Individual Metering and Charging of Heat and Hot Water in Multi-Apartment Buildings

Sammanfattning: Individual metering and charging (IMC) means that tenants in multi-apartment buildings should pay only for their own energy consumption, which gives an economic incentive for energy-conscious behaviour. In April, 2014, Swedish legislation about energy metering in buildings (SFS 2014:267) was passed by the Swedish Parliament as an implementation of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU. The legislation stipulates that energy costs have to be apportioned according to the actual energy use, with costs determined through energy measurement in individual apartments. Today only a few percent of Swedish multi-apartment buildings have IMC of heat and/or hot water. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyse the applicability of IMC of heat and hot water in multi-apartment buildings on the basis of Swedish conditions. The research process started with a literature review, and was followed by interviews with tenants, landlords and board members in housing cooperatives. The process continued with development of models for investigating potential shortcomings regarding IMC. The applicability of IMC of heat and hot water is affected by lack of cost-efficiency and other significant shortcomings. While the main incentive for IMC is to save energy and thereby the environment, landlords are reluctant to introduce IMC because it is not cost-efficient. Most residents are positive to the basic idea of IMC, which is that the users pay only for their own consumption, but the shortcomings of IMC of heat affect the residents’ attitudes negatively. In energy-efficient buildings the shortcomings become especially significant. IMC has disadvantages, and only gives a marginal saving in costs, so IMC of heat is not being recommended in energy-efficient buildings. IMC of hot water does have savings potential, so it can be a useful tool in helping to achieve the European Union’s goal of nearly zero-energy buildings. However, IMC of hot water has also disadvantages, and measurement of water volume along with temperature should be considered.