More than 8,000 Beijing households whose electric heating accounts had been in arrears for four months paid their bills within a week of the electric company's threat to cut off their power on Monday, Mirror Evening News reported.

In 2009, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau and other ministries invested 7 billion yuan in the "replacing coal with electricity" project.

That changeover moved from a coal heating system, typical in bungalow households in the capital, to electric heat.

"The project had been going for six years, starting in 2003," said Tang Songhan, spokesman for Beijing Electric Power Corp.

"It aimed to benefit the public by improving air quality in Beijing and avoiding gas poisoning, which was a potential danger of coal heating."

However, the 70,000 households that were supposed to benefit from the project by 2009, did not show as much interest as the government had hoped.

"Electric heating is much more expensive than coal heating," an elderly woman, surnamed Yang, told METRO.

She had been living in Suluobo hutong in Xicheng district for several decades.

"Last year, each household in our neighborhood spent about 1,000 yuan on heating, whereas in the past the fee only cost us 700 to 800 yuan."

In response to the residents' concerns, an official in the Anpingxiang community, of which Suluobo hutong is a part, explained that since the neighborhood had just made the system reform in the 2009 project, the subsidy from the government has not yet been issued. But she confirmed that the subsidy would be issued by the end of this year.

"The government would never let its people get the short end of the stick. When they get the subsidy, they'll find both systems cost more or less the same," she said.

In Nanguanfang hutong, where coal heating was replaced with electric in 2007, an elderly resident surnamed Meng told METRO: "The heating system in our neighborhood was renovated three years ago. At first, I didn't like it very much; but now I am enjoying the outcome.

"The cost of the electric heating is pretty much the same as coal heating, after the subsidy from the government.

"It is a big relief for our household budget."

He told reporters that they paid their utility bills at a nearby bank.

"Before we arrive at home from the bank, the electricity we just bought can be seen on the meter at home," he said. "Also, our homes are much cleaner now without coal. All the households in the neighborhood have undertaken the renovation."

 Metro