Cons of water conservation?

Infrastructure: Citywide hot water supply, rationale, cons and pros?

• In US, we have only cold water supply. Then water is being heated  by boilers locally. In Ukraine, and I believe this is true for other Post Soviet countries, things are different. Cities there heat up water in large "boiling stations" and provide both cold and hot water through two separate pipes. There could be one or more of those stations per city depending on its size. What are pros and cons of each solutions? So far I can see the following downsides of Soviet approach: Pipes go bad on a regular basis so constant and never ending maintenance is always required. When replacing pipes damaged by the hot water, a lot of road pavement is screwed. Oftentimes it is not fixed properly (part of why bad roads is such a big problem there?). Because of the maitanance, every year people have to live a couple weeks without water supply (not even cold water). The only upside to that is that homeless animals can find hot spots in the city to survive the cold winter. Are there any other upsides? Are there any downsides of providing cold water only, like in US? What is the history and reasoning behind such a big «architectural» decision for both approaches? Thanks!

• Answer:

  Central water heating: Pro: Heating station can be coal- or oil-fired; or use any other combustible material cheaply available, such as wood scraps from nearby factories Flexibility: in general, heating stations are designed with capability to utilize any type of fuel, so in case of gas shortages they can switch to oil, etc. Economy of scale (volume discounts on gas can reach 50%) 24/7 oversight, control and maintenance by experienced on-site personnel If gas-fired, does not require gas pipelines to go to every building, only to the heating station (and cold water pipes already go to every building anyway) Can utilize waste heat (for example, from a steel mill or power plant) Contra: Inevitable heat losses in transmission pipes (yay laws of thermodynamics) When the station shuts down for maintenance, it means shutting down the water for everybody feeding off it Individual heating: Pro: If a boiler breaks down or is shut down for maintenance, it only affects the building (or a section of the building) where the affected boiler is installed. Much smaller heat losses in transmission Does not require a second (hot) water pipe to the building Contra: No oversight (or excessive labor cost if a dedicated person is hired to oversee it) Limited to natural gas as a fuel, which means gas has to be supplied to the building.