That's an excellent point! Lets just do some maths:
Water cost here is $2.00/m3
Cost of heating 1000 kg of water 20-->60 deg with gas@ $0.02/MJ: ~4010004*.02/1000 = $3.20 (this is central, individual would be abt double)
So the cost of heating is not far from the cost of water... I think this could work.
Thanks, I will try this and see how it turns out. Might report back in a month or so!
I have recently come across a very practical example of a kind of "tragedy of the commons" - the unwillingness to invest in assets that benefit stakeholders indiscriminately. Specifically, on large strata-title apartment projects there is a reluctance to implement such measures as:
- central hot water heating (~ 10% lower all-up costs, ~20% lower operating costs)
- Solar hot water heating (>20% ROI)
- Solar electric power (~10% ROI)
UNLESS some kind of user-pays system is implemented, which would use up pretty much all of the gains.
The concern is of course that providing the above systems would create a "commons" that would tend to be exploited.
I am curious if there are any ideas on a usable solutions, perhaps some kind of workable protocol that would enable the above, or existing success stories - what made them work?