Energy flat rate, additional child benefit and lower fuel taxes: With these and other measures, the SPD, Greens and FDP want to relieve citizens of the high energy costs.

In one point, this is a relief package, but more of a burden: when it comes to heating.

Julia Loehr

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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From January 1, 2024, every newly installed heating system should be operated with 65 percent renewable energy.

Even if this passage is accompanied by a “if possible”: In fact, the installation of a new gas heating system will soon no longer be permitted in most houses.

The aim of Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is for as many houses as possible to be heated with an electricity-driven heat pump as soon as possible.

In the real estate industry, among craftsmen, but also within the traffic light coalition, there is rumbling.

It is true that a heat pump is installed in every second new building today.

Because the systems compress heat from the air or the ground, they are also considered “green” if the electricity they need comes from nuclear or coal-fired power plants.

However, the requirement of 65 percent renewables should not only apply to new buildings, but also when new heating is required in an existing building.

The change affects millions of property owners: there are 21.3 million buildings in Germany, 13.9 million of which are currently heated with gas.

There are also 5.3 million houses with oil heating.

The systems last 15 to 20 years on average.

According to Habeck's plans, the system change should then take place at the latest.

"Open to technology and, above all, free of ideology"

Housing companies consider the planned amendment to the Building Energy Act to be impractical.

Because heat pumps usually only work efficiently if the building is well insulated and there are large heating surfaces, something in the form of underfloor heating.

But even if these requirements are met, "pure heat pump operation in existing houses can lead to exorbitant electricity bills in frosty weather," warns Axel Gedaschko, President of the General Association of the Housing Industry (GdW).

He hopes that so-called “hybrid solutions” will also be allowed.

For example, heat pumps as a supplement to gas boilers, with the latter covering the peak load during the heating period.

The Central Association for Sanitary, Heating and Air Conditioning is already calling for "a large number of exceptional and hardship regulations, especially if the 65 percent target cannot be achieved technically and economically".

The association cites apartment buildings with gas floor heating and without connection to a district heating network as examples.

The German Energy Agency (Dena), on whose expertise Habeck's ministry also relies, considers the heat transition away from gas and oil to electricity to be feasible.

"In buildings built after 1995, there should hardly be any problems installing a heat pump," says Christian Stolte, Head of Efficient Buildings at Dena.

"That's about 4.8 million houses." He estimates that around half of the older buildings are insulated to such an extent that heat pumps can be installed.

"So we're talking about around 12 million buildings where you could start right away."