Well, when my electricity was suddenly cut off a few weeks later, I was told that 60 RMBs' (about 6 euros) worth of electricity was included in each month's rent, but if you ran out of that, then you had to pay extra on top.
The meters for all the rooms on each floor are prominently displayed in the hallway, right in front of the elevator/stairwell, and you can tell at any time how much electricity credit you have left.
I may just be a really cheap bastard, but I was surprised by how fastidious (and creative) I quickly became about how and how much energy I am using -- and more recently about how much cold I could force myself to endure.
The interesting thing is, it's not a matter of affordability -- as I think with 15 euros, or at most 20 euros, per month, I could use the electric heater in my room quite liberally. It's just a matter of being aware of how much I am using, and most of all, how much I have left.
(A swedish kind of death, I can relate to you much better now! -- although I guess I still have the more favorable situation, since at least I can control how much cold I want to put up with, while you are at the mercy of your landlord's economic whim.)
Side-note: When a pack of U.S. students moved home early just before Christmas, and I jumped at the chance to move into one of them (as my previous room had unpleasant plumbing issues.) To my great luck, I got a room facing south -- i.e. bathed in daylight sunshine -- and I was amazed by how much that heat was stored up in the room over the course of the day, in contrast to my previous north-facing room, which was bitter cold throughout the day. It's one thing to know the sun's power, it's completely different to feel it! Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
Last night it got down to -19. We still haven't turned on our heat. We did close the windows though.
I would not be surprised if we spend more on air conditioning than heating.
aspiring to genteel poverty
See, the heating is district heating which makes much more sense then direct electric heating. Now how to get the landlord to crank it up on cold days is another question.
This is regrettably not the most wasteful situation I have encountered. In a dorm I lived in, both heat and electricity was included in the rent, however the landlord was cheap with the heating on cold days. Thus the students got electric heaters and used more expensive electricity. So in summation: energy was wasted, the students had to buy electric heaters and the landlord lost more on the electricity bill then they saved on heat. Stupid company.
On your wider point of metering, I think that is a key. If people don't know how much they use and when they use more (does the computer or TV use more? how much do you save on changing the lightbulbs?), it is hard to expect them to cut down even if power gets really expensive. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
