We live in an apartment with “district heating” and so we can’t change the provider. There are over 200 families living in this large, newly built apartment complex.

We were paying 8 cents per kWh in March this year, the company ([http://www.kaizenenergy.ie/](http://www.kaizenenergy.ie/)) kept doubling the prices every month and now we’re at 57 cents. I have a feeling this is going to continue and we’ll end up with more than 1 euro per kWh during winter.

This means that families will have to shell out 600-1000 euros per month just for heating and hot water. I’m already paying 150-200 euro per month currently with the heating turned off.

Most of us are feeling trapped, we can’t move out quickly because of the housing shortage and also don’t want to be paying thousands of euros every month just for decent, warm housing.

We all voiced our concern with the management company but I don’t see anything changing.

Is there anything we could do before winter arrives?

Edit : This week’s usage : [https://i.imgur.com/MwKwD0B.png](https://i.imgur.com/MwKwD0B.png), that’s just the cost of showering – heater has been off for the past few months.

19 comments

  1. You are going to need public campaigns to put pressure on the energy company. You need to get organised, find out who among the many residents can help – you will need TDs, councillors, and anyone else with an audience on your side.

    This isn’t something that can be fixed by a mediation process or by having some authority come in and make a correction in your favour. You will need to make this energy company understand that keeping charging these types of rates is more harmful to them and only then will they back down.

  2. That sucks and shows the risk of putting private companies in charge of community schemes. Besides the trapped consumers, what happens if the company shuts down?

    To answer you directly OP, make a complaint to the CRU and get your TD involved as this could be a serious risk going into the winter

  3. I’m with bord gais, only use the gas for the cooker as the radiators haven’t been on since May. Our bill was 160 for June and July too.

  4. Get on to the press

    How does the system work do you have your own boiler. How do you heat your water. Do you have your own hot water tank. Do you rent or own.

    Could you all cancel your accounts and use electricity

  5. Do you own the apartment? If you do you get a vote in what the mgmt company does.

    So you could call a meeting, make sure enough other owners are there, propose to cancel the deal with Kaizen, and then if there’s enough votes it will be cancelled.

  7. We’re on the brink of big war between Nato (EU) and Russia. Europe has made itself dependent on Russian gas and now it became a problem. It’s not only an exclusive Irish problem now, it’s happening everywhere in Europe, just google the prices and Nord Stream situation. The reality is that this winter is going to be very tough.

  8. Contact your local TDs (ask your neighbours to do the same).

    Contact the press (again – get the neighbours to do the same).

    Name and shame the apartments – where is this??

  9. Same situation here. On top of that, the electricity provider (Pinergy) is also expensive as fuck. Switching is not easy, as you’re kind of forced to stick with them or switch back when you leave.

    Buying blankets & whiskey and bracing for the winter.

  11. I’m stuck with Kaizen too.

    * I’ve turned off the heating
    * Don’t take baths (showers only)
    * Don’t use the dishwasher
    * Cold taps only when washing

    For 1 person, I end up paying €70-100 a month for heating showers. Nothing else. All cooking appliances are electric. Kaizen heating has a daily standing charge of €0.93 and heat tariff is €0.59/kWh. Deducting that daily base charge, it’s around €50 for showering per month.

    **Property management response:**

    *”this is an unfortunate reality and there is nothing that can be done to mitigate these increases in utility costs. However, when commercial fuel costs finally reduce, we will be working with Kaizen and the appointed brokers to ensure that the best rates available are secured. We hope that the above provides some clarity.”*

  12. I’m with the same crowd you are and my bills have been roughly 50-60 a month.

    June/July -> €122.46

    April/May -> €107.10

    My rates haven’t doubled all the way up to 56 either (at least I’m not aware of it..) but they’ve gone from .08 to .11 and are at .26 now

    But like you I don’t know that I have any option beyond moving. We’ve the same big communal boiler situation here and there’s no other means to heat water up for showers. We only use the gas to heat water for showers outside of a few months in winter and that’s how much it’s costing us. Would be interested to follow this and sign my name on to anything that might help reduce or halt the costs.

    Edited to ask – when your rates went up was this communicated to you? Because it wasn’t to me, it just shows up in the bill. So I could very well be facing .56 for my next bill and just not know it yet.

  14. So, it’s a tough one, unfortunately. We were fighting Frontline Energy few months back for the same reason and even though we won the decrease, I think it was more due to the nature of our estate rather than our complains. The main issue is that the district system itself is built by them, so the management company won’t be able simply to change them. Second issue is that most likely they’ll tell you what Frontline was telling us: “The issue with district energy site charges currently is the rate is set by networks and is a commercial rate of supply”, and unfortunately that’s true, they are being ripped off by someone else at commercial rate (I suspect it’s Bord Gais actually but I don’t know for sure). So they are more like a middleman. There are still things you can try and hope for the best: first of all, you need make noise everywhere you can and ask all your neighbors to do the same. Start with the google reviews: it’s 3.4 right now, it has to be much worse for the people to see right away that there is a problem. Have a look at Frontline reviews, for instance, it’s pretty obvious there. Next, make sure your landlord and mgmt company are aware of the issue. Ultimately, it’s them who have the contract signed with kaizen. And lastly, prepare a well written email to TD. That was my next step until it got resolved. Make sure to include links to newspapers as well, like the following one, to show that the problem is nationwide: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/gas-bills-surge-for-louth-residents-in-shared-heating-scheme-1.4810263 . Make sure to state that while increase is understandable in the current times, it’s completely unreasonable to increase it 3-4 times higher than nationwide average (Electric Ireland, Bord Gais, etc… prepare your numbers well). Ultimately there should be a decision at government level to change district heating systems to private rate instead of commercial but that’s obviously a very long shot. Lastly, I’m not sure if it’s relevant to Kaizen but Frontline stated the following about district heating “Frontline do not profit from the sale of gas-the rate is set by the provider and we pass this on. We understand that this is a difficult situation for any residential customer in a district energy scheme and we are highlighting this through various different platforms such as SEAI, CRU and at government level”. So in theory they are not supposed to profit from this but at 0.57 EUR I just can’t believe there is no profit… so you could make that as an argument too.

  15. Also stuck with Kaizen. Unfortunately it seems to be an unregulated monopoly, so there are limits on what we can do. I have written to the press, but I plan to buy electric heaters to run as it’ll be cheaper than running the radiators. No real way around the hot water though.

    What’s most outrageous is that they are pointing to gas prices, but in my building, they are running a heat pump with only a gas backup, so the majority (all?) of their cost is electricity, not gas. Heat pumps have a 3-4x efficiency (COP) rate, so spending 1kWh of electricity should capture 3-4kWh of heat. Electric Ireland’s (residential) electricity rate today is 21.9c/kWh which means 1kWh of heat is costing them 5.5-7.3c… but they’re then charging us 57c for that. I’m sure there are some losses and other costs involved, and they deserve a _reasonable_ profit for running everything, but this is plain profiteering. I’ve written to the press about it.

  16. They have sent a “beautiful” email some months ago.. basically price is now variable and they can charge as much as they please…. so each time you get your bill its basically an inversed lottery?

    **Effective 1st April a variable pricing strategy will be implemented. This means that you will now be charged for heat and hot water based on a market adjusted kWh rate which accounts for the fluctuations, up and down, within the commercial gas market. This market adjusted kWh rate will be calculated and applied to your account at the time of billing and this rate will fluctuate up and down on a bi-monthly basis thereafter until such a time as the energy markets stabilise**. In the short term this is likely to increase your energy cost significantly so we would urge you to be mindful about controlling your internal heating system to ensure daily usage in minimised wherever possible. Mixing down the temperature of your hot water for showers etc will also limit your kWh usage.

  18. The bad news for you is that this is what most environmentalists and self appointed commentators have been demanding for the last few years …more district heating. It isn’t always the most ideal thing from a heating perspective unless in a very well insulated building. Way in most apartments globally though.

    You could try shutting it off to a minimum and using electric at 0.25c to 0.28c per KW. Infra red might be better as more direct…and heavy curtains too.

    There is also a transparent screen you can get for windows to reduce heat loss.

  19. Wow, what robbery. I’m with Kaizen too, though we’re currently charged 33.1c/kWh, so they seem to be price gouging you. I tried reaching out to our management company, but didn’t get much of an answer other than they are looking to switch provider. Please give an update if you get anywhere, I’m rooting for you.

Leave a Reply