out behind a farm somewhere in the middle of nowhere. 

 

Can someone give me some advice? As this Ginger Energy is chasing the bills, but there is literally nobody to handle this.

 

Cheers,

Adrian

[adridude]

Is there nobody out there with some handy advice? I'm literally sitting here waiting for advice from ombudsmen, various bodies etc... whislt bills are racking up...

 

Get this, £130 for being at home for all of 4 days this month lol...