Heat pump electricity advice: compare combined and separate metering

People running a heat pump often look for a suitable electricity offer for their heating. Your tariff sales team starts with a concrete question: which quantities are metered together with household electricity, and which belong to a separate supply point? This establishes which offers can sensibly be compared. You help customers understand the existing metering and assess a possible change economically.

Understand how heating is billed first

Ask customers to describe their supply in their own words. Do they pay for the heat pump’s electricity themselves, or receive a heating bill from another party? A heat pump in the building does not automatically mean your contact signs its electricity contract. Establish which electricity purchase under their responsibility you are discussing. The offer then addresses the right task rather than an assumed contractual role.

If customers purchase the electricity themselves, identify the existing bills. One might cover household and heat pump together; there might also be a separate heating electricity contract. Ask which document describes which use. The number of appliances does not answer this. What matters is the supply point and measured quantity the actual offer will serve, and who can decide about it.

Ask about the confirmed metering arrangement without requiring a technical drawing. A simple description may be enough to start. An electrical professional or metering operator confirms unclear allocations. An extra display on the heat pump does not itself prove a separately billable electricity supply. Device information and metering for the supply contract need to be distinguished.

Assess an existing separate supply completely

Where a separate heat pump supply already exists, examine a suitable offer as its own option. Check that the supplier serves that particular arrangement. A cheap price displayed for an ordinary household does not confirm this. Compare an actually available product with appropriate requirements. A special appliance description alone is not binding supply confirmation for the connection.

Identify the associated consumption and billing period. With combined metering, a device reading is not automatically a separate supply quantity. With separate metering, the value should belong to the relevant bill. This prevents household consumption appearing in both offers or the heat pump disappearing from the total. Every quantity needs an understandable place.

Compare fixed charges too. A lower variable component can come with additional recurring costs. Check the real price sheet for standing charge, metering and other agreed items. Show what is included and what is additional. Customers should understand the whole supply under consideration. Comparing only two cents-per-kWh figures would be too narrow even if both were copied correctly.

If a document lists no network standing charge for separate supply, still check the supplier’s standing charge. A statement about one network item does not settle all fixed product costs. Put the descriptions side by side and ask about unclear allocation. Otherwise customers could overlook an actual supplier charge. Separately billed metering must also remain in the total where the actual agreements create an additional cost.

With a new price sheet, check its effective date. A future supply start and today’s comparison figures may belong to different periods. Confirm which version applies to the offered supply, then compare both metering options with identifiable versions. A cheaper figure from an old document must not silently become an alternative available today.

Separate network charges from tariff names

The Bundesnetzagentur describes several network charge reduction modules for controllable consumption devices. Module 1 provides a flat reduction; module 2 requires a separate meter. The latter reduces the network unit charge, not automatically the entire supply contract unit rate. This distinction is central. A module name and a competitively advertised heating tariff answer different questions and should not be equated.

Establish the actual allocation with the network operator and how the supplier treats it in the contract. The Bundesnetzagentur explicitly points to contractual terms governing whether reductions are passed on. Do not infer an unchecked personal credit from a network reduction. Customers need to know which benefit reaches their offer and how it is presented or billed.

Use the responsible network operator’s and actual supplier’s documents. An example from another network area can illustrate the principle but cannot replace local information. If customers name an existing allocation, have it confirmed before recommending something different. For existing installations especially, the responsible party should clarify the applicable arrangement. Installation year alone is not a complete tariff assessment.

Examine combined metering as a real alternative

Combined metering can also be a valid starting point to examine. The Bundesnetzagentur explains that the new rules do not generally require a separate metering point. Responsible professionals clarify suitability for the actual installation and arrangement. Do not dismiss existing combined metering as unsuitable across the board. It provides another basis for choosing an offer.

For combined supply, the offer must cover the corresponding quantities. Calculating household and heat pump separately while counting the same fixed charge twice would misrepresent this option. Equally, an actual extra charge must not disappear. Examine each cost according to its real basis. This gives customers a complete picture matching the metering and contractual model.

The choice also depends on whether customers want a change at all. Someone comparing their current supply does not need an unsolicited conversion recommendation. You can mention another arrangement as an additional option to investigate. Distinguish what is available with existing equipment from what would need professionally confirmed changes first. The current decision remains clear and usable.

Weigh a change with its full effort

If separate metering would need to be established, the work belongs in a professional assessment. Ask for a concrete quotation from the responsible specialists. Your tariff comparison specifies neither meter cabinet modifications nor a safe connection. It can show which economic information is missing. An assumed cheap electricity price cannot replace confirmed change costs and requirements.

Separate one-off and recurring amounts. A one-time modification concerns a different time question from an annual price item. Ask which assessment period customers want to use. A longer period changes the weighting but proves no long-term price stability. Use actual offer terms and explicitly label unchanged assumed prices as calculation assumptions for that option.

Starting needs a confirmed basis too. A separately metered tariff is not immediately usable merely because work has been ordered. Clarify when the arrangement can actually be billed and the product supplied. Until then, the potential change remains a prepared option. Customers can plan without treating a future arrangement as already implemented.

Follow a fictional household’s decision

In an explicitly invented case, a customer owns a heat pump and currently pays one combined electricity bill. She wants to know whether separate heating electricity would be interesting. The adviser identifies the combined quantity and obtains a real comparison offer for the confirmed existing arrangement. Professional cost clarification for separation is missing, so she presents it as an open alternative with specific missing information.

The customer says simple billing matters to her. The adviser includes this preference alongside price. She identifies the recurring items actually offered for combined and separate supply. The existing module allocation is clarified too. The advice does not favour more or fewer meters generally; it prepares a comparison between two concrete supply arrangements.

Once professional information arrives, the customer can decide whether to pursue the one-off work. If she keeps combined metering, they discuss its suitable tariff option. If she wants to examine separation, the responsible parties confirm requirements and start. This case shows a choice, not an actual conversion or successful switch. Neither prices nor savings are transferred from the invented situation to a real household.

Include own generation as an additional condition

If customers have photovoltaics, ask about the confirmed metering arrangement. “We have solar electricity” does not establish which quantities belong to the heat pump. Professionals assess how a particular separation interacts with existing self-supply. Do not generally promise that every metering change preserves the same self-consumption. The actually comparable arrangement must be established and explainable.

Stay with the customer’s decision. A tariff conversation need not become complete installation planning. Record which quantity allocation information is missing and who can confirm it. If the purchased quantity changes as a result, update that basis. A price difference must not be credited entirely to the new tariff when the calculation also assumes a different amount from the grid.

Avoid counting the same reduction twice. Check what each presentation already includes. An explicitly displayed advantage must not be deducted again from the final amount. Ask the supplier to explain unclear presentation. Customers should know whether they are seeing an adjusted result or an amount before another displayed item. This helps with either metering option.

Make the choice understandable

Summarise the real alternatives. Which supply can be offered for confirmed existing equipment? Which solution needs a professionally clarified change? Which fixed and usage-dependent amounts belong to each? Customers can then decide whether to examine a suitable current offer or investigate another arrangement’s additional effort. Both paths can fit their personal goal.

When documents are missing, make a targeted request. Do not ask for all private contract and installation records indiscriminately. Identify the information needed and the intended protected exchange. An understandable supply-point allocation helps more than a large unchecked collection. If a document conflicts with another, the responsible party should clarify that point before it becomes a fixed comparison assumption.

Finally, explain which changes would affect the choice again. A different appliance, changed self-supply or a new price sheet can alter different assumptions. Review the affected ones specifically. Your advisory value lies in a transparent comparison of actual options: customers understand their selected supply and know which professional assessment another solution still needs.

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Source

Bundesnetzagentur: Integration of controllable consumption devices, read in full on 18 October 2026. This advice assesses offer options; it replaces neither individual contract assessment nor technical planning by responsible professionals.