Payment for district heating services has become a significant expense for the household budget of apartment residents. Accordingly, the number of users who want to understand the difficult method of calculating payments for the consumption of thermal energy has increased. We will try to give a clear explanation of how the payment for heating in a private and multi-apartment building is calculated in accordance with applicable standards and rules.
Which payment method to choose for calculation
Calculating the cost of hot and cold water indicated on the utility utility receipt is quite simple: the meter reading is multiplied by the approved tariff. This is not the case with heat - the calculation procedure depends on a number of factors:
- the presence or absence of a home meter of thermal energy;
- whether the heating of all rooms without exception is taken into account by individual heat meters;
- how you have to pay - during the winter period or year-round, including in the summer.
Note. The decision on the payment for heating in the summer period is made by the local authorities. In the Russian Federation, a change in the accrual method is approved by the state governing body (in accordance with Resolution No. 603). In other countries of the former USSR, the issue can be solved in other ways.
The legislation of the Russian Federation (Housing Code, Rules No. 354 and new Resolution No. 603) allows us to consider the amount of payment for heating in five different ways, depending on the factors listed above. To understand how the payment amount is calculated in a particular case, select your option from the options below:
- The apartment building is not equipped with metering devices, heat is charged during the period of service.
- The same, but the heat supply is paid evenly throughout the year.
- In a residential apartment building, a collective meter is installed at the input, a fee is charged during the heating period. Individual appliances can stand in the apartments, but their readings are not taken into account until the heat meters register the heating of all rooms without exception.
- The same with year-round payments.
- All premises - residential and technical - are equipped with metering devices, plus a common house meter of consumed thermal energy is at the input. 2 payment methods are implemented - year-round and seasonal.
Comment. Residents of Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus are sure to find among them suitable options that comply with the laws of these countries.
The installation of apartment heat meters and the benefits of such metering are described in a separate article. Here we propose to consider each methodology separately in order to clarify the solution to the problem as much as possible.
Option 1 - pay without heat meters during the heating season
The essence of the methodology is simple: the amount of heat consumed and the amount of payment is calculated according to the total area of the home, taking into account the quadrature of all rooms and utility rooms. How much is the heating of the apartment in this case, the formula determines:
Here:
- P is the amount to be paid;
- S - total area (indicated in the technical passport of the apartment or private house), m²;
- N - rate of heat allocated for heating 1 square meter of area during the calendar month, Gcal / m²;
- T - tariff - price of 1 Gcal of thermal energy.
For reference. Tariffs for utilities for the population are set by government bodies. The heating rate takes into account the cost of heat production and the maintenance of centralized systems (repair and maintenance of pipelines, pumps and other equipment).Specific heat rates (N) are set by a special commission depending on the climate separately in each region.
To carry out the calculation correctly, find out in the office of the company - the service provider the value of the established tariff and heat standard per unit area. The above formula allows you to calculate the cost of 1 square meter of heating an apartment or a private house connected to a centralized network (substitute the number 1 instead of S).
Calculation example. The supplier supplies heat to a one-room apartment of 36 m² at a rate of 1700 rubles / Gcal. The consumption rate is approved in the amount of 0.025 Gcal / m². The price of heating as part of the rent for 1 month is considered as follows:
P = 36 x 0.025 x 1700 = 1530 rubles.
An important point. The above methodology is valid in the territory of the Russian Federation and is valid for buildings where common house heat meters cannot be installed for technical reasons. If the meter can be supplied, but the assembly and registration of the unit has not been completed before 2017, then a factor of 1.5 is added to the formula:
An increase in the cost of heating by one and a half times, provided for by resolution No. 603, is also applied in cases:
- the commissioned common house metering unit for heat energy has failed and has not been repaired within 2 months;
- the heat meter is stolen or damaged;
- indications of the home appliance are not transmitted to the heat supply organization;
- the organization’s specialists are not allowed access to the home meter in order to check the technical condition of the equipment (2 visits or more).
Option 2 - year-round accrual without metering devices
If you are obligated to pay for heat supply evenly throughout the year, and there is no metering station installed at the entrance to the apartment building, then the calculation formula for thermal energy takes the following form:
The decoding of the parameters involved in the formula is given in the previous section: S is the area of the dwelling, N is the norm of heat consumption per 1 m², T is the price of 1 Gcal of energy. There remains the coefficient K, showing the frequency of making payments during the calendar year. The coefficient value is calculated simply - the number of months of the heating period (including incomplete) is divided by the number of months in the year - 12.
As an example, consider the same one-room apartment with an area of 36 m². First, we determine the periodicity coefficient for the duration of the heating season of 7 months: K = 7/12 = 0.583. Then we substitute it into the formula along with other parameters: P = 36 x (0.025 x 0.583) x 1700 = 892 rubles. will have to pay monthly during the calendar year.
If your house is not equipped with a heat meter without documented reasons, then the formula is supplemented by a factor of 1.5:
Then the payment for heating the apartment in question will be 892 x 1.5 = 1338 rubles.
Note. In the case of a switch to another method of payment for utility heating services (from year-round to seasonal and vice versa), the supplier organization makes adjustments - recalculation of monthly payments.
Option 3 - fee for a common house meter in the cold season
This technique is used to calculate the payment for central heating services in multi-apartment buildings, where there is a common house meter, and only a part of the apartments are equipped with individual heat meters. Since thermal energy is supplied to heat the entire building, the calculation is still made through the area, and the readings of individual devices are not taken into account.
Let’s figure out how to calculate the cost of heating with payments during the cold period:
Here:
- P - amount payable per month;
- S - area of a specific apartment, m²;
- Sot - the area of all heated premises of the building, m²;
- V is the total amount of heat consumed according to the indications of the collective meter during the calendar month, Gcal;
- T - tariff - price of 1 Gcal of thermal energy.
If you want to independently determine the amount of payment in this way, you will have to find the values of 3 parameters: the area of all residential and non-residential rooms in the apartment building, the meter reading at the input of the heating main and the rate set in your area.
Calculation Example. Initial data:
- the square of a specific apartment is 36 m²;
- quadrature of all premises of the house - 5000 m²;
- the amount of thermal energy consumed in 1 month - 130 Gcal;
- price of 1 Gcal in the region of residence - 1700 rubles.
The amount of payment for the accounting month will be:
P = 130 x 36/5000 x 1700 = 1,591 rubles.
What is the essence of the method: through the quadrature of the home, your share of the payment for the heat consumed by the building for the billing period is determined (usually 1 month).
Option 4 - accruals for metering devices by year
This is the most difficult way for the user to calculate. The calculation procedure looks like this:
- The size of the average monthly heat consumption is determined in accordance with the readings of the home meter for the previous year (Vyear), referred to the total area of all the premises of the building, as the formula prescribes.
- The obtained value of Vav is substituted in the formula for calculating payment.
- Payments are recalculated annually for the purpose of adjustment according to the following formula.
Here, Rgod and Rkv are the sums of last year's charges on the introductory heat meter for the entire building and concrete apartment, respectively, and Pn is the amount of adjustment.
We give an example of calculations for our one-room apartment, given that over the past year, a common house heat meter has counted 650 Gcal:
Vav = 650 Gcal / 12 calendar months / 5000 m² = 0.01 Gcal. Now we consider the size of the payment:
P = 36 x 0.01 x 1700 = 612 rubles.
Note. The main problem is not the complexity of the calculations, but the search for the source data. The landlord who wants to check the correctness of the payment calculation must find out last year’s readings of the common house meter or fix them in advance.
In addition, annual adjustments must be made with reference to new meter readings. Suppose the annual heat consumption of a building has risen to 700 Gcal, then the increase in the payment for heating should be defined as follows:
- We consider the total amount of the payment for the past year according to the tariff: Rgod = 700 x 1700 = 1190000 rubles.
- The same, regarding our apartment: Ркв = 612 rub. x 12 months = 7344 rub.
- The size of the surcharge will be: Рп = 1190000 х 36/5000 - 7344 = 1224 rubles. The indicated amount will be credited to you next year, after recalculation.
If the heat energy consumption decreases, then the result of the correction calculation will turn out with a minus sign - the organization should reduce the size of the payment by this amount.
Option 5 - heat meters are installed in all rooms
When a collective meter is installed at the entrance to the apartment building, plus individual heat accounting in all rooms is organized, payment during the heating season is determined by the following algorithm:
- The difference between the heat consumption shown by the common house meter and all other meters combined is calculated. The formula is given below.
- Substitute the result in the final formula and calculate the monthly payment for heating.
Why such difficulties? The answer is simple: the readings of a good hundred of individual devices a priori cannot coincide with the data of a common meter due to error and unaccounted for losses. Therefore, the difference is divided between all apartment owners in shares corresponding to the area of dwellings.
Explanation of the parameters involved in the calculation formulas:
- P is the required payment amount;
- S - the quadrature of your apartment, m²;
- Stotal - the area of all premises, m²;
- V is the heat consumption recorded by the collective meter for the billing period, Gcal;
- Vpom - the heat consumed during the same period shown by your apartment meter;
- Vр - the difference between the costs shown by the home metering unit and the group of other devices standing in non-residential and residential premises;
- T - the cost of 1 Gcal of heat (tariff).
As an example of calculation, we take our apartment of 36 m² and assume that for a month an individual meter (or a group of individual meters) “clocked up” 0.6, a brownie - 130, and a group of devices in all rooms of the building gave 118 Gcal in total. We leave the remaining indicators unchanged (see previous sections). How much heating costs in this case:
- Vр = 130 - 118 = 12 Gcal (determined the difference of readings).
- P = (0.6 + 12 x 36/5000) x 1700 = 1166.88 rubles.
When you need to calculate the amount of year-round heating fees, the same formula is used. Only indicators of heat energy consumption are used monthly average, taken over the past year. Accordingly, the charge for consumed energy is adjusted annually.
Why residents of neighboring houses pay different amounts of heat
This problem arose with the introduction of various payment methods - by quadrature (standard), by the total meter or by individual heat meters. If you looked at the previous sections of the publication, you probably noticed the difference in the size of the monthly fee. The fact is explained quite simply: in the presence of measuring instruments, residents pay for a really expended resource.
Now we will list the reasons why apartment owners receive payments with different amounts, regardless of the heat meters installed in the houses:
- The heating of two neighboring buildings is carried out by different heat supply organizations, for which different tariffs are approved.
- The more apartments in the house, the less you can pay. Increased heat loss is observed in the corner rooms and dwellings of the last floor, the rest border the street only through 1 outer wall. And such apartments - the vast majority.
- A single counter at the entrance to the house is not enough. A flow regulator is required - manual or automatic. The fittings allow you to limit the flow of too hot coolant than heat supply companies sin. And then they charge the appropriate service fee.
- An important role is played by the competence of the management chosen by the co-owners of the apartment building. A competent business executive will solve the issue of accounting and regulation of the coolant in the first place.
- The uneconomical use of hot water heated by a heat carrier from a centralized network.
- Problems with metering devices from different manufacturers.
Final conclusion
There are many reasons for the appearance of large amounts in heating bills. Obvious: a building with thick brick walls lose less heat than reinforced concrete "nine-story buildings." Hence the increased energy consumption recorded by the meter.
But before undertaking the modernization (insulation) of the building, it is important to establish control and accounting - to install heat meters in all rooms and on the supply line. The calculation method shows that such technical solutions give the best result.