At our Quaker convention house we’ve truly tried to help the world by switching our fuel central heating boiler for an air useful resource heatpump. We requested our distributor, Crown Gas & &Power, to complete our provide, and had been amazed to be told that we would have liked to keep up paying the 99p a day standing value until the meter was gotten rid of.
However, the massive shock got here when it billed us ₤ 486 to do away with the meter. We inquired this, but had been knowledgeable it was applicable. We wanted to pay it, or else we will surely want to keep up paying 99p a day.
For a reliable fuel designer, it’s a primary process to detach the availability pipeline, and cap it off securely. In the event, it took one man a lot lower than an hour to do it. It seems to us that their value is inflated.
The Energy Networks Association claims some corporations do that completely free. Can we check it?
JJ, Bristol
As I’m a follower of stating on this column, no wonderful motion goes unpunished.
It should be free-and-easy to do away with a fuel meter but alas that isn’t the occasion as Richard Lowes of the Regulatory Assistance Project, which is related to tidy energy plan, verifies.
“Non-residential supplies are regulated differently to residential supplies and, in either case, it is up to the supplier how much they charge,” he claims. “Octopus Energy is notable for not charging for domestic gas meter removals and other suppliers should follow suit – many are installing heat pumps, for goodness sake.”
Crown Gas & & Power claims its value remained consistent with the nationwide normal and referred us to the Citizens Advice website, which claims it would set you again something from ₤ 400 to better than ₤ 1,000 relying upon “how much work needs to be done”.
Regarding the standing charges, it mentioned that “whether gas is being consumed or not, meters require monitoring and management” and this coated the worth of that.
It seems to me that the ability regulatory authority, Ofgem, requires to do one thing regarding this gray location.
In the in the meantime, if you’re a house proprietor altering over and bearing in mind a heatpump in future, attempt to discover a supplier that can actually do away with the outdated meter completely free.
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