What to do if the apartment is cold, and how to reduce fees for poor-quality heating

Nikolay Kosyak, head of the Rambler/Finance project, answers:

First you need to figure out what temperature in the apartment is considered normal. According to Russian law, the following standards are prescribed: for corner rooms – 20°C; for living rooms – 18°C; for kitchens – 18°C; for bathrooms – 25°C; for lobbies and staircases – 16°C. Temperatures at night may be 3°C lower than the daytime standard. In the northern regions, these standards may be adjusted. It is also important to say that the permissible time for a one-time heating shutdown does not exceed 16 hours.

If the temperature in the apartment does not meet these requirements, you need to submit a statement to the management company of the apartment building. Representatives of the management company must take temperature measurements at a certain distance of 1 meter from the external walls and 1.5 meters from the floor. If, as a result of such measurement, the claim is confirmed, a report is drawn up. The management company must take action, and you can demand a recalculation for heating.

Insulation of the apartment from the inside

How is heat energy consumption calculated?

It is worth saying that success in this matter is mainly influenced by the technical side of the issue, so the main thing is to take the measurements correctly, using the right tools. It is recommended to check the equipment passport.

After this, an official letter is drawn up to the management company with a request to recalculate the amount in the receipt. The application must be accompanied by completed documents. For every proven hour of reduced air temperature, the bill is reduced by 0.15%. In this case, it is necessary to refer to Resolution No. 354 of May 6, 2011.

How to save on heating in an apartment

You can save on heating in your apartment if you install an individual heat energy meter. In modern apartment buildings, apartment-by-apartment personal heating was initially installed. In older homes, you will have to do the installation yourself.

Such personal meters can be installed only in those houses with horizontal wiring. It involves a single pipe that goes through all apartments. In this case, meters are installed at the output and input, which calculate the difference between the supplied and used heat.

In a multi-storey building with vertical wiring, of which the majority are, there is a vertical riser. Pipes are laid from this riser to one or two radiators. In this case, installing a meter on each battery is very expensive.

Then special heat distributors are installed. However, the readings of such devices are taken into account only if a common meter is installed in the house, and the devices are located in 75% of the apartments of the building.

If the apartment has personal meters or heat distributors, costs can be reduced through high-quality insulation of walls, floors and ceilings, windows and doors. This can save heat inside the house and reduce heating needs.

Insulation work is carried out before the heating season begins. In addition, after installing and connecting meters or distributors, you can use one of the methods listed below.

Leading legal consultant of Est-a-Tet company Yulia Dymova answers:

If you feel that the temperature in your living space is uncomfortable, you need to call specialists from the management company and record the air temperature. Next, if there are no results, you need to contact the housing inspectorate so that they draw up the appropriate report. The radiators may be barely warm, but the main thing here will be the temperature in the room, since there are certain sanitary standards for living. In this situation, you record the fact that you were provided with a low-quality service.

Can the management company issue an additional bill for heating?

Is it possible to change the calculation for heating non-residential premises?

Application for recalculation of heating fees

These works must be confirmed by documents confirming these works (work orders, orders, etc.) In accordance with Government Decree No. 307 of May 23, 2006, namely clause 49, I ask within no more than 3 working days provide the above documents and information that will allow me to personally verify the correctness of the adjustments made. If I do not provide the required information, I will be forced to contact the Office of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare in the Moscow Region, in order to bring Moscow Housing Company LLC to administrative responsibility for violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation regarding the protection of consumer rights .

Heating stairwells in residential buildings norms and rules

purpose of houses;
climatic conditions of the location of residential and technical structures;
type of radiators;
material of their manufacture and type of coolant;
location of devices;
number of sections in the heating element;
the degree of insulation of rooms, houses, individual premises, flights of stairs;
the amount of pressure in the heating system and the ability to withstand pressure by pipes and other elements of the system.

In cases where the room is corner, in houses where there is no window on the wall, a radiator must be installed on this wall based on the above calculations. Heating will prevent the wall from freezing, dampness, frost or icing appearing on it. Radiators on the staircase are also installed under the window, and if this is not possible, then, as at the entrance to the entrance, on the right or left wall near the window.

Who does the recalculation?

ATTENTION! According to Article 161 of the Housing Code, each apartment building must choose one of the forms of management - management company, homeowners' association, housing cooperative.

It is to this organization that you need to apply if there are grounds for recalculation. The servicer is responsible for providing high quality services, so it is obliged to deal with payment problems.

You should contact the resource supply company when the house is under direct control. Residents of apartment buildings, by law, have the right to engage in the maintenance and management of the house themselves, and to draw up contracts with resource supply companies directly.

An example of recalculating the cost of a service for subsequent adjustment.

To carry out such a recalculation, it is necessary to determine several factors: determine the total volume of thermal energy for the period of the previous year; if the metering device was not used for the whole year, but only part of it, then the total volume of such heat energy is calculated based on the provisions of the agreement with the organization providing the service; the resulting volume is divided by the calculated total area of residential and non-residential premises in the house, including offices and shops. Let's take a real example. According to the meter, it became known that the volume of heat energy for the previous year amounted to 1000 Gcal (gigacalories). The measured total area of all premises of this apartment building was 5700 square meters. m (this does not take into account general purpose places - basements, attics and others). Therefore, (1000 / 5700) / 12 = 0.014 Gcal/sq. m monthly. The formula shows that the amount of thermal energy used is divided into all twelve months, so the resulting value must be applied every month throughout the entire calendar year. Value 0.014 Gcal/sq. m. is used for subsequent calculations. So, for the city of Izhevsk, the average monthly payment for heat will be: 0.014 x 943.60 x 1.18 (VAT) = 15.58 rubles/month.

Documentation

Submitting an application to the management company or to the supplier’s organization requires some additional documents; they should be prepared in advance:

You will need a title document for the property, a registration certificate for the apartment. The technical passport must indicate the heated area - important data for calculating the payment.
If there was a hearing from the Housing Inspectorate or a court, their decision or order is also submitted.
Attached is a home inspection report, which should record facts of temperature deviation in the house from the established norm.

Common property of apartment buildings

There are many places in high-rise buildings that can be classified as common areas:

staircases;
vestibules;
hall;
a place for a concierge or security;
corridors;
places for strollers;
technical floor or attic and others.

How is heating paid for in an apartment building? All this space is either heated from risers or receives heat from the walls of apartments, so it is important that the building has a common building meter. Its indicators are distributed equally among all apartments

If there are no devices, then heating metering in an apartment building is calculated based on the average per 1 m2 for all residents. To make the calculations correctly, you need to take into account several indicators.

Read below about how to charge for heating in an apartment.

In favor of the supplier

At the end of the year, a recalculation may be made in favor of the heat supplier. The reason for this is a violation of heat consumption, which manifests itself in damaged seals, ignoring the timing of meter checks, and in violating the integrity of the heat supply pipeline.

IMPORTANT! If the seals on the meter are damaged, payment can be made according to standard standards, taking into account the area of the apartment and the number of residents.

Payment will also be made for unauthorized connection to the network. But to this it is worth adding the amount of fines related to administrative punishment for arbitrariness.

So what can you do to pay less for batteries?

install weather-compensated automation on the heating unit;
balance the home heating system;
insulate the roof and facades (at least the end ones);
install thermostatic valves or control valves (taps) on radiators in apartments;
exclude illegal alterations in the heating system of the building - moving radiators to the balcony, heated floors from the heating system - all this generally increases the cost of heating receipts.

It is possible to fight “traditional craftsmen” with the help of a thermal imager. Small portable models are quite affordable. Your neighbor doesn’t allow anyone into his home, and you suspect him of illegal redevelopment that is causing your rooms to freeze? The device will show whether a loggia or balcony is attached to the apartment (it is extremely difficult to reliably insulate them). But there are many other reasons why an apartment can freeze. Here you definitely need to look at the whole house.

Household equipment does not know how to quickly respond to weather changes. But this can be fixed. It is necessary to contact the management organization, and it itself, or with the involvement of a contractor, develops a project for installing weather-compensating automation on a heating unit and an estimate for this work.

The most difficult thing is to gather neighbors for a general meeting of home owners and convince them to pay for this equipment. It is at this meeting that residents must vote on the building's energy-efficient future. The document with signatures is handed over to the management organization, after which your mission ends. The management company itself will install weather-compensating automation on the heating unit and charge residents for this equipment.

For example, for this modernization of the central heating system, residents of the house at 48 Sofya Perovskaya Street paid 3 rubles 16 kopecks per square meter of total area per month for one year, or 174 rubles 44 kopecks per month for a standard two-room apartment with an area of 55.2 square meters.

Thanks to the modernization of the central heating system, starting from January 2020, the heating fee has decreased by 5 rubles 48 kopecks per square meter of total area or 302 rubles 50 kopecks per month for a standard two-room apartment. The cost was recouped in less than one year and began to pay monthly dividends in the form of significant reductions in heating bills.

The amount of payment for housing and communal services largely depends on ourselves and on our attitude towards the house in which we live.

Saving heat in a private home

To save on heating a private home, you can install a system with a wind generator and solar panels on the land. Autonomous alternative equipment will provide an independent source of heat and electricity.

In addition, you can install a special waste burning boiler in your home. So, you will save the environment and get additional heating.

Some experts recommend installing a heat pump that uses underground low-temperature heat from the soil or groundwater. In this case, the temperature should not drop at least plus one degree.

This way you will get 75% of the heat naturally. However, this method cools the soil and ground around the house, which disrupts the natural process. By the way, a heat pump is effectively combined with a water floor and provides great savings.

Plan your house wisely so that the windows face the right side. During construction, use an insulated foundation, plinth and blind area. Be sure to insulate walls and ceilings, floors, attics and basements, windows and doors.

Moreover, it is better to insulate the walls from the outside. You can make an insulated facade, additionally insulate balconies and loggias, terraces and verandas. Now let's find out how to reduce heating fees if it is gas or electric.

Heat in our entrances - radiators and radiators

It has been established that the inevitable heat loss in our ventilated entrances is 10-12%. These are big numbers. The entrances are cold and drafty, not because they don’t have radiators or are cold, but because the entrance doors are poorly fitted, crooked and won’t close. And also because of poor quality and old window frames, often with broken glass.

But this is not a topic for our article. Today we are talking about heating in the entrance. It was said above that a special niche should be provided for the heating device in the wall or under the window sill. In addition to the recess in the wall, many factors are taken into account, such as: