How to read your heating cost statement
The statement splits the heating cost between the homes in the building, according to how much each one uses. Here we read it together, step by step.
Before you start
It is one document, in two parts
The first part, the general profile, covers the whole building: a table with the cost for each home, and a page explaining how the cost is divided. The second part is made of individual sheets, one per home: the one that concerns you is there.
The document you see is a sample: names, addresses and serial numbers are made up, and the amounts are a worked example. The statement for your own building may have an item more or an item less. The document shown is the real one, and it is in Italian: that is the document you have in your hands. Each note tells you what to look for on it. As you scroll, the document stays in view with the active box highlighted; the same notes are also in a list you can open one at a time.
General profile · 1 of 2
The table for the whole building
The statement opens with the general profile: one line for every home in the building, and the cost broken down by service. Your building manager needs it to take the figures to the residents’ meeting; you need it to find your own line and compare it with the others.
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Box 1: Which building, and which period
At the top you find the building, the building manager we hand the document to, and the period covered. That period is the heating season just ended.
The heading reads PROFILO GENERALE, and the period appears as Periodo di contabilizzazione. There is also the type of arrangement (Tipo gestione), the rule by which the costs are split: in the sample it is the technical standard UNI 10200. It is chosen by the residents’ meeting, not by us.
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Box 2: The columns: three services, two shares each
The columns are grouped by service — heating, cooling and domestic hot water — and each service has two shares: the one worked out from your usage, and the one split between everybody.
The two columns are headed Vol., the part worked out from your own usage, and Inv., the part split between everybody. If your building does not have one of the services, those columns stay empty: in the sample there is no cooling. The difference between the two shares is explained on the page heating in a shared building.
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Box 3: How to find your own line
Each line is one home, identified by street number, staircase, floor and unit number. Look for the details of your home: the last figure on the line is the total you owe.
The four columns are headed CIVICO, SCALA, PIANO and INT. Do the details not match your home — wrong name, a different unit number, a home you have sold? Tell both your building manager and us. The list of names reaches us from the building, so the correction starts there.
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Box 4: The totals line
The last line adds up all the homes: it is the whole building’s cost for the period, split between the usage-based share and the fixed share.
The line is marked TOTALI. This is the figure the residents’ meeting discusses. It also gives you a quick check: your own fixed share should sit against the total fixed share roughly as your ownership shares (millesimi) sit against a thousand.
Box 1: Which building, and which period
At the top you find the building, the building manager we hand the document to, and the period covered. That period is the heating season just ended.
The heading reads PROFILO GENERALE, and the period appears as Periodo di contabilizzazione. There is also the type of arrangement (Tipo gestione), the rule by which the costs are split: in the sample it is the technical standard UNI 10200. It is chosen by the residents’ meeting, not by us.
Box 2: The columns: three services, two shares each
The columns are grouped by service — heating, cooling and domestic hot water — and each service has two shares: the one worked out from your usage, and the one split between everybody.
The two columns are headed Vol., the part worked out from your own usage, and Inv., the part split between everybody. If your building does not have one of the services, those columns stay empty: in the sample there is no cooling. The difference between the two shares is explained on the page heating in a shared building.
Box 3: How to find your own line
Each line is one home, identified by street number, staircase, floor and unit number. Look for the details of your home: the last figure on the line is the total you owe.
The four columns are headed CIVICO, SCALA, PIANO and INT. Do the details not match your home — wrong name, a different unit number, a home you have sold? Tell both your building manager and us. The list of names reaches us from the building, so the correction starts there.
Box 4: The totals line
The last line adds up all the homes: it is the whole building’s cost for the period, split between the usage-based share and the fixed share.
The line is marked TOTALI. This is the figure the residents’ meeting discusses. It also gives you a quick check: your own fixed share should sit against the total fixed share roughly as your ownership shares (millesimi) sit against a thousand.
General profile · 2 of 2
The costs, and how they are split
The next page explains where the figures come from: what the service cost, how the costs were divided between heating and hot water, and how this year compares with the ones before.
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Box 5: The allocation coefficients
Some of the costs are shared between services: the boiler heats the radiators and makes the hot water as well. These coefficients say how much goes to one and how much to the other.
The box is headed DATI PROGETTO and the table Coefficienti ripartizione spese. In the sample it is 0.560 to heating and 0.440 to hot water: of every euro of fuel, 56 cents end up in the heating account and 44 in the hot water one. The values depend on the system in your building and are settled when it is designed.
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Box 6: What the service cost
The cost items for the year: the fuel, the electricity that powers the system and the management costs. The total is the figure that is split between all the homes.
The box is headed COSTI TOTALI and the three items read Combustibile, Energia elettrica and Gestione. These amounts are not set by us: your building manager sends them to us, and they come from the contracts approved by the residents’ meeting. If a cost looks wrong to you, it is with the building manager that it has to be taken up.
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Box 7: What the whole building used
The energy the building used over the period, in kWh, split between the two shares and between the services.
The box is headed CONSUMI TOTALI kWh. The ratio between the two columns is the proportion in which the cost is divided in your building: how much weight the usage-based part carries, and how much the part that is the same for everybody. It changes from building to building, so this is where you read yours.
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Box 8: How this year compares with the last ones
Costs and usage for the previous years, so you can see whether the building’s spending is going up or down.
The box is headed STORICO COSTI ANNI PRECEDENTI. One thing to watch: a colder year pushes everybody’s usage up. A rise in the price of fuel pushes the cost up too, even when the usage is the same. To see whether you used less, look at your own readings on your individual page.
Box 5: The allocation coefficients
Some of the costs are shared between services: the boiler heats the radiators and makes the hot water as well. These coefficients say how much goes to one and how much to the other.
The box is headed DATI PROGETTO and the table Coefficienti ripartizione spese. In the sample it is 0.560 to heating and 0.440 to hot water: of every euro of fuel, 56 cents end up in the heating account and 44 in the hot water one. The values depend on the system in your building and are settled when it is designed.
Box 6: What the service cost
The cost items for the year: the fuel, the electricity that powers the system and the management costs. The total is the figure that is split between all the homes.
The box is headed COSTI TOTALI and the three items read Combustibile, Energia elettrica and Gestione. These amounts are not set by us: your building manager sends them to us, and they come from the contracts approved by the residents’ meeting. If a cost looks wrong to you, it is with the building manager that it has to be taken up.
Box 7: What the whole building used
The energy the building used over the period, in kWh, split between the two shares and between the services.
The box is headed CONSUMI TOTALI kWh. The ratio between the two columns is the proportion in which the cost is divided in your building: how much weight the usage-based part carries, and how much the part that is the same for everybody. It changes from building to building, so this is where you read yours.
Box 8: How this year compares with the last ones
Costs and usage for the previous years, so you can see whether the building’s spending is going up or down.
The box is headed STORICO COSTI ANNI PRECEDENTI. One thing to watch: a colder year pushes everybody’s usage up. A rise in the price of fuel pushes the cost up too, even when the usage is the same. To see whether you used less, look at your own readings on your individual page.
The part about you
Your own page
From here on the statement has one page for each home: this is the part that is only about you. It carries the readings from your devices, the two shares and the total you owe.
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Box 9: The details of your home
Check that the name, the street number, the staircase, the floor and the unit number are those of your home: every figure that follows refers to this one home.
The heading reads PROFILO INDIVIDUALE. Your role is shown as well — Proprietario for owner, Inquilino for tenant — along with any dates of moving in and out. Those matter when a home changes hands in the middle of the season: the cost is then divided between whoever was there before and whoever came after.
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Box 10: The total to pay
This is your part of the costs for the period. It is not paid to L.I.R.A.: you settle it with the building service charges, as your building manager tells you.
The figure is labelled Totale da pagare, and anything you have already paid appears beside it as Acconti/Conguagli: that has already been taken off. If the total does not add up for you, do not wait for the residents’ meeting: get in touch with our heating office and we will go through the readings and the cost allocation together.
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Box 11: The readings from your devices
One line for each heat cost allocator or heat meter in your home. Each line carries the reading at the start and at the end of the period. The difference between the two is your usage.
The two columns are headed LETT. PREC. and LETT. ATT.: the previous reading and the current one. The conversion factor (FATT. CONV.) is there to make different radiators comparable: a large radiator gives off more heat than a small one for the same figures on the device, and the factor takes that into account. What comes out are the UR, the real units of usage, then converted into kWh.
An asterisk beside a reading marks a special case: an estimated figure, a device that was changed, or a reading you sent us yourself.
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Box 12: Your two shares
What you pay for heating is the sum of two parts: the usage-based share, worked out from your readings, and the fixed share, split according to the ownership shares.
On the page the two lines read Spesa volontaria and Spesa involontaria, with the ownership shares beside them as m/m. This is why a home with the radiators always off still pays something: the fixed share covers the heat the shared system loses anyway. The unit cost (costo unitario) tells you what a single unit of usage costs, and lets you check the sum. The explanation with an example is on why you pay with the radiators off.
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Box 13: The hot water from your taps
If your building makes the hot water centrally, this is where you find the cubic metres drawn by your home. Their cost is here too, split into the same two shares.
The section is headed ACQUA CALDA SANITARIA. The cubic metres are converted into kWh, the energy it took to heat that water: that way hot water and heating can be added up in the same account. Not every building has this section: it depends on the system.
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Box 14: How you compare with the others
A dial shows where the cost of your home sits compared with the other homes in the building, from low cost to high cost.
The two ends of the dial read BASSO COSTO and ALTO COSTO, low cost and high cost. It is there to give you a reference point: if the needle sits well over to the high end, it is worth asking why — heating habits, valves set badly, radiators covered up. Practical advice is in the guides to using less.
A home on the top floor or on a corner tends to use more for the same habits: read the comparison with that in mind.
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Box 15: The key to the abbreviations
At the foot of the page there is what the abbreviations in the tables stand for: UR, kWh, m³, m/m and the marks for the special readings.
The box is headed Legenda. The most useful ones: m/m is the ownership shares (millesimi), UR the real units of usage read off the device on the radiator, kWh the heat energy. All the words of heating are explained in the glossary as well.
Box 9: The details of your home
Check that the name, the street number, the staircase, the floor and the unit number are those of your home: every figure that follows refers to this one home.
The heading reads PROFILO INDIVIDUALE. Your role is shown as well — Proprietario for owner, Inquilino for tenant — along with any dates of moving in and out. Those matter when a home changes hands in the middle of the season: the cost is then divided between whoever was there before and whoever came after.
Box 10: The total to pay
This is your part of the costs for the period. It is not paid to L.I.R.A.: you settle it with the building service charges, as your building manager tells you.
The figure is labelled Totale da pagare, and anything you have already paid appears beside it as Acconti/Conguagli: that has already been taken off. If the total does not add up for you, do not wait for the residents’ meeting: get in touch with our heating office and we will go through the readings and the cost allocation together.
Box 11: The readings from your devices
One line for each heat cost allocator or heat meter in your home. Each line carries the reading at the start and at the end of the period. The difference between the two is your usage.
The two columns are headed LETT. PREC. and LETT. ATT.: the previous reading and the current one. The conversion factor (FATT. CONV.) is there to make different radiators comparable: a large radiator gives off more heat than a small one for the same figures on the device, and the factor takes that into account. What comes out are the UR, the real units of usage, then converted into kWh.
An asterisk beside a reading marks a special case: an estimated figure, a device that was changed, or a reading you sent us yourself.
Box 12: Your two shares
What you pay for heating is the sum of two parts: the usage-based share, worked out from your readings, and the fixed share, split according to the ownership shares.
On the page the two lines read Spesa volontaria and Spesa involontaria, with the ownership shares beside them as m/m. This is why a home with the radiators always off still pays something: the fixed share covers the heat the shared system loses anyway. The unit cost (costo unitario) tells you what a single unit of usage costs, and lets you check the sum. The explanation with an example is on why you pay with the radiators off.
Box 13: The hot water from your taps
If your building makes the hot water centrally, this is where you find the cubic metres drawn by your home. Their cost is here too, split into the same two shares.
The section is headed ACQUA CALDA SANITARIA. The cubic metres are converted into kWh, the energy it took to heat that water: that way hot water and heating can be added up in the same account. Not every building has this section: it depends on the system.
Box 14: How you compare with the others
A dial shows where the cost of your home sits compared with the other homes in the building, from low cost to high cost.
The two ends of the dial read BASSO COSTO and ALTO COSTO, low cost and high cost. It is there to give you a reference point: if the needle sits well over to the high end, it is worth asking why — heating habits, valves set badly, radiators covered up. Practical advice is in the guides to using less.
A home on the top floor or on a corner tends to use more for the same habits: read the comparison with that in mind.
Box 15: The key to the abbreviations
At the foot of the page there is what the abbreviations in the tables stand for: UR, kWh, m³, m/m and the marks for the special readings.
The box is headed Legenda. The most useful ones: m/m is the ownership shares (millesimi), UR the real units of usage read off the device on the radiator, kWh the heat energy. All the words of heating are explained in the glossary as well.
Compliant metering by 1 January 2027
Heat metering systems have to meet the new legal requirements: devices that can be read remotely, and cost allocation that follows the rules. There are 134 days until the deadline: now is the right time to plan the work.
Find out more
The statement is easier to follow with the right words
The heating service
How we measure the heat each home uses, and how the cost is worked out.
Go to the serviceHeating in your building
Who gives you the statement, why you pay even with the radiators off, and who to call.
Go to the pageGlossary
Fixed share, usage-based share, heat cost allocator: the words on the statement, explained simply.
Go to the glossary