Why individual heat metering?

Even though our energy consumption is declining as the buildings we live and work in get ever more energy-friendly, the energy waste is increasing. This was the conclusion of the most comprehensive German investigation so far of energy efficiency in buildings from 2013.

The reason is that the better insulated a building is, the less the residents consider their own heating consumption. That is why the researchers behind the survey recommend individual consumption metering, even in well-insulated buildings, as it encourages the residents to save energy.

Resident behaviour is crucial to energy consumption and residents tend not to think about their consumption habits unless they know how much energy they use. Unless they think about their consumption, they will not change their behaviour. One way of making them think about it is to introduce individual metering.

The introduction of individual heat cost allocation makes it possible to reduce CO2 emissions very significantly, by 95 million tons, by 2020.

Consumption metering will therefore continue to be important in the future. It not only ensures a fair allocation of the heating costs, but can also potentially save energy. As an added advantage, the investment involved in individual metering is relatively minor.

Read more about the research here.