[fyfy18]

That sounds ridiculously ineffeicient. My post-Soviet city has district heating, and similar temperatures, but usually bottoms out at -35c.

In each building there is a system which takes the district heat and uses it to heat the water of the building. Both hot tap water and central heating. But the water is separate from district heat, so in each building the temperatures can be adjusted.

In older buildings you still have the issue you describe on a macro level - apartments on the bottom floor are too hot, and on the top are too cold - but it doesn't matter how close or far your building is from the district heating station.

[butteroverflow]

Yeah, they've been talking about implementing something like that for as long as I can remember. The current system wastes so much heat that it's always 10-15°C warmer in the city than outside its borders.

I mean, how much coal do you have to burn to warm the air outside by 10-15°C?

I am from an ex-Soviet city too, by the way.

[fri_sch]

I think whoever is responsible for such a waste of resources should be held accountable for severe damage to the environment and the climate system.

[gambiting]

By whom? They are given a job to provide heat for the city - and they are doing so. The people telling them to do that job are probably also the same people unwilling to schedule any budget to upgrade the system so make it more efficient.

[C1sc0cat]

They are long retired or dead by now

[Gravityloss]

Thermostats have been around for a hundred years or so. Could solve the problem...

What I've heard is that some portion of pension is given as free heating. So it makes no sense for the individual to conserve it. Giving it as money and then billing for the heating could create some other problems too.