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?
The problem is that the cost of installing say individual hot water meters to each apartment would more than eliminate the upfront savings, and reading the meters and doing the paperwork would eat up the operating cost savings.