A warm welcome from your heating supplier

Transcription

1 A warm welcome from your heating supplier Hello and a very warm welcome to your new home! This pack contains everything you need to know about your heating and hot water service. Page 1 of 10

2 Section one the service Who provides my heating and hot water? Our organisation is called Ardor Biomass Limited, or Ardor for short. We own and operate the Energy Centre at the St Clements site. We are responsible for providing you with heating and hot water in your home. How do I control my heating and hot water? Your home has a device called a Heat Interface Unit (HIU). It looks very much like a traditional boiler. You control the heat and hot water in your home in the usual way. You can set and adjust temperatures and timings to suit your own preferences. Full instructions are available from our website, Who s responsible for maintenance? We are responsible for maintaining the heating supply pipework up to and including your Heat Interface Unit. This should help save you from expensive call-out charges and third-party maintenance contracts. It is important to clarify that our maintenance cover does not include your internal heating and hot water system beyond the HIU. The radiators and pipework connecting these within your property will therefore be your responsibility. How can I contact you? Key contact details that you will need are provided in this Welcome Pack. You can also visit us online at the St Clements website: Page 2 of 10

3 Section one the service (cont) What happens if I have a problem with my heating or hot water? Help, I have a problem with my heating or hot water. Who should I call? I have no hot water or heating in my property I have a problem with one of my radiators or my water temperature is too low. This is liable to be a problem with either the HIU or our Energy Centre and it is therefore our responsibility to fix this. Please phone the following 24-hour contact number: This is likely to be an isolated issue connected to either the radiator or pipework within your property. It is therefore your responsibility to call out a plumber. However, you may still be covered under Linden Home s initial 2 year defect warranty period and as such we advise you to phone the following contact number in the first instance: Linden Homes: (24 hours customer care facility) We will work with you to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We provide a 24-hour response time, night or day, and we will strive to keep your home warm and your water hot. (We provide an 8-hour response time for vulnerable customers in the winter months.) If the problem persists for more than 24 hours, you may be entitled to compensation, in line with the Independent Heat Customer Protection Scheme. Page 3 of 10

4 Section two payment How much do I have to pay for heat and hot water? There are two parts to your monthly bill. The first part is a standing charge. For the first year to 31st March 2016, this is set at 372, or 102p per day. This includes the first 1,032 kwh (kilowatt-hours) of energy you use each year. The second part is a variable charge for the additional energy you use. For the first year to March 2016, this is set at 7.71p per kwh. What is the standing charge for? The standing charge covers the maintenance and upkeep of the St Clements Energy Centre and heating network, along with your first 1,032 kwh of heat. (As a rough guide, in the case of a two-bedroom property with three occupants, 1,032 kwh would provide heat and hot water for six to eight weeks.) How do I pay? There are a number of payment options. You can pay monthly, via direct debit or on demand. Alternatively, you can pre-pay to avoid any surprises. Pre-payment is an excellent way of managing your energy bills and comes at no extra cost. You will find both a Direct Debit form and a Pre-payment form in this welcome pack. Please complete one of these and send it to ISTA by at billingteam@ista-uk. com or by mail using the following address: ISTA Energy Solutions, Granta Park, 3 Riverside, Great Abington, Cambridge, CB21 6AD Alternatively, you can visit our website or call ISTA, our billing and metering service partner who operates your client account, on , during weekday office hours 8:30 to 17:30. Page 4 of 10

5 Section two payment (cont) How can I monitor my usage? Your new home comes with a state-of-the-art digital meter. This smart meter will record your daily usage of heat and hot water, and then generate your monthly bills. You can view your monthly bill online at and you will receive a copy in the post. Will prices change in future? Your energy bill will be reviewed each year, and any price change will take place from April 1st. The standing charge will be adjusted in line with inflation. If the cost of supplying heat increases, your bill will increase as well. Any increase will be in line with the change in cost of the fuel supply, specifically gas and wood pellets. We will provide at least 30 days notice of any change. More details of our approach to the annual price review can be found in your Heat Supply Agreement and online at wwwstclementsheat.co.uk. What happens if I lose my prepay card? We can issue you with a new card. There is a small administration charge. Please see our website for details: What happens when I sell or move on? Just let us know in advance. Please contact ISTA via the contact details above. Working with our partners we will make sure that your final bill is clear and accurate. It will include an adjustment for any pro-rated standing charge and an account closure fee. The applicable fee is shown on our website at and may change from time to time. Page 5 of 10

6 Section three the system How does the heating system work? There is an Energy Centre in Block D of St Clements. This houses an extremely efficient biomass boiler. There are also three top-up gas boilers. The Centre delivers hot water through a network of underground district heating mains. Individual homes don t have boilers. Rather they each have a Heat Interface Unit, or HIU. This looks very much like a conventional boiler and is controlled in a very similar way. Is the system environmentally-friendly? Yes, very. The UK has an agenda to reduce carbon emissions and invest in renewable technologies. Biomass boilers, which burn organic products such as wood pellets, are a good example. This technology is often used for district heating systems in the UK and Europe. Increasingly, they form part of the planning requirements for forwardlooking housing developments in London. The system at St Clements will mainly use locally-sourced wood pellets. Page 6 of 10

7 Section four our promises to you Service Level Agreement We (Ardor Biomass and our partners) will adhere to the following Service Level Agreement: We will give all customers access to a 24-hour customer helpline. We will keep a record of all customer calls and waiting times. We will keep a record of all customers who are without heat or hot water, including the time without service, and the technical fault. This will be recorded by your ISTA meter and the results will be available on demand in our quarterly reports. We will attempt to resolve all complaints that involve a loss of heating or hot water within a 24-hour period. We will provide a variety of options for customers to contact the helpline, taking into account customer requirements. We will allow pre-approved third parties, such as relatives, to manage customer accounts on behalf of vulnerable customers. Each customer will have to make a specific request. We will provide a clear complaints-handling policy to all customers. We aim to resolve most complaints on the first contact. We will resolve all complaints within a 28-day period. You can read our Customer Heat Charter in full on our website, co.uk. Financial difficulties At certain times, some residents may experience financial challenges. If this happens to you, please contact us in complete confidence, using the general enquiry section on the website We can arrange for debt to be repaid in instalments, and we will only ever use disconnection as a last resort. Additionally, we offer all residents a pre-payment option. Again, you can find more details at Page 7 of 10

8 Section four our promises to you (Cont) Vulnerable customers We recognise that some customers are particularly vulnerable to the loss of our services, and that others may face communication challenges. We make special provisions to support such customers. To do that, we keep a register called the vulnerable customer register. Any customer can ask to be placed on this register so long as they meet the guidelines which you can read in full at Simply put, the guidelines cover the following situations: 1. Customers particularly vulnerable to the loss of heat and hot water If your household includes someone who is over 70 or under 5, or who is registered disabled or who has a chronic condition, please let us know by at info@stclementsheat.co.uk and we will add you to the register. In these circumstances, we will not disconnect you between the months of October to March. You can also nominate a third party to manage bills on your behalf. 2. Customers facing communication challenges If anyone in your household is blind, partially blind, deaf or hard of hearing, please let us know by at info@stclementsheat.co.uk, and we will add you to the register. Similarly, we will add households where no-one is able to communicate in written or oral English. In these circumstances, we will provide you with a variety of contact options to ensure that everyone has a suitable method of contacting us. You can also nominate a third party to manage bills on your behalf. Page 8 of 10

9 Section four our promises to you (Cont) Privacy and Data Protection We take your privacy seriously. Together with our billings and collections partner, we comply with the Data Protection Act 1998, and all other laws and regulations relating to data protection and privacy. Our Charter We want to make sure that you receive the highest standards of service. We have set out our commitments to service in our Customer Heat Charter, available by visiting and this Welcome Pack mentions many of the specific undertakings in that Charter. We also fully abide by the proposals of the Independent Heat Customer Protection Scheme ( which protects the interests of residents and businesses connected to heat networks. Page 9 of 10

10 We hope this pack answers any questions you may have. If you d like any further help, please visit us at Warmly, All the team at Ardor Biomass Page 10 of 10

11