•In Europe individual metering in residential buildings is mandatory.•Over 130 publications are critically analyzed and reviewed highlighting different EU strategies.•Regulation and technologies for ...heat accounting and their potential are discussed.•Gap in terms of technical standards and consumer protection is highlighted.•Suggestions to improve transparency and reliability of allocation rules are provided.
Since 2002, the European Union (EU) has promoted individual metering of energy consumption as an effective tool to improve energy efficiency in buildings. In 2012, the Energy Efficiency Directive has set mandatory the individual heat accounting in buildings when centralized heating/cooling systems are present, when technically feasible and cost efficient. As a consequence, EU Member States adopted different allocation rules mainly due to differences in building stocks and climatic conditions. This measure has led to a series of technical, legal and consumer protection issues which still need to be solved. In this paper, more than 130 publications have been analysed and critically reviewed, highlighting the different approaches adopted in EU Member States concerning heat accounting and the related issues. To this aim, the authors focussed the following subjects: (i) the allocation rules adopted by EU Member States, (ii) the heat metering and sub-metering technologies, (iii) the cost-benefit analysis of individual heat metering and accounting systems. This review is useful for researchers since the existing regulation and technologies for heat accounting and their related potential are discussed together with the analysis of the existing gap in terms of technical standard and consumer protection. Finally, the analysis provides policy makers with several suggestions to improve transparency and reliability of allocation rules.
•A review on Individual Metering & Charging of heat and hot water is presented.•Effects of Individual Metering & Charging in a Spanish building are assessed.•Consumption before/after implementing ...Individual Metering & Charging is compared.•Data corresponding to four heating seasons are considered.•Energy reductions of 15% and a payback period of around 10 years are obtained.
Individual metering and charging of heat and domestic hot water is one of the possibilities for reducing the energy consumption in existing multifamily buildings and, with this aim in mind, the EU-directive 2012/27/EU enforced the installation of individual heat consumption meters. Even though some experimental evaluation of energy savings that may be achieved in multifamily buildings with individual metering & charging systems can be found in the literature, the majority of these research pieces are focused on case studies or taking into consideration conditions related to cold climates, and there is still a lack of studies focused on evaluating its effects in more temperate climates that can be also found in Europe. Thus, in this paper, the potential of individual metering and charging of heat and hot water for saving energy in residential buildings in temperate climates is evaluated and quantified. To do so, a literature review on implementation of this system is carried out and presented firstly to get a better understanding of its implications on energy consumption in buildings. Afterwards, heating and hot water consumption data collected in a multifamily building where individual metering and charging system was implemented is evaluated in detail. With the aim of quantifying its effect on heating and hot water consumption, data corresponding to four complete heating seasons (two heating seasons prior to its implementation, and the two first heating seasons after implementing it) have been evaluated in detail, following a specific method described in the paper. Results show that individual metering and charging has brought a reduction of normalized energy consumption of 15–20% during the first two years after implementing it, and simple payback periods are around 10 years. These results confirm that individual metering and charging affects directly on user behaviour encouraging inhabitants to change their habits to reduce their energy consumption, and this effect is significant even in European temperate climates, such as the evaluated case study shows.
•EU requires individual metering and charging (IMC) of heat in multi-apartment buildings.•Due to lack of insulation between adjacent apartments heat is leaking between them.•A method is presented for ...estimating the size of heat transfer between adjacent apartments.•More studies of other multi-apartment building are needed to validate the method.
Individual metering and charging have earlier been found to increase the tenant's awareness of costs and have in most cases resulted in a saving behavior and energy conservation. In the new EU-directive 2012/27/EU there is a decree of heat cost allocation in multi-apartment buildings and two techniques are mentioned to achieve this. The first technique mentioned is to mount an energy meter on the radiator circuit and one can measure the amount of heat (thermal energy) delivered to an apartment. The second technique is heat cost allocators mounted at each radiator. Both techniques result in that the delivered amount of heat to an apartment is measured, and this can be done fairly accurate. However, earlier studies have shown on large amount of heat leaking between adjacent apartments making heat cost allocation based on the measurement incorrect.
The purpose of this study is to develop a cost-efficient method for estimating the size of heat transfer between adjacent apartments in multi-apartment buildings. The objective is to use these estimations for reallocation of heating costs due to heat transfers when measuring the delivered amount of heating energy to an apartment. The methodology used for the purpose is an earlier presented model as a base which has been further developed. The method is tested on an existing multi-apartment building with 16 apartments. An attempt to verify the method has also been done with computer based simulations. The study demonstrates a possibility to make corrections for heat transfer between adjacent apartments in a fairly cost-efficient manner. However, the accuracy of the method has to be improved by more studies in other multi-apartment buildings.
•Individual metering in district heating systems is cost-efficient only if majority of final consumers introduce it.•Energy savings from instalment of heat cost allocators is approximately ...27.7%•Implementation of favourable legal framework is crucial for achieving EU energy efficiency targets.
We investigate the “Tragedy of the Commons” situation in shared billing in district heating systems by using nation-wide household data for Croatia covering three different climate zones. The Tragedy of the Commons refers to households that have chosen not to implement individual metering and acted according to their own self-interest but in doing so acted contrary to the common good of all users within the same building (including their own). We perform our analysis on a unique dataset covering the heating consumption for 250 buildings with over 20,000 apartments in nine cities prior to and after the installation of individual metering devices. Different models of distribution for delivered thermal energy have been applied, taking into consideration several scenarios in which the metering installation ranges from 100% to 50%. Results show that self-interest has an important impact on energy saving behaviour, while the cost-effectiveness differs widely due to different common behaviour of buildings’ residents. Options analysis and cost-benefit analysis of nine cities with existing district heating systems shows that the obligation to install individual metering at final consumers was cost-effective under the condition that each building had a high level of measurement devices’ installation and use (greater than 75%). The Tragedy of the Commons has been proven and it can contribute to our understanding of the motivating factors for energy saving behaviour. Wider policy implications should take into account this knowledge because it implies that pro-environmental behaviours could be more effective if aimed toward satisfying at least some private interests.
Space heating cost allocation according to actual consumption can be one possible solution for saving energy as residents are more motivated to regulate indoor air temperature. Introduction of heat ...cost allocators is a technique which can be used to ensure that the consumer pays only for the heat supplied to him. Installation of allocators increases the motivation of inhabitants to regulate indoor temperatures and thereby reduce heat consumption. Nevertheless, different criterions need to be taken into account in order to fairly allocate the heat costs in each apartment.
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