Lower initial costs have long beers the primary concern of housing contractors and developers. With multiplying energy prices, operational costs of housing have become increasingly important as well . An extremely effective means for cutting down energy consumption in centrally heated multifamily dwellings is to charge according to consumption. If a means of measurement is provided, the psychological momentum of this measure will lead to a sharp reduction. The energy squanderer will no longer be subsidized by the energy conserves. Experience indicates that the introduction of consumption measuring devices for determining allocation of heating costs have lowered consumption by 15% to 30% when compared with flat rate charging. This paper describes how different heating systems such as electrical, steam, hydronic, warm air, etc., should be designed for consumption measurement and which measurement techniques can be applied.

Compared with the hydronic heating system most commonly used in Europe, there is a large variety of heating systems in the USA making it more difficult to offer solutions for the various measurement tasks. Nevertheless, there are reasonable proposals for solving these problems . For hydronic heating systems with warm water heating elements there are inexpensive evaporative heat meters and more expensive electronic heat meters. For hydronic loop systems, integrating heat meters carp be installed. For forced convection heating elements with ventilators, either time counters or kWh-meters provide a means for allocating costs. These techniques, their consequences, cost impact, advantages, and disadvantages are discussed.