L&Q Energy

If you lose heating or hot water, please call us straight away on 0333 003 3733.

We’ll arrange for an engineer to visit your home and fix the problem as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, no.

When your home (and the surrounding homes) were built, the developer decided which type of payment system would be installed. Because your heating and hot water come from a communal plant room rather than individual boilers, all homes in the block are connected to the same system.

Changing from PAYG to credit billing for one home would mean replacing the system for the whole building, which would be very disruptive and costly.

For this reason, we’re unable to change how an individual home is billed.

You may notice charges even when you’re not using your heating or hot water. This is normal and happens because your bill is made up of two parts:

• Usage charge – the cost of the heat and hot water you actually use
• Standing charge – a daily fee that applies whether or not you use the system

The standing charge helps cover the cost of running the communal heating system. It also ensures that your equipment is properly maintained, serviced, and repaired when needed – so it’s ready whenever you switch it on.

We collect readings from your meter to measure how much heat your home uses. This is recorded in kilowatt hours (kWh) and you can check it yourself on your Pre-payment Hub or monthly credit statement.

We use this data to:

• accurately bill you for the heat you’ve used
• monitor overall site usage and spot peaks in demand
• make smarter energy purchasing decisions, helping us deliver better value to you

We understand that your privacy is important.

Your heat meter data is secure – it’s protected against unwanted access and always transferred using secure connections.

We only store what’s needed – we keep the minimum data required to provide your heating service, and nothing more.

We don’t share your data – we will never share your information with third parties unless you’ve given us permission or it’s legally required.

We understand that rising energy costs can make it difficult to keep on top of bills. If you’re finding it hard to manage, there is free and confidential support available.

Here are some organisations that can help with money advice and debt support:

Citizens Advice

• Call 0344 411 1444
• Visit Citizens Advice

Money Advice Service

• Call 0800 138 7777
• Visit the Money Advice Service

National Debtline

• Call 0808 808 4000
• Visit National Debtline

Pound Advice

• Call 0203 475 2221
• Email Pound Advice
• Visit Pound Advice

No – you won’t need to pay separately for repairs to your heating system.

L&Q Energy manages and maintains the district heating network. If there’s an issue with the energy centre or with the Heat Interface Unit (HIU) in your home, we’ll arrange the repair for you.

The cost of these repairs is already included in your service charge or, for some developments, covered by your daily standing charge.

If you’ve moved into a new home with a pre-payment heating and hot water system, you can top up your balance in two ways: online or at a PayPoint store.

You’ll need your 19-digit heat account payment number. If you don’t know it, please contact our team.

Top up online

Check the number on your payment card:

If your card has 0228 on it:

1. Go to the L&Q Energy payment portal
2. Select 'Pay by card'
3. Choose 'Guru Units' as the service
4. Enter your heat account payment number
5. Enter the amount you’d like to add
6. Add your bank card and billing details
7. Select 'Make a payment'

If your card has 1982 on it:

1. Go to the L&Q Energy payment portal
2. Select 'Pay by card'
3. Choose 'Heat' as the service
4. Enter your heat account payment number
5. Enter the amount you’d like to add
6. Add your bank card and billing details
7. Select 'Make a payment'

PayPoint stores

You can top up at your local PayPoint store if your payment card includes 0228 or 1982.

Find your nearest PayPoint store.

If you’ve moved into a new home with a pre-payment heating and hot water system, you can top up your balance in two ways: online or at a PayPoint store.

You’ll need your 19-digit heat account payment number. If you don’t know it, please contact our team.

Pay online

1. Go to the L&Q Energy payment portal
2. Select 'Pay by card'
3. Choose 'BillPay' as the service
4. Enter your heat account payment number
5. Enter the amount you’d like to add
6. Add your bank card and billing details
7. Select 'Make a payment'

PayPoint stores

If your payment card includes 0228 or 1982, you can pay at any PayPoint location.

Find your nearest PayPoint store.

If you’ve moved into a new home with a pre-payment heating and hot water system, you can top up your balance in two ways: online or at a PayPoint store.

You’ll need your 19-digit heat account payment number. If you don’t know it, please contact our team.

Pay online

1. Go to the L&Q Energy payment portal
2. Select 'Pay by card'
3. Choose 'Secure Units' as the service
4. Enter your heat account payment number
5. Enter the amount you’d like to add
6. Add your bank card and billing details
7. Select 'Make a payment'

PayPoint stores

If your payment card includes 0228 or 1982, you can pay at any PayPoint location.

Find your nearest PayPoint store.

In some homes, instead of having individual boilers, heating and hot water are supplied through a communal heating network.

Here’s how it works:

1. Heat is generated in a central communal plant room
2. That heat is transferred through specialist pipework across the building
3. It then reaches each home via a Heat Interface Unit (HIU)

Your HIU is a white box, usually located in the utility cupboard of your home. It looks a lot like a standard boiler, but instead of burning gas directly, it transfers heat from the communal system to give you heating and hot water.

No – you can’t change your heat supplier. This is because your heating and hot water come from a communal heating network that’s managed by L&Q Energy.

Here’s how it works:

1. Heat is produced in a central communal plant room
2. It’s then distributed through specialist pipework across the building
3. The heat reaches each home via a Heat Interface Unit (HIU) – a box in your utility cupboard that looks like a boiler

This system means that, unlike electricity or gas, you don’t have the option to switch suppliers, as all homes in the block share the same communal supply.

When the fire alarm goes off, the building’s safety system automatically cuts the power, including to the heating.

This is a built-in fire safety feature designed to keep residents safe.

In most cases, your meter readings are taken automatically, so you don’t need to do anything.

However, if your credit-billed statements show estimated readings, please send us a photo of your meter reading on the last day of each month.

You can share your reading by:

• emailing our L&Q Energy team
• Uploading it through your online account

It depends on how your heat account is set up:

Pay As You Go customers

Most customers have a flexible Pay As You Go meter. This means you won’t receive bills. Instead, you can view your usage and credit balance on your in-home display.

Credit-billed customers

If you’re on a credit account, you’ll receive a monthly bill. This will either be a paper statement sent to your home, or an online bill available through your L&Q Energy account.

If you’d like to go paperless and switch to online billing, we can help set this up:

• Call us on 0333 003 3733
• Email our L&Q Energy team