Environment Minister Tanczos Barna told Europa FM that next week he would present a bill to the coalition for banning the installation of individual gas heating units in new blocks of flats. “If this is supported at the coalition level, we can enter a circuit of approval,” the minister added.
He said the existing individual gas heating units in the apartments would not be affected. “Nothing can be done or it is very difficult to return to centralized systems where everyone has disconnected and each apartment has its own gas heating system,” said the minister. “I believe that the change will be smooth and the concerns are not substantiated because there are many blocks where these common heating technologies are used at the building level. They offer exactly the same flexibility at the apartment level. It offers exactly the same comfort: both the temperature and the period can be set in the apartment as if you had an individual boiler, only it is not in your house and it is at the block level. The pollution is much lower, the pollution takes place at a much higher height at tens of meters with a forced draft, and the dispersion is much better; at ground level, where we walk, it will not generate the same pollution. In the case of individual houses, individual gas heating units will continue to be used “, explained Tanczos Barna.
A similar measure has already been adopted locally in Cluj-Napoca, where real estate developers building blocks of flats with more than six apartments will no longer be able to equip homes with individual gas-fired heating systems. “We propose to prioritize the [centralized] district heating system over any other alternative system, taking into account the need to reduce pollution in the city, to attract European funds to modernize the district heating system and to ensure a long-term vision with energy that will to bring an increase in the quality of life, also felt in a lower bill to the citizen”, Emil Boc declared in December for Radio Cluj, quoted by profit.ro.
The prospect is to eliminate even the common gas heating units in the future, to connect the blocks of flats to the district heating system. “Also, all the projects that the mayor’s office will manage will be connected to the district heating system,” said Emil Boc.