When people decide to cut their apartments off the centralized heating system, this increases the bills for the apartments remaining in the system, Chisinau’s heat utility Termoelectrica has warned.

The neighbors of the pulled-out apartments are compelled to pay higher heating bills because the system was designed in such a way that a certain amount of heat needs to be provided to an apartment building and the costs are shared equally between the receivers, so fewer receivers mean higher bills, the utility explains in a press release.

To illustrate, the utility gives some numbers: in 2003 a 53-apartment building with only 3 apartments not in the system had an average consumption of 1.340 gigacalorie per apartment, coming with a bill of 1,295 lei; in 2016 with the number of pulled-out apartments rising to 13, the average consumption in that same building was 1.671 gigacalorie, meaning a bill of 1,615 lei, or a 19.8% increment. In giving these numbers however, Termoelectrica fails to provide the price of one gigacalorie in the given years or consider inflation.

An alternative advised by Termoelectrica to pulling out of the centralized system and installing separate heating boilers would be a horizontal heat distribution system, with separate meters for each apartment. Evidence shows that the residents of buildings with horizontal distribution systems pay by 34% less than those with vertical systems.

Termoelectrica has recently launched a communication platform to inform the building administrations of the horizontal system’s benefits. In July a condominium association of five buildings already agreed to install one.