If you’re thinking of moving in to a home or building heated by a heat network - these are our top questions to ask before you decide:

• Is the heat network registered with Heat Trust? If not, are there plans to? (this will ensure you are provided with minimum customers standards that are comparable to the rest of the energy market and your supplier is audited.)

• What support do you provide for customers in vulnerable situations? (This can be specific for a situtation you already know about, or in general as any of us may find ourselves in unexpected situations at any time.) 

 

Bills 

• How do you calculate bills? (this is a potential source of confusion for customers who are used to other types of heating e.g. gas boilers or electric heaters)

• What tariff will I be placed on? What other tariffs are available to me, and how will you let me know if I’m on the best one for me? (Some suppliers may offer multiple tariffs, some might only offer one)

• How can I pay my bills? And how often? (Heat network suppliers may offer different ways to pay, such direct debit, standing order or pay as you go, you may be able to pay at a local store or over the telephone to set up a regular payment)
  

• What happens if I can’t pay my bill? (suppliers should be able to talk this through with you and either point you in the direction of some independent debt advice, and/or set up a repayment plan which should make paying your bills more manageable) 

 

Meters 

• Is there a meter for my property? (All new build properties are required by law to have an indiviual meter for each property. For older properties there may only be a meter for the building, not for each individual property)

• Do I need to submit meter readings? (some meters do this automatically, others require the customer to send in meter readings to their supplier at regular intervals; this may be via telephone or online, or another method)

• Will I have a smart meter? (this may show you more detailed information about your consumption patterns)

 

Contact

• If something goes wrong...What are your emergency/ outage response times? Do you provide compensation if these last for a certain period of time, and what is the level of compensation? (in case something goes wrong, it is useful to know how quickly you can expect it to be fixed)

• How can I contact you? For emergencies, outages, enquiries or complaints? (this could be telephone, email, text, online webchat etc.)
• Do you hold drop-in sessions for customers or developers? (this can be in many forms but offers an opportunity for face-to-face questions and answers)

• What do I need to do when I move in to set up my account with you? Or when I leave? (this could include providing your details and date of moving, as well as meter readings)

• What is your complaints policy? (All customers should be provided with information on how they can raise a complaint, how the complaint will be managed and what independent redress is in place, if the supplier can not offer a satisfactory resolution.

 

Download our factsheet for a summary of our key standards.