Individual energy savings for individual flats in blocks of flats

It is well known that similar flats in a block do not have the same energy demand. Part of the explanation for this is the location of the flat in the building, e.g. on the top floor, at the house end or in the middle of the building. It is possible to take this into account when the heating bill is distributed on the individual flats. Today, most blocks of flats have individual heat meters to save energy and to ensure a fair distribution of the cost. If all flats have the same indoor temperature, the distribution is correct. In practice, the inhabitants of the different flats maintain different indoor temperatures. The result is that heat flows between individual flats. This decreases the energy consumption in the flat where the owner maintains a lower temperature. The neighbouring flats will have higher energy consumption. Calculations were performed for Danish blocks of flats from 1920, 1940, 1960 and 1980. Normally, we expect the reduction in energy consumption to be around 20% for a 2 °C lower temperature, but for an inner flat the reduction can be up to 71%. The owners of the adjoining flats get an increase in energy demand of 10 to 20% each. They will not be able to figure out whether this is because the neighbour maintains a low temperature or the fact that they maintain a higher temperature. The best solution is to keep your own indoor temperature low. We can also turn the problem around: if you maintain a higher temperature than your neighbours, then you will pay part of their heating bill.