Hacker News Reader

> Of four recources commonly metered in Russia - electricity, water, gas and heat

When you say "heat" - is this steam from a combined heat & power plant? I was aware these were quite widespread in Russia but didn't know they were metered.

View on HN

No, not steam, just hot water. Yes, mostly from heat & power plants, but sometimes from gas-powered local boiler plants. They are metered on per-building basis, but there's technical possibility to install individual meter and pay only for actual consumption.

It's fairly common in eastern and northern Europe too. In my building there is a single heat pipe from the city, however each unit has it's own meter for cold water, hot water (for taps) and hot water (for heating). The hot water meters are different in that the first measures the water flow, and the later measures the heat flow.

Does it recycle the cooled water back into the system?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com