What does this mean for my home?

In all practical ways the heat you have in your radiators and the hot water in your taps is exactly the same – the only thing that has changed is the method of getting your heat. If we supply your electricity, it works exactly the same as if supplied by a licensed supplier.

Benefits

  • Local supplier – you will always be dealt with by people who know your development and your system.

  • Resilient supplies 24/7:

    • Heat – we will provide a reliable supply of heating and hot water.
    • Electricity – where we supply electricity, our low carbon sources of electricity generation will be backed up by supplies of electricity from the public electricity network.

  • For our heat supplies, in line with good practice suggested by the Heat Trust, we offer a price which is comparable to the total cost of gas used in an individual domestic boiler plus the cost of running, maintaining and replacing that boiler.

  • Electricity is supplied at a price that is indexed annually in line with our Pricing Policy. To ensure that we remain competitive, when we index our prices we will check that the new price is competitive with the average cheapest price from the ‘Big Six’. If it is not, then we will drop our prices so that they are comparable.

  • Low carbon energy, helping to tackle climate change.

  • Profits invested into services – profits are reinvested into services for Barking and Dagenham residents and businesses.

  • There is no risk of carbon monoxide, therefore safety checks usually associated with gas boilers are not required.

How does my heating and hot water work?

In your property, you do not have a gas boiler or a hot water tank. Instead, you have a Heating Interface Unit (HIU) which looks like this. The heat from our District Energy Scheme comes into this box.

Inside the HIU is:

  • A heat meter – all the heat you use is metered and you only pay for what you use. We read these meters automatically ensuring that you are only billed for what you have used.
  • A heat exchanger – this transfers the heat from the hot water in our network to the water in your central heating system and also to the cold water you get from your water supplier to make the hot water in your taps.

B&D Energy are responsible for the maintenance of the HIU and the cost of this is included in our standing charge. You will receive free checks from our team to ensure it is working correctly. You (or your landlord) are responsible for all the internal plumbing in your home after the HIU.

Your room temperatures are controlled as in any other home by wall mounted controllers. The operating instructions for these are contained in your resident’s handbook.

We all know how frustrating it is to have to wait for ages for the hot water from the tap to get hot. To overcome this, your Heating Interface Unit was designed by the manufacturer to always be warm and ready to deliver hot water as soon as you want it. It does this by taking a tiny trickle of heat when it is not in use. This means that even when you are not using the heating or hot water there will still be a very small heat usage. We estimate this costs you about 4p/day on average.

This is exactly the same as most gas combi boilers when not in ‘eco’ mode; it uses a tiny trickle of gas to keep the boiler hot and ready.

How does my electricity supply work?

On some of our schemes, we supply your electricity via a Private Wire Network.

You should note that your electricity supplier is B&D Energy but you do have the ability to change to a licensed supplier. However, the tariff is fixed each year to be competitive with the ‘Big Six’ energy suppliers. If you want to swap, then you should contact us in the first place and we will explain the procedure to you.

B&D Energy are responsible for your electricity supply up to the input to the consumer unit (fuse box).  You will receive free checks from our team to ensure it is working correctly.

How will I be billed?

We will automatically read your heat and, where applicable, electricity meter and you will be billed monthly for the energy you have used, plus a standing charge. The standing charge will apply even if you use no energy.