Heat meters
We are installing heat meters for properties in blocks with communal heating to help reduce waste and bills for tenants and leaseholders
A heat meter measures the energy you use to heat your home and the hot water you use. It means we can charge you just for what energy you use and you can check how much energy you are using.
This will help you pay only for what you need, helping with the cost of living. It also helps reduce carbon emissions, so we can meet our plan to reach net zero carbon by 2030.
Communal heating
By law, all homes on a communal heating network must have a heat meter where possible. This means we need to check all council blocks that we manage to see whether it is worth the cost to install heat meters in your homes. We began installing meters in autumn 2022 in line with regulations.
Your heat will still come from the communal heating system - it will change how you are charged and how you pay.
Billing and payment
Once your heat meter is installed, you will only pay for the heat and hot water that you use. Your heat and hot water won't be included in your rent or service charge anymore.
You will use Switch 2’s pay as you go billing service. But you can apply for monthly billing instead. More information on your Switch 2 account can be found in your Switch 2 account.
Your payments to Switch 2 will be made up of:
- charges for heat you have used
- a daily standing charge.
Your communal heating repairs and maintenance charges will still be included in your service charge (leaseholders) or rent (tenants).
Tariff setting and standing charge
Heat tariff
Homes that use communal heating and hot water and that have heat meters installed are required by law to pay for their heating and hot water based on how many units of energy (kWh) are used.
Your energy usage will be measured by the Switch2 heat meters. We set the unit charges for heat - and hot water, if it comes from our water supply. These charges are the tariff.
The heat tariff is about double the original cost of gas. We calculate the tariff based on the cost of gas we buy on the wholesale market and make adjustments for efficiency of the boilers and heat losses in our network that delivers heat to communally heated homes from our boiler houses.
Efficiency
Each system we use for communally heated homes has been classified as 50 per cent efficient. As we issue final bills and get data from everyone’s homes, as well as our own network data, this number may increase or decrease for individual blocks.
We expect some of our more efficient networks to be 60 per cent efficient and some of our least efficient to be around 30 per cent efficient. We now change our tariffs every year to include efficiency of our networks.
2025/2026 tariff calculation
The council pays £0.0461p per kWh of gas supplied by our communal suppliers.
- Pay as you go calculation: 0.0461 x 2 = £0.0922 per kWh
- Monthly billing calculation: 0.0922 + 5% bad debt provision = £0.09681 per kWh.
The average amount of heat energy used in the UK is around 12,000 kWh per year.
At 0.09681 per kWH, the average yearly cost will be £1,161 or £96 per month. The cost will go up or down if you use more or less heat.
There is also a standing charge for gas that you must pay as well as the charges for the amount you use.
Gas and billing service standing charge
All gas customers (including the council) pay a standing charge to energy companies for providing gas service, however much gas you use. We divide the total standing charge we get among all the homes that get communal gas service. This is £114.40 per household, per year.
Pay as you go calculation
For pay as you go (PAYG) customers, you pay £78 (including VAT at 20%) per year to cover the cost of the Switch 2 billing service. There is also a charge of 5% of the total of the two standing charges to cover any risk of non-payment (bad debt). This is the cheapest standing charge that we offer.
Gas £114.40 (inc 5% VAT) + Switch 2 billing service £78 (inc VAT at 20%) + bad debt provision 5% = £202 per year or £3.88 per week.
Monthly billing calculation
For monthly billing customers - those who opt out of the pay as you go (PAYG) billing service - the charges are different because of the extra work by Switch 2 and the increased risk of non-payment (bad debt).
The cost for the Switch 2 service is £99 (including 20% VAT) per year. 5% is added to the kWh calculation, not the standing charge, so a kWh of energy is 5% more for monthly billing.
Gas £114.40 (inc 5% VAT) + Switch 2 billing service £99 (inc VAT at 20%) = £214.40 annually or £4.12 per week.
Hot water calculation
Most of our blocks with communal heating use that to heat water from your water supply. We charge you the cost to heat the water and you pay the cost of the water supply to Thames Water.
Some blocks get hot water from a communal supply and you are charged the cost to heat the water and the cost of the water supply.
Switch 2 calculates this based on what how much heat and water the heat meter tells them you use. The calculation for hot water is:
59 x heat rate (energy used to heat a cubic metre of water) 59kWh + m3 water and sewerage charges ÷ 1,000 = price per litre
The price per litre is £0.00878.
Saving money and energy
The Government estimates that once heat meters are installed, homes will use around 20 per cent less energy in the first year. But this will depend on how much your household uses.
While these measures may reduce household usage of heat, the cost of gas changes a lot and heating costs are still going up for most households.
We want to invest in our heating systems to make them more efficient for residents and will target our least efficient systems for replacement with more efficient ones.
- Find out more about how to keep your home warm and help with energy costs.
- You can also visit our cost of living support page for more help.
Contact and repairs
If you have any questions about your heat meter, email tristan.lynch@islington.gov.uk.
To report a repair, call 080 0694 3344 or 020 7527 5400 and press option 1.