The residential space heating problem in Lithuania

Abstract

Several important problems are associated with heating of housing in Lithuania. Residential heating is heavily dependent on fossil fuel, combustion of which contributes to air pollution and atmospheric build-up of carbon dioxide. Subsidies from the State budget to maintain the residential heat price at a below-cost level declined in recent years, but are often still substantial. Eliminating subsidies for heat is politically difficult. Many households face difficulty in paying their heating bill, which has risen greatly in real terms in the past five years. The problem is amplified since most households in apartments are billed on the basis of their floor area, not on real heat consumption. The magnitude of the above problems is heightened by the inefficient manner in which energy is used to heat most residential buildings. This ineffiaency concern losses in transmission and distribution of district heat, high losses through the building envelopes, as well as lack of proper metering and control of district heat. Improving the energy efficiency of heating is recognized as a n important goal for addressing the problems outlined above.This report describes housing and space heating in Lithuania. It discusses the process of privatization and how it affects heating energy use, as well as implementation of conservation measures and retrofitting. It also discusses some of the measures undertaken by both property owners and by governmental agencies that affect heating energy use. The report summarizes results from a number of recent studies of the potential for energy savings in heating Lithuanian multifamily buildings. We discuss barriers to realization of the potential, and institutional and financial approaches for overcoming them. In closing we recommend actions that should be taken soon to move Lithuanian housing along a path to greater energy effiaency.

Residential energy use in Lithuania: the prospects for energy efficiency

“…Random sampling was applied to both the sample frame of the household energy survey and the building survey to ensure the representativeness of the main socioeconomic characteristics of Lithuanian households (Arpaillange 1995). Our analysis also relies partially on the work previously conducted by authors of this report (Kazakevicius et al 1996), as well as recently published papers on Lithuania (Adamantiades et al 1994;Juska and Bartkus 1997;Lithuanian Department of Statistics 1997a;Martinot 1997;Schipper 1995;The World Bank 1996). In addition, one of the authors (Kazakevicius) participated in the World Bank Appraisal Mission for an Energy Efficiency/Housing Project in Lithuania in January 1996.…”

“…The quality and thermal properties of the precasted concrete panel and clay brick buildings were generally neglected during the Soviet times due to lack of incentives and resources in the construction industry. Therefore U-values (W/degree/square meter) for walls, roofs and windows are much higher compared to Danish standards for similar buildings or to new Lithuanian standards (the higher the U-value, the less efficient the building component) (Kazakevicius et al 1996;Lithuanian Ministry of Urban Development and Housing 1996). The roofs and windows in a very high percentage of older buildings are in poor condition (for example, 39% of roofs and 50% of windows of brick buildings built in 1958-1984 were considered to be in bad condition, Arpaillange 1995), so they are in an urgent need for renovation.…”

Investments to Improve the Energy Efficiency of Existing Residential Buildings in Countries of the Former Soviet Union

“…But in comparison with countries of similar per-capita incomes, FSU countries have a relatively higher per-capita volume of housing stock, leading some to conclude that FSU countries are now "overhoused" relative to their economic ability to support this housing stock (World Bank 1995). Kazakevicius et al 1996;Schipper and Martinot 1993;Schipper et al 1994;World Bank 1994b; other World Bank data.…”

“…Space Heat and Hot Water. Space heat and hot water typically account for about twothirds to three-quarters of total residential energy consumption (Battelle 1996b, Kazakevicius et al 1996;Schipper et al 1994;Nekrasov et al 1993). Most space heat to multifamily buildings is supplied from district-heating systems (either centralized systems serving many buildings or local systems serving just a few).…”

“…Of total heat consumption, about 44 percent went to residential and commercial consumers and the rest went to industry and agriculture. In Lithuania in 1995, because of the decline in industrial production, the residential sector accounted for more than half of total heat consumption nationwide (Kazakevicius et al 1996).…”