XI Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2019

In Russia, heat energy provides the existence of the population and economic efficiency. Reliable heat supply, along with water and electricity supply, is a component of the country’s national security and forms the population’s quality of life. Therefore, residential heat comfort must be provided in all Russian regions. It significantly depends on the local climatic conditions and characteristics of heat supply

The main type of heat supply in Russia

The main type of heat supply of the Russian population is district heating (DH); according to the Ros stat data, in 2009 the country’s housing stock received from it 502.3 mln Gcal of heat energy. According to our estimate, approximately 330 mln Gcal enter the Russian households from individual heat sources, starting from Russian stoves and finishing with mod ern generators; the latter are mostly of foreign manu facture, since domestic ones are almost absent. There is no state registration of this heat, although this method of decentralized heat supply in the country is developing rapidly.

The lack of metering devices and high heat losses

The lack of metering devices and high heat losses in the heating mains of DH systems have led to the over all overestimation of the heat energy volumes actually delivered to consumers. Today’s problems with residential heat supply are a consequence of government decisions passed in the late 1950s in order to improve the population’s living conditions. Cheap houses with low resistance of building envelops to heat transfer were built in free areas of cities. This enabled to solve the housing problems quicker in many respects but led to a huge increase in heat losses in buildings and mass construction of DH systems with poorly insulated extended heating mains.

Transition to a market economy

The heat distribution systems constructed in high rise buildings do not allow installing calorimeters in each apartment. As a result, the population has no possibility to control the amount of heat received. The tariff payment for the rated heat consumption in accordance with the area of a dwelling does notdepend on the actual quality of this service. As a result, heating charges are unreasonably equalized in premises, which are similar in area but different in volume. Bureaus of technical inventory have data on each accommodation in the country. Thus, it is not difficult to revert to payment for heat according to the volume, rather than the square meterage, of a dwelling. However, the practice of misrepresented calculations is continuing. Thus, the rated values of heat energy consumption for the heating of buildings, set by the Federal Tariff Service, are also based on square meters. The underestimation of the role of heat in the population’s life in the country has led to very high tariff growth for residential heat supply from DH systems. During the last decade, tariffs on average increased 11.3 times in Russia, and they are continuing grow rapidly. The rise in heating price has exceeded the increase in payments for other utilities and the average price of the main food of social importance, i.e., bread, milk, sugar, and other essential products.

References:

1.A. S. NekrasovS. A. VoroninaV. V. Semikashev, Industries and Interindustry Complexes, Studies on Russian Economic Development.