The impact of the decreasing number of users on the evolution of a centralized heating system

The paper presents an analysis of a centralized heating system located in a city in the west-central part in Romania. We examined the last 15 years of functioning of the system from a technical and economic point of view. One of the main factors that led to the inefficiency of this system, and in the end to collapse, was the reduction of the system’s thermal efficiency due to the decrease of customers over time. In conclusion, we highlighted the necessity of a periodic diagnosis of system’s efficiency and a risk analysis to avoid economic problems and collapse.