District Heating Consumption Record-High in January

Consumption of district heating was more than 25 percent above average last month, the coldest January of the past decade.

According to the Finnish Energy Industries association, the average district heating bill for a detached home was 36 euros higher than during a "normal" January. This is based on the long-term average between 1971 and 2000.

For the average apartment, last month's bill was about 19 euros higher.

Altogether Finland consumed 5985 gigawatt hours (GWh), which was 32 percent higher than a year ago. However it falls short of the record from January 2003, when consumption exceeded 5100 GWh.

Finland has an exceptionally high usage of district heating, which is far more efficient than individual house-by-house heating systems. About half of all buildings have their heat piped in from regional generation stations. More than 2.6 million of the nation's 5.3 million people live in homes heated this way.

YLE