Can wireless solutions help solve heat network headaches?
Switching to wireless technology makes financial and operational sense, says Ellie Blacklock, Customer Experience Director at Insite Energy.
Distributing heating and hot water from a single shared energy source to multiple properties, heat networks can potentially offer significant carbon savings. As a result, they’re central to the government’s Net Zero strategy and are increasingly required in new urban developments. It’s now intended that over 20% of our total heat demand will be met by heat networks by 2050, up from a currently estimated 3%.
This shift means many more property professionals are becoming involved in managing these large, complex systems. And running a heat network isn’t easy. A bit like a Formula 1 car, it requires skilful and consistent monitoring, servicing and fine-tuning to maintain its performance over time. However, in the majority of cases, this doesn’t happen correctly. Consequently, according to the Heat Trust, most UK heat networks run at only 35–45% efficiency – a long way short of Net Zero goals.
To rectify this, the government is due to introduce the Heat Network Technical Assurance Scheme (HNTAS) later this year. A step up from CIBSE’s largely voluntary Heat Network Code of Practice (CP1) it replaces, this will stipulate robust technical and performance standards. Failing to meet requirements could lead to financial and other penalties. The complete details of HNTAS are outstanding, awaiting several consultation documents.
Metering matters
One significant area of focus of the new standards is metering and billing. As well as ensuring transparent and fair charging for consumers, heat meters provide vital data for monitoring heat network performance, making them a cornerstone of system efficiency. When they malfunction, it can lead to problems being missed, billing based on estimations, dissatisfied residents and increased energy debt. As well as causing complicated and costly administrative issues, this risks regulatory non-compliance under the anticipated HNTAS rules.
Age factor
The likelihood of meter failures increases as equipment ages, and many UK heat networks are now over a decade old. As a result, more and more household heat meters are nearing the end of their life (10 to 12 years for older models, up to 16 years for newer ones). Maintaining a metering system in its final two years costs £187 per property on average. For a 255-unit scheme, that’s £47,685 in remedial costs alone.
Even so, for heat network operators, the prospect of replacing them all can be daunting, as it incurs upfront costs and causes disruption to residents. Obtaining access to properties is also never an easy feat.
Simplifying retrofits through wireless
This is where wireless technology comes in, replacing ageing or outdated hardware with smart, easy-to-retrofit solutions that can connect to any heat meter to send data securely to the cloud. As well as reinstating the user experience for residents, this can offer a very rapid return on investment.
A wireless connection such as LoRaWAN can be used instead of a wired or legacy 2/3G solution, with no physical in-home display (IHD) required. Installation is therefore quick and cost-effective, even in developments with no M-Bus link. And costly and disruptive fire-stop issues are avoided.
Multi-site case study
This is the route being taken by one of London’s largest housing associations, Notting Hill Genesis (NHG), to save money and improve the user experience at 16 of its residential heat network developments. A significant number of heat meters at these sites had lost communication with one of NHG’s legacy pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing systems, which was causing billing and debt issues.
The wireless KURVE solution that has been developed to fix the problem has already been installed at 10 NHG sites, where it’s achieving 100% meter connectivity virtually all of the time. This means residents are now billed accurately and transparently for the heating and hot water they use, helping to ensure the compliance of NHG’s portfolio ahead of regulation.
Fitting takes just one hour instead of the two hours typical for PAYG systems, and the hardware cost is only £199 per household, compared to around £350–500 for hard-wired IHD solutions. It also gives residents much easier access to their energy consumption data than traditional IHDs, which usually have greyscale screens offering limited user interaction, hidden away in hard-to-reach corners or cupboards.
“The housing association’s commitment to resident experience and customer service was crucial in shaping this new metering system,” says my colleague at Insite Energy, Head of Technical, Adam Newman. “Together, we’ve created a solution that cuts costs, improves connectivity and makes life easier for residents. This collaboration has now become part of our core metering set-up offering, serving as a blueprint for future projects, and showing other housing providers what’s possible when you work together to deliver smarter, fairer heat networks.”
Immediate and ongoing savings
Switching to a PAYG wireless system lets heat network operators recover outstanding debt at a rate that suits them and their residents by adjusting daily standing charges. Given the average household debt in credit-billed heat network developments is £830, the recovered funds can often all but cover the cost of the new system.
There is the further advantage that no new debts can accumulate, so cashflow is protected, all with minimal impact to residents. Ongoing maintenance costs will be lower too, as there is less hardware to service. And what there is can be monitored and managed remotely, ensuring better meter health. That in turn means minimal access to residents’ homes and a smaller sink fund.
Managing heat networks is never going to be a straightforward task, and with all the regulatory changes expected in 2026, this year is expected to be a particularly demanding one. In this context, wireless PAYG solutions could be very helpful in enabling property managers to stay compliant, cut costs, and deliver a better resident experience, all while futureproofing their heat systems.
