Shared community heating in Spain to end
If you hade what is called “district heating” in the apartment building where you live, you may soon be forced to install an individual meter. In many areas of Spain, it is still common to find community heating systems that heat the entire building. Currently, the heating bills in these buildings are divided equally between the number of apartments in the building.
In a move designed to make people more aware of the energy they use, the Spanish government is insisting that each apartment has an individual meter. The community of neighbors will have until mid-2022 or early 2023 to install the meters, depending on where the buildings are located and their age. Starting May 2023, each neighbor must pay exclusively for the energy that they consume.
Usually powered by natural gas via hot water on a single network, the new law will affect around 1.7 million homes in Spain. The Spanish government also says that scrapping communal heating will save approximately two million tons of CO2 emissions per year.
Why has Spain decided to get rid of communal heating?
A study carried out between 2015 and 2018 found that meters that controlled an apartment’s heating saved around 30% in energy bills after two years of having them installed.
What is it going to cost?
On average, a meter costs around 250€ for the unit plus the cost of the installation.
