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can someone explain to me how this would not save energy? I have a very basic model in my head of "energy in/energy out" and it feels like if in the end one person is taking advantage of leakage (but probably not enough to actually get to the same temperature as people around them), then there would be less energy used, but are there non-linear forces at play or something?

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I'm confused too: my intuiton/understanding would be that:

* The total energy use would be lowered.

* The energy use of the neighbors would be somewhat higher.

I don't believe the energy consumption would be higher, but a plausible mechanism is this: When your neighbor heats their apartment only, their radiators need to produce more power than if all apartments are heated. To generate more power, the radiators need hotter water. Producing hotter water lowers the efficiency of the heating system. So there is a tradeoff curve between higher heat loss (because more parts of the building are warm) and heating efficiency. There might be a point where it makes sense to heat more of the building, but I doubt that somehow.

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