Heat Customers
How you're billed and how your charges are calculated will depend on various factors, including whether or not your heat usage is individually metered.
If your heat network is metered, then your heat bill or account statement (and any in-home display) will usually show your:
- Variable charges: Charges for your heat usage (consumption). These are usually shown as a unit price per kWh and the amount of units (kWh) of heat consumed within a given period. These charges vary according to how much heat you’ve used, or are deemed by your heat supplier to have used.
- Fixed charges: Standing charges, which are usually shown as a unit price per day and the number of days covered within a given period. Standing charges accrue daily at a fixed amount, regardless of how much heat you’ve used (for example, they’re still payable for days that you were away on holiday or didn't turn your heating on). They represent your share of your heat supplier’s running costs, which usually include maintenance and repair costs for the heat network. Standing charges can vary significantly by heat network.
The example heat bill below, produced by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), uses 2021 prices that may not be representative of latest prices.
Unmetered heat networks will use a different method to apportion charges between properties on the heat network.
What your heat supplier charges you for your heat unit cost will be affected by:
1) The input energy costs for your heat network:
- Heat networks need input energy that their energy centre or communal boiler uses to generate the heat that's then distributed to the end consumers. Heat suppliers buy this input energy (which is usually gas) on the commercial energy market, where commercial energy prices aren't subject to any price cap. Because heat networks are classed by government as commercial energy supplies, Ofgem's domestic price cap for mains gas and electricity consumers doesn't apply to your heat charges.
- Commercial gas prices increased dramatically during the energy crisis. Heat suppliers may not have been exposed to these increased prices straight away, but only when their existing contract with their commercial gas supplier ended. Where the heat supplier then had to agree a new commercial gas contract at a higher price, the impact of this will continue to be felt until the end of that contract even if prices in the market have since reduced. The effect of this on end consumers' heat bills will therefore depend on when the heat supplier had to agree their commercial gas contract, what price they were able to negotiate, and when and how they passed any price increase onto consumers. Where the heat supplier is a building owner, they may renegotiate their commercial energy contracts annually (e.g. on 1 January or 1 April).
2) How efficient your heat network is:
- Many gas-powered heat networks operate at only around 35-45% efficiency, with 55-65% of their heat lost from plant and pipework before reaching consumers. The best performing gas-powered heat networks should achieve 65%+ efficiency levels.
- Lower efficiency means higher bills, as more heat has to be used to compensate for what’s lost. Your kWh unit cost will therefore usually have been calculated as the input commercial gas cost multiplied by a factor that accounts for these heat losses.
- Government funding exists to help heat suppliers improve the efficiency of their heat networks, and heat suppliers can apply for it here.
There is no heat price cap. Until 2026, there were only some minimum metering and billing requirements that applied to all heat networks under the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014. From January 2026, Ofgem now has the power to take action on a case-by-case basis where it perceives heat prices to be 'unfair' or 'disproportionate' - but this isn't the same as capping prices.
From January 2026, all heat suppliers are also subject to minimum Ofgem requirements about billing and price transparency, and about supporting consumers in payment difficulty. You can find Ofgem's rules and guidance here.
Ofgem's new rules limit back-billing for heat network consumers to 12 months unless their heat charges are bundled with rent or building service charges (in which case, they limit back-billing to 18 months). Heat Trust's own Scheme consumer protections prohibit back-billing beyond 12 months where the heat supplier is at fault, for example if they've failed to obtain or use accurate meter readings. As a voluntary Scheme, Heat Trust can't regulate pricing.
If your home has an individual meter, the most important things you can do to protect yourself against billing issues are:
1) Find your heat meter. It will be separate to your electricity meter. Sometimes it’s inside the Heat Interface Unit (HIU) that brings hot water into your home, with the display visible through a window.
2) Read your meter as soon as you first move in and at regular intervals afterwards (ideally at least quarterly).
3) Find out if your heat supplier also reads your meter (remotely or in person), or if you have to send your own meter readings to your supplier, and how often this should happen.
4) Send your own meter readings to your heat supplier if you’re required to do so, or if you have the option to do so voluntarily.
5) Keep copies of all the meter readings you take.
6) Compare your own meter readings with those given on your bills and raise any discrepancies with your heat supplier as soon as possible.
If you have a meter, an in-home display (IHD) and/or a pre-payment (‘pay as you go’) device, your heat supplier should provide you with guidance on how to use this to view your consumption. You can often find guides and Frequently Asked Questions on the website of the company that’s sent you your heat bill.
The company billing you for your heat charges may not be your contractual heat supplier (by which we mean the entity that has the contractual arrangement with you to supply your hot water and/or heat).
This is because heat suppliers are often building owners and subcontract metering and billing activities to a third party. This third party might be a property managing agent (if your heat charges form part of building service charges) or a dedicated metering and billing agent. Your heat supplier may also subcontract the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the heat network to the same or a different third party.
It’s important to understand that these third parties are just acting on your heat supplier’s instructions, and that it’s your heat supplier who sets your heat prices and billing period and who controls the heat network assets. It’s therefore your heat supplier to whom you need to complain about problems with heat prices, billing periods or supply outages.
If you haven’t been able to get anywhere by complaining to your building managing agent, letting agent, or the company sending you your heat bills, it’s probably because they’re not your actual heat supplier.
If you weren’t given a dedicated heat supply agreement when you moved in, it’s likely that your heat supplier is the owner of your home. This could be a developer, a private freeholder or landlord, a local authority (council) or a housing association. Your residency agreement is likely to form your heat supply contract, especially if your heat charges are included in your rent or your building service charges. You should always check the terms of any legal occupancy agreement and any other contractual information about your heat network, as these should set out your specific rights and responsibilities as well as the name of your heat supplier.
Examples of dedicated metering and billing agents used for heat networks include:
- Communal Energy Partners
- Data Energy
- Energy Centric (Energy Invoicing)
- Evinox Energy
- Ginger Energy
- Insite Energy
- Ista
- Switch2*
- Sycous
- Vital Energi*
- Watkins Energy*
- Welcome Energy
- With Energy*
*These companies have some heat networks registered with Heat Trust, for which they act as the contractual heat supplier. But they also act as a subcontracted metering and billing agent for other heat networks not registered with Heat Trust, for which they aren’t the heat supplier.
Dedicated metering and billing agents usually have consumer-facing website pages that explain the extent of their responsibilities. You should also check your heat bill or demand for payment to see if it states the name of your heat supplier. It might say something like ‘issued/prepared on behalf of X’, possibly in quite small print.
If you're a heat network consumer, and you’d like to get an indication of your annual heating and hot water cost for a similar-sized home if it had an individual gas boiler, you can use our Heat Cost Calculator here. Please note though that its results are indicative, for information only, and can’t give an exact like-for-like comparison for any individual consumer's situation.