Energy consumption and conservation in the Russian apartment building stock

Abstract

Energy consumption of buildings in Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union has typically been reported in very coarse terms, as annual energy use normalized by weather and floor area. Reported figures, based on estimates derived from available energy-delivery data, have shown that Russian residential buildings consume on the order of twice as much primary energy for space-heating as those in some developed Western countries. Reports have been accompanied with qualitative assertions that higher levels of insulation, reduced air infiltration, and better control of heating systems could reduce energy use. However, there has been a dearth of data that first distinguish Russian buildings by construction type and insulation level, and second attempt to quantitatively pinpoint causes for the relatively high energy use. Such data are needed to focus contemporary energy-conservation efforts in Russia on the most promising areas. This paper presents a preliminary set of information that illuminates these areas, concentrating on the city of Moscow. The analysis breaks down Moscow's district-heated apartment building stock by type and year of construction and by the required thermal standards in force at the time of construction. It aggregates these buildings into three classes according to the type of external wall construction — brick or large block, single-layer panel, and three-layer panel — and estimates overall annual energy use for space-heating via a steady-state model. It then compares predicted and measured energy use, for the aggregation and, more accurately, for a single building for which detailed energy-use data are available. In both cases there is a large discrepancy, with actual space-heating energy use exceeding design predictions by at least 60%. Analytical efforts to reconcile the excess energy consumption for the metered building strongly suggest that the most important cause of relatively high space-heating energy use in the building is poor control of heat delivery from the district heating system.