What is important to know about individual meters of central heating system?

A centralized heating system saves energy because, each homeowner pays for the consumption of his/her home. In addition, lower overall consumption reduces greenhouse gas emissions.  

Let's begin the explanation, there is a confusion about the obligation to install individual central heating meters. The answer must be adapted to each case, but as a general guideline it is always the right option to save and know what heating system we have.

What does the Spanish law says? According to Royal Decree 1027/2007, which approves the Regulation of Thermal Installations in Buildings, new constructions with communal thermal installations must have an energy meter that allows a measurement per house of which is the heating consumption. From the legal forecast we can deduce the commitment of the European legislator -and of the Spaniard who adapt it to national law- to promote efficient and, of course, centralized systems. Currently, however, there are still many old buildings that do not have a meter. In them, the distribution of expenditure is based on the coefficient or that agreed by the Community.

In March 2018, the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Digital Agenda published a draft Royal Decree regulating the accounting of individual consumption in thermal installations in buildings.
With this, the Government seeks to complete the transposition into the Spanish legal system of Article 9 of Directive 2012/27/EU, which established that on 1 January 2017 households should have individual heating meters: we are behind schedule.

Let's continue with the explanation, to measure the consumption made in homes with central heating that have not yet been subjected to individualization, there are two types of devices: cost distributors and energy meters.

The choice depends on the type of heating system:

- Those in ring: they have only one entry and exit point per dwelling. Therefore, in this type of installation it is usually feasible to install individual meters at the entrance of each home.

- Those in column: in them the radiator of a room of the first floor shares entrance with the same of the upper floor  the use of individual consumption meters is not technically feasible. Therefore, heating cost dividers will have to be used to measure the heat consumption of each radiator.

Now let's talk about how the heating and hot water costs for are distributed.  It is essential that the distribution of the amounts to be paid be recorded in the resulting minutes of the Owners' Meeting. If we are not scrupulous there will be conflicts in the Community.

It is therefore worthwhile to go deeper into this point, in the amount to be paid all the expenses of the general accountant will be included. Attention: the amount will not always be exactly the sum of the individual meters as there may be residual consumptions. In addition, it should be borne in mind that as there are different items involved in the calculation of heating costs, these should be divided into those that are considered as fixed: that is, those that do not depend on the consumption made by each owner and those variables that are determined exclusively based on the consumption of the owner.

In the fixed quota of the expenses of the boiler should be included:

The maintenance and conservation of the boiler and all the common horizontal and vertical pipes up to the access to each one of the housings.
The possible transformation that is done in the boilers and its possible amortization if it was decided to count it.
All the repairs required by the installation.
Part of the fuel, be it gas, diesel, pellet, etc., that the heating system needs.

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