Individual metering and charging of heat and hot water in Swedish housing cooperatives

On 14 November 2012 the new EU-directive 2012/27/EU was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. In the directive there is a requirement, among others, for individual consumption meters for heat and hot water to be installed by 31 December 2016 in multi-apartment buildings. Individual consumption meters had earlier been found to create a saving behavior due to the tenants being charged for their own use of heat and hot water. The purpose of this study is to investigate how widespread is the use of individual metering and charging (IMC) of heat and hot water among cooperatively owned multi-apartment buildings in Sweden. An additional purpose is to investigate the level of knowledge of and the attitude to IMC. This has been done through data collection and interviews of board members in randomly selected housing cooperatives, divided into different categories. The result indicates a very low spread and a strong resistance against IMC for heat and hot water. The perception of a low cost-efficiency is probably the most important reason, but also a low level of knowledge about IMC could contribute. The result can give some indication of the work needed to carry out the new EU-directive.