I think you might be wrong when you say that paying is central. I would guess that monitoring is much more important. If you waste resources and your neighbors know that you waste resources that can encourage you to use less of them even if you don’t have to pay for your resources.
I know that in Berlin there are projects where the government solves the issue with public-private partnerships.
If the government would pay 1000 per year to heat a particular building it might do a contract with a company to pay the company 900 per year and let the company pay for modernisation that cuts the costs to 800 per year. The private company makes money from the difference of 800 to 900 while the government has to only pay 900 instead of 1000.
If you do have the capital to finance a >20 ROI water heating improvement you might do a deal with the apartment project where everyone wins. If you can do that while really having a 20 ROI you are going to make a fortune.
The problem is that the cost of installing say individual hot water meters to each apartment would more than eliminate the upfront savings, and reading the meters and doing the paperwork would eat up the operating cost savings.
I think you might be wrong when you say that paying is central. I would guess that monitoring is much more important. If you waste resources and your neighbors know that you waste resources that can encourage you to use less of them even if you don’t have to pay for your resources.
I know that in Berlin there are projects where the government solves the issue with public-private partnerships. If the government would pay 1000 per year to heat a particular building it might do a contract with a company to pay the company 900 per year and let the company pay for modernisation that cuts the costs to 800 per year. The private company makes money from the difference of 800 to 900 while the government has to only pay 900 instead of 1000.
If you do have the capital to finance a >20 ROI water heating improvement you might do a deal with the apartment project where everyone wins. If you can do that while really having a 20 ROI you are going to make a fortune.
Now I understand what this post is about. In Germany it is standard that individual use is monitored.
The problem is that the cost of installing say individual hot water meters to each apartment would more than eliminate the upfront savings, and reading the meters and doing the paperwork would eat up the operating cost savings.