Metering for Payment

What systems need to be metered for payment?

If any of the following circumstances apply, your installation must be metered for payment.

• A separate installation provides heat to the property. It could use a fossil fuel source (such as a gas boiler) or a renewable source (such as a heat pump). It could provide back-up heating or provide heat separately. See the list of exceptions below:
• The installation combines a heat pump with a fossil-fuel system. This is where a heat pump and a gas or oil boiler are combined in the same unit (they are sometimes called ‘hybrid systems’)
• The installation uses biomass and its installed capacity doesn’t provide 100% of the property’s space heating requirement (the space heating requirement is found on the MCS certificate and the installer determines it by performing heat loss calculations)
• The property has been occupied for less than 183 days in the last 12 months. You may be eligible to request exemption from this after 1 April 2022. For more information see the essential guide.

If a separate installation provides heat to the property, there are some exceptions. Metering for payment would not be required if the separate installation: 

• is solar thermal 
• is designed and installed to heat only one room (such as a fireplace or plug-in heater) or is in a partition wall and directly radiates heat to two rooms 
• only generates heat for domestic hot water (such as an immersion heater) 
• is a supplementary electric heater controlled by the same control system as the installation 28 
• is another installation of the same technology type which was commissioned by your installer on the same date (e.g., you have a larger property that needs two heat pumps). We’ll treat these as the same installation 
• captures heat expelled from your property and transfers it back without generating additional heat

Something you don't understand? Check our key terms.