**Dynamic Evaluation of Heat Thefts Due to Di**ff**erent Thermal Performances and Operations between Adjacent Dwellings**

#### **Laura Canale 1,2, Vittoria Battaglia 1, Giorgio Ficco 2, Giovanni Puglisi 3 and Marco Dell'Isola 2,\***


Received: 2 March 2020; Accepted: 30 March 2020; Published: 2 April 2020

**Abstract:** Apartment position and operation within buildings play a significant role on energy consumption and also on perceived thermal comfort. Dwellings with favorable positions can have significant benefit, also when heated for a limited number of hours, if compared to apartments located in disadvantaged positions (i.e., upper or lower floors or north-oriented). This may be the cause of debates, especially in buildings with central heating, when heat costs are shared among tenants by means of sub-metering systems. In this paper, authors address this issue by studying the "heat thefts" phenomenon in dynamic conditions in a low-insulated building, when the heating system is used unevenly by the tenants (i.e., with different temperatures and/or use). To this end, a social housing building located in Mediterranean climate, where daily temperature excursions and solar heat gains enhance the dynamics of the heat flows, has been chosen as the case-study. The real operation of the building has been simulated in different operational scenarios and the model has been validated against energy consumption data collected experimentally. Results confirm that special allocation and or/compensation strategies should be taken in heat costs allocation in order to avoid accentuating situations of inequalities, especially in low-insulated and/or occasionally heated buildings.

**Keywords:** stolen heat; energy efficiency; heat metering; heat accounting; dynamic simulation; social housing; building simulation; heat cost allocators; thermostatic radiator valves
