Mild winters significantly reduce heating costs

Heating needs for average Helsinki home nearly five per cent lower last year

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Mild winters brought on by climate change are sharply reducing heating costs for Finnish buildings, especially in coastal areas. Last year the need to heat homes was 9 to 12 per cent lower than the long-term forecast of the Finnish Meteorological Institute suggests.
     
For instance, homes in Helsinki had to be heated 4.5 per cent less in 2007 than in 2006. Compared with the long term average, the need for heating was 12 per cent lower.
      Correspondingly, heating needs for houses in Sodankylä in the far north of Finland, declined by one per cent in 2007. Compared with a statistically normal year, heating requirements in Finnish Lapland were about ten per cent lower.
      "The figures are based on temperatures alone. Naturally dampness and even wind have some effect, but nobody knows how much", says Jorma Ruokojoki, a construction engineer for the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities.
     
The change can be felt especially in houses with electric or oil heating.
      If electric heating consumes 18,000 kilowatt hours of energy, a 12 per cent reduction in consumption amounts to annual savings of EUR 170.
      On the other hand, even when taking inflation into account, the price of electricity has risen in the present decade from 15 to 30 per cent.
     
Warmer winters might nevertheless bring indirect monetary benefits to all residents. About a tenth of Finland's buildings are municipally owned, and a decline in heating needs by about EUR two million will bring savings in the millions of euros.
      Hannu Pirinen, director of the Rovaniemi Real Estate Department, estimates that heating costs went down in his department by 20 per cent last year, which means a savings of about EUR one million - a considerable proportion of the EUR 13 million spent on all building maintenance costs.
     
Tampere has also saved about EUR one million thanks to the mild winter, and in Helsinki the savings have been in the hundreds of thousands.
      However, the actual monetary savings on the municipal balance sheet are not quite as high, as the buildings of most large cities are heated with district heat produced by municipally-owned energy utilities; lower heating bills mean less income for the utility.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Willow catkins already in bloom in Vantaa (14.1.2008)
  Poll: Most Finns willing to bear costs of fighting climate change (22.2.2008)
  Climate change brings mild and rainy winter weather - and it is here to stay (18.2.2008)

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