Welcome to energetik, we are delighted to have you onboard! We would have loved to introduce ourselves face to face however, due to the current health and safety guidelines, we unfortunately can’t invite you to one of our customary meet and greets. Therefore, we’ve put together an online beginner’s pack and have included all the relevant information that will help you understand what we do, how we supply you and how to operate your new heating system.
This page provides extra information that is summarised in our Heat customer handbook. Before you look through the information below, we recommend that you read the documents located in your airing cupboard (where your heat interface unit is situated). There, you will find the Customer Charter and Customer Handbook contained in a plastic wallet.
Watch our videos below to see how energetik’s community heating works and how it operates in your home
Every home connected to our community heat networks enjoys reliable, hassle-free heating. We’ve designed the system to be easy for everyone to manage their heating costs, with Smart Meters in every home and flexible ways to pay-as-you-go.
Find out what it’s like to be an energetik customer
Customer Service Charter
We think you deserve great customer service not just from us, but also from our trusted partners who work for us.
We want to exceed your expectations with the level of service we provide – it’s how we hope to achieve our vision to transform the local energy market and be the supplier to trust.
So we’ve set out the minimum standards you can expect from us in our customer charter.
And if we fail – we’ll pay for it – literally.
Download our Customer Service Charter
Our prices
We provide better value energy that’s reliable and environmentally friendly. It is also affordable, fair and honest. Because we are owned by the Council we are focused on providing great quality that lasts, not short-term profit gain.
We offer a fair deal. We don’t pass on unnecessary costs to our customers, and any profits that we make are not passed to private shareholders, they are reinvested locally for your benefit.
Our heating costs are made up of a daily availability charge and a unit charge for the kilowatt hours (kWh) of heat used – in the same way you pay for a gas or electricity supply.
| Your heating cost per day = | ||
|---|---|---|
| Unit cost of heat (pence per kWh) |
x | Number of units used during the day and night (measured by your Smart Meter) |
| + | ||
| Daily availability charge (pence per day – see below) |
||
| + | ||
| VAT | ||
Availability charge
Every property connected to the network is charged a daily availability charge. Each day, the amount is charged out of your heating credit.
Please be aware, you will be charged the availability charge even if you are not using your heating system.
If you go into negative credit while not using your heating system, this balance will be taken off your next top-up.
The availability charge covers the running and maintenance costs of the community heating network, including:
- Energy centre and network repair and maintenance
- Maintenance and repair of the HIU and Smart Meter in your home
- Metering and data processing
- Payments and debt management
Your heating equipment
Energetik works with developers that built your home to ensure all their equipment works. Please consult the following document that gives an overview of your equipment and details who is responsible if there is a problem: My heating equipment
Read More
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Cost comparison
To help you understand how the cost of your heating and hot water compares to having it supplied by a gas boiler, the Heat Trust has developed a Heat Cost Calculator. You’ll need to enter details of your annual heating costs and your address.
It’s important to remember that the Cost Calculator is only a guide, and for information purposes only. It can’t provide a bespoke assessment and it isn’t intended to provide advice on your specific energy costs.
As the old saying goes, you can’t compare apples with oranges. There are important differences between community energy network heat and using a traditional gas boiler. It is important to add these factors into any cost comparison. You can read the Heat Trust guidelines about this here.
Community energy network Individual gas boiler in your home How the heat and hot water is supplied energetik’s community energy networks supply heat to your taps and radiators. It arrives as hot water, pumped through pipes from the Energy Centre to your home. You have a Heat Interface Unit (HIU) that acts like a gas boiler, exchanging heat from our pipe into your home’s heating system.
This heat exchange process is practically 100% efficient
Gas customers take fuel from the public mains to their own gas boiler. The gas needs to be burned to create hot water to heat the radiators and provide hot water to taps. This conversion process is on average 80 – 85% efficient
What you pay for as a resident Daily availability charge + unit charge (price per kWh) The kWh you’re charged for is the actual heat you use in your home. There’s almost no loss in exchanging heat in the HIU to your home’s heating system.
Daily standing charge + unit charge (price per kWh) Each kWh of fuel that you buy has to be burned to create hot water in your heating system.
You can’t use the whole amount of kWh in useful heat, because some energy is lost when burning the gas.
So only 80% – 85% of the kWh you’re charged for is turned in to hot water that you use in your home heating system.
Repairs and Maintenance The hot water networks have to be maintained properly to make sure they stay efficient, and this includes the HIU in your home. As your heat supplier we maintain our plant and pipes up to your home, and we also inspect, maintain and repair your HIU – it’s not your responsibility and it’s all already covered in our charges.
The gas pipes are maintained by the gas company to your development but the pipes within your development are maintained by your estate management company, or by you where the pipes are in your home). Gas boilers should have an annual gas safety check, and you may also have a boiler annual inspection and repair contract in case your boiler breaks down.
The cost of the annual safety checks and repairing your boiler when it stops working aren’t covered in the bill.
Click here for more information on the differences between your community heating system and an individual gas boiler
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How we update our prices
energetik is always honest and transparent about its price changes. We only change our prices once per year and we let customers know 31 days in advance of a change.
We will change our prices every year on 31 March. How our prices will change is explained below.
Availability Charge: will be updated according to the change to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the last 12 months
Unit Charge: will be updated according to the change to the retail gas component within CPI in the last 12 months.
This means that prices can go up as well as down.
10-year price review
From 31 March 2018, every ten years we will review our charges to ensure that they follow the latest industry guidance and relevant comparators.
Pay-As-You-Go for heating (PAYG)
Your system is set up as Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG), so you only pay for what you use, plus an availability charge. This is the simplest and most efficient way of managing how much you spend on heating. It works in a similar way to an Oyster card that we all use on the London underground, trains and buses.
We have designed our PAYG facilities with your convenience in mind. Paying for your heating is easy, flexible and transparent, and our smart meters help you monitor your usage and control exactly what you spend.
You can check your account at any time by logging into your online account or giving us a call. You will also receive an annual statement. You can find out you how much energy you are using, how much it costs and even how much carbon is being added to the atmosphere.
You can choose from our various PAYG top up options, and you can pay in the way that suits you:
Top up options:
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Regular top-up
- Gives you the convenience of a regular payment as often as you decide.You can decide the amount you want to be added to your balance, and on which day or date every week or month.
- The amount will be charged from a debit or credit card of your choosing.
- It means you can keep track of your outgoings easily and you don’t ever have to trek to a shop to make a payment.
- Just log in to your online account to set up your regular top-up.
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Auto top-up
- Make sure you never run out of credit by automatically topping up whenever your balance drops below a certain level.
- Simply log in to your online account to set up details of your preferred payment card, and the balance you’d like on the auto top-up.
- Then relax, knowing your heating can stay on when you want, and your shower won’t go cold while you still have shampoo in your hair.
Managing Auto top-up
You can manage your Auto top-up preferences through your online account. You can:
- Change your Auto top-up amount
- Change the credit/debit card you use to pay for Auto top-up
- Cancel your Auto top-up
Sign in to your account and select the ‘Manage Auto top-up’ tab. Follow the on-screen instructions.
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Anytime top-up
- You can always make an instant top-up in addition to auto or regular top-ups, at any time. You can top up using your online account or using our payment phone service. Both are available 24 hours per day, seven days a week.
- This is handy if you find you need to have your heating on longer or use more hot water than usual.
- Call 0333 241 4551 any time to make an anytime top-up
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Paypoint
- If you prefer to pay for your heating and hot water in person or you like using cash, you can do that.
- All our customers receive a PayPoint card when they register. You can use this card to make cash payments at lots of local shops and supermarkets.To find your local PayPoint provider visit www.paypoint.com/en-gb
Annual Statements
As a PAYG customer we will send you an annual summary of your heating account. This will come by email or in the post, whichever you prefer.
You can see the same information about your account by logging in to your customer account online. Your smart meter will also show your usage and how much you’ve spent. If you’d like to talk it through, we’re happy to do that on the phone.
If you need help to understand the information in your annual statement or you need it in a different format, please let us know.
