How to pay 3 times less for heating: story of Kyiv housing co-op

Photo: Rubryka

Viktoriia Hubareva

City heating is carried out with thermal power plants that run on gas or coal. Both are depleted natural resources. When they are processed, toxic substances are released into the air. The heavy metals and trace elements in emissions can accumulate in various human organs or concentrate in soils, agricultural plants, get into the human body with food. The more energy a thermal power plant has to produce, the more emissions it creates, which means it does more harm to city residents.

It's still impossible to correct the situation fully and switch to "green" energy on the capital's scale or even of a small town. But there's another way out. It is a reduction in energy consumption in homes whose infrastructure is, to put it mildly, so outdated that it consumes 3.4 times more heat than modern methods allow.

Photo: Rubryka

Residents of the capital's co-op "Izumrud" know how to make a house energy efficient and reduce heating costs several times. For the fourth year now, they have been taking part in government programs, improving the quality of their homes. Using the saved funds they install LED bulbs, redecorate common areas, pay extra wages to janitors and plumbers.

But it wasn't always so. According to the head of the cooperative and a house resident, Svetlana Chaban, earlier, they had regular floods because of the old infrastructure inside the house. The basement was dirty and damp, and it was impossible to step over the old pipes without obstacle to close the required valve quickly. The temperature in the apartments was different because of poor circulation, the tenants complained now and then.