Heating billing
The heating cost billing is part of the operating cost billing for a rented building or a community of owners and includes the costs that arise from the supply of heat and hot water. In Germany, the heating cost billing is regulated by law by the heating cost ordinance. The technical details are set out in DIN 4713 .
The heating costs ordinance obliges every operator of a jointly used heating system to bill the heating costs based on consumption . This obligation cannot be evaded by a contract, i. i.e., it is essential . The only exception is for buildings with up to two residential units, one of which is occupied by the owner himself.
Statement of heating costs
The heating cost billing begins with the listing of all heating costs that have been incurred during the heating period. The heating period usually has to be one year , but not necessarily the same as the calendar year. For example, the billing date of the gas supplier can be used as the billing date.
The first item in the statement of heating costs is the compilation of energy supplies. The individual deliveries are listed with the date, quantity and price. For energy sources that can be stored, e.g. B. oil or coal , the starting stock is also added at the beginning of the heating season and the remaining stock is deducted at the end of the heating season. For energy sources that cannot be stored, e.g. B. gas , it must be ensured that the deliveries are calculated according to the period. This is easiest if the supplier bills on the same key date on which the heating bill is made. Otherwise, the gas meter must be read on the reference date in order to determine the gas consumption in the billing period.
The other items in the heating cost statement include the costs of operating, maintaining and cleaning the system and the boiler room, the chimney sweep costs, the costs of operating electricity, the costs of preparing the heating cost bill and, if applicable, the costs of renting or another type of leasing of use Recording devices or measuring devices ( heat cost allocators , heat meters , hot water meters ). The heating costs do not include repair costs or even irrelevant items such as electricity for stairwell lighting . These costs can possibly be apportioned in the utility bill, but should be kept out of the heating bill because other apportionment keys have to be used.
In the case of so-called connected systems, in which thermal heat is produced and cold water is heated, only the costs of water heating are allocated within the heating cost billing, while the costs of water procurement and the associated wastewater costs are included in the operating cost billing. However, it is also permissible to bill the water procurement costs for hot water in the heating bill.
Distribution of costs
All cost items are added up and form the total costs, which are now divided.
User group separation
With larger heating systems , it can happen that the consumption of different user groups is determined with different recording devices. So are in the object z. B. Apartments whose heating costs are determined using heat cost allocators and shops that are equipped with heat meters. Or the operator of the heating system decides to separate these user groups because of their different usage behavior. In these cases, the costs are initially divided according to user groups. For this purpose, the energy consumption of the user groups is measured with heat meters (pre-registration) and the total costs are proportionally distributed to the user groups. The allocation to user groups does not have to be based entirely on consumption. Part of the costs, but no more than half, can be divided according to the living space, the heated area or the enclosed space.
Separation of the costs of heating hot water
If the heating system also heats the hot water, the resulting costs must be separated from the heating costs. Ideally, the amount of energy for water heating and heating is recorded with separate heat meters. Similar to the separation of user groups, the costs are then divided between heating and hot water preparation.
Often, however, there are no heat meters for measuring the hot water costs. If the amount of heated water is known, the required amount of energy can be calculated using the formula contained in Section 9 of the Heating Costs Ordinance. Only in a few exceptions, in which the amount of heated water cannot be measured by heat or water meters for technical reasons, a flat rate of 18% of the total costs for warm water heating may be applied. However, the 18% rule does not apply to accounts whose period begins on January 1, 2009 or later. The rule of 32 kWh per m² per year now applies here. It should also be noted that in Germany since 2014, the energy share for hot water preparation has to be recorded with a heat meter.
Distribution according to consumption and living space
A heating system, from fuel to room air , never has an efficiency of 100%. Therefore, some of the energy consumed by a user is lost, either because it escapes from the building or because it benefits other users whose rooms the cables go through or who live wall to wall with the heating user ( heat theft ). Even if nobody is heating, costs arise from the standby operation of the heating system. Therefore, the legislator has determined that only part of the costs, namely between 50 and 70%, may be billed according to consumption (consumption costs) and the rest is allocated to the (heatable) living space or to the enclosed space (fixed costs).
The maximum rates of 30/70% can and may be exceeded. Section 10 of the Heating Costs Ordinance says: "Legal provisions that provide for higher rates than the maximum rates of 70 per cent mentioned in Section 7 (1) and Section 8 (1) remain unaffected." This means that legal provisions, e.g. B. in the rental agreement with the residents, it may be deviated from. Or: the owners of a WEG (apartment and property association) decide at the owners' meeting that 100% of the costs are apportioned according to consumption.
Calculation of consumption units and individual billing
In the next step, the measured consumption of the respective user group is added and the costs attributable to this user group are divided by the sum of the consumption. This gives the unit cost. These are then multiplied by the consumption of each individual user in order to determine the consumption costs of the user. The same applies to the living space in order to determine the costs per square meter and the fixed costs of the user.
When calculating the consumption with heat cost allocators, make sure that, depending on the design of the heat cost allocator, an individual factor must be added to each measured value so that the heating output of the radiator is taken into account.
In the past, the readings of individual apartments or rooms were additionally charged with a so-called position compensation factor in order to avoid disadvantages e.g. B. to compensate for poor thermal insulation in the attic . After the introduction of the heating costs ordinance, position compensation factors are no longer permitted in Germany. The compensation must now z. B. be done through a lower rent.
Distribution when changing users
It is often the case that one tenant moves out and a new one moves in during the heating season. It is therefore necessary to create separate accounts for both users. This is not done by preparing a heating bill for the entire property, but by waiting for the end of the billing period and then dividing the costs of the apartment between the two users. It makes sense to carry out a so-called interim reading at the end or beginning of the rental agreement . With these values, the proportionate consumption costs of the two users can be separated.
The consumption-independent costs (fixed or basic costs) and the costs of hot water preparation are divided according to calendar days. The consumption costs of heating are either also divided according to calendar days or according to so-called degree day numbers . Each day or month of the year has a certain percentage of the costs that are specified in the so-called degree day table .
If there is no intermediate reading, the consumption costs are billed using the same method as the fixed costs, i.e. either according to calendar days or degree days.
If the billing takes place with the help of heat cost allocators according to the evaporation principle, the system-related cold evaporation must also be divided between the two users when changing users so that the moving user is not preferred.
If the apartment is not rented again immediately after moving out, it will be vacant. This vacancy is calculated in the heating bill like an independent user. Both the fixed costs and the consumption costs incurred for the vacant apartment must be borne by the landlord.
Heating billing costs
When installing the required measuring devices, it is up to the landlord to decide which devices are used, for example when deciding between heat meters , electronic distributors or evaporators , and whether they are to be bought or rented. The first-time device costs can in any case be fully apportioned to the tenants: the purchase price via a modernization levy, the rental price as well as the maintenance and calibration costs via the heating bill itself.
Usually the billing is not carried out by the operator of the heating system himself, but by a heat measurement service on his behalf . This equips the property with the necessary recording devices, carries out the readings and creates the heating bill on behalf of the home owner.
The homeowner can also do the heating bill himself with his own software or online via the Internet. This can be attractive to users because of the lower costs. It is less favorable for the owner, because he can only allocate the effort for the software, but not his working time and also bears the legal risk in the event of billing errors.
literature
- Joachim Kreuzberg, Joachim Vienna: Handbook of heating cost accounting . 7th revised and expanded edition. Werner Verlag, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-8041-5190-1 .
- Guido Peruzzo: heating billing based on consumption. Commentary and guidance for practice. Comment on the ordinance on the consumption-based billing of heating and hot water costs. With a table and two sample heating bills . 5th fundamentally revised and significantly expanded edition. Luchterhand Verlag, Neuwied et al. 1996, ISBN 3-472-02503-4 .
- Siegbert Lammel: Heating costs regulation. Ordinance on the consumption-based billing of heating and hot water costs (Ordinance on heating cost billing - HeizkostenV). HeizkV. 3. Edition. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 9783406590085
Individual evidence
- ↑ heiz-tipp.de: Record heating costs - heat meters , electronic distributors or evaporators
- ↑ AG Bremerhaven: The costs of the maintenance (maintenance contract) of calibratable hot water meters are apportionable as operating costs of the supply system , judgment of October 1, 1986 - 53 C 512/86
