THE RESIDENTIAL SPACE HEATING PROBLEM IN LITHUANIA

Several important problems are associated with heating of housing in L ithuania, Residential heating is heavily dependent on fossil fuel, com bustion of which contributes to air pollution and atmospheric build-up of carbon dioxide. Subsidies from the State budget to maintain the re sidential heat price at a below-cost level declined in recent years, b ut are often still substantial. Eliminating subsidies for heat is poli tically difficult. Many households face difficulty in paying their hea ting bill, which has risen greatly in real terms in the past five year s. The problem is amplified since most households in apartments are bi lled on the basis of their floor area, not on real heat consumption. T he magnitude of the above problems is heightened by the inefficient ma nner in which energy is used to heat most residential buildings. This inefficiency concerns losses in transmission and distribution of distr ict heat, high losses through the building envelopes, as well as lack of proper metering and control of district heat, imrpoving the energy efficiency of heating is recognized as an important goal for addressin g the problems outlined above. This report describes housing and space heating in Lithuania. It discusses the process of privatization and h ow it affects heating energy use, as well as implementation of conserv ation measures and retrofitting. It also discusses some of the measure s undertaken by both property owners and by governmental agencies that affect heating energy use. The report summarizes results from a numbe r of recent studies of the potential for energy savings in heating Lit huanian multifamily buildings. We discuss barriers to realization of t he potential, and institutional and financial approaches for overcomin g them. In closing we recommend actions that should be taken soon to m ove Lithuanian housing along a path to greater energy efficiency. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.