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Air-to-water heat pump in front of a single-family house

Photo: Karl-Heinz Hick / JOKER / IMAGO

The traffic light coalition is not yet in agreement, the opposition is visibly enjoying the dispute over the heating law – and you? Keep a cool head and make your own plans. You don't have to wait for the legislator to do this.

You can get good information about financing your new heating system online. Nationwide, 13,000 energy efficiency consultants are also available to help: They provide a little personal advice on heating. The cheapest such advice is at the currently quite overcrowded consumer centers. Or you can get an all-round package for your house from the energy consultant, preferably with a step-by-step renovation roadmap. Although this is significantly more expensive, it is subsidized by the state with up to 80 percent.

In any case, make a plan. This will save you a lot of money and you will notice that there is no need for hectic, fear and panic around changing the heating system.

Why not wait for the legislator?

In March 2022, the traffic light coalition had agreed that Germany should phase out fossil heating as quickly as possible. The phase-out is imperative in order to meet the requirements of the Climate Act. At the time, all those involved wanted a rapid changeover – also to reduce dependence on Russian gas and oil. The finance minister called his own energy from the ground and air "freedom energy".

The most important means of making the switch is a new building energy law, which is intended to prohibit the new installation of classic oil and gas heating systems from 2024. The clear ban is also because the mere curling was not enough: Even with subsidies of 30 to 45 percent, the corresponding restructuring in Germany has progressed far too slowly in recent years. "We will now stipulate by law that from January 1, 2024, as far as possible, every newly installed heating system should be powered by 65 percent renewable energies," says the federal government's package of measures to deal with high energy costs, which the coalition adopted in spring 2022.

One year later – the first energy winter without Russian gas is behind the republic – the traffic light coalition has gotten into a fight over how to implement the plan from the previous year. The threat from Russia no longer seems so close, the lobbyists for the old have dug in. Now it turns out that one party apparently does not primarily want to save the climate, but rather the gas network. This is worth 270 billion euros, explains FDP parliamentary group chairman Christian Dürr in the television program "Hart aber fair". Perhaps it could be used for green hydrogen far in the future. The other party, the Greens, have (for quite good reasons) with a state secretary so clearly insisted on the heat pump as a solution that it now comes across as a threat to the homeowner.

Whatever the outcome of the squabbles in the coming weeks, the message should be clear to you: you need your own plan.

But what does it look like? A new oil or gas heating system is not the financial solution if your current heating system finally gives up the ghost. The last filling of the heating oil tank actually cost 2022.2 euros per liter in spring 10, over 6000 euros for 3000 liters. The neighbour's gas supplier increased the price of the basic supply to 30 cents per Kwh last autumn – 6000 euros for 20,000 Kwh, it can't go on like this. Especially not when the gas price brake ends in 2024 and CO₂ levies are added in the future. You have already spoken to your heating engineer – but he told you that you would have to spend 70,000 euros for a really good solution with a heat pump and new radiators. That sounds priceless.

But it usually doesn't have to be that expensive. They find a way.

Your preparation

Your first step: Determine how bad your home's energy consumption actually is. Take your latest oil and gas bills and see how many kilowatt hours you've burned per year. Then calculate how much heating surface your house has: square footage of all rooms that are heated in your house, including the heated basement or attic. Divide the kilowatt hours consumed by the square meters. The number that comes out of this is your specific consumption. If it's higher than 250, your house is an extreme energy guzzler. A well-renovated single-family house should achieve a value between 75 and 125.

Small start

You now know how big the task ahead of you is. If you just want to know what kind of heating you want, there is an inexpensive initial consultation from the consumer centers. The consultation at home costs a maximum of 30 euros, there is also a purely telephone consultation. Alternatively, you can use online tools from CO2Online.

Big start

The task is bigger? Next, bring an energy efficiency consultant into your home. For the major consultation, in which a step-by-step restructuring roadmap is drawn up for the coming years, you will receive 80 percent funding from the federal government, at least for the first 1300 euros. But only if your energy efficiency consultant is registered with dena, the German Energy Agency. After all, there are 13,000 of the energy consultants in Germany. Sometimes even your chimney sweep is there.

In order to support you in your search for qualified advice, my »Finanztip« colleagues have put together a simple checklist.

The ideal process

The energy consultant will probably not come to you for another two months, the women and men are currently very busy. Use the waiting time to prepare. You need the data on your heating needs, preferably from the past three years; You need the technical documentation for your heating system – alternatively, you can take the data from the last hydraulic balancing that your heating company has done.

The expert will come to your home, take a look at the plant technology and buildings and write you an individual renovation roadmap (iSFP). In the best case, you can use it to turn your house into an efficiency house heated with renewable energies. There is already a lot of funding for this.

You can. But you don't have to. Because if you have the plan, you still have a choice: you don't have to implement a single point of it. But if you carry out some or all of the recommended measures, there is now a bonus of five percent on the respective funding. Timeframe: 15 years.

As you can see, there is no reason for hectic. This also applies in practical terms, because only 0.7 percent of all heating systems break down every year, said Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz recently in the Bundestag. That's around 140,000 heating systems throughout Germany. Maybe there are 200,000. Germany's installers have already installed 800,000 or more heating systems every year in recent years, almost 2023,100 heat pumps in the first quarter of 000 alone, by the way.

Is the Efficiency House too ambitious for you?

Your 20-year-old heater will usually last for several more years. A good energy consultant will also include a list of immediate measures in the renovation roadmap. They are directly feasible, not expensive but still really effective for savings.

Because no matter what the future of your heating system looks like: If you have to heat less, the new system is smaller and cheaper. And your future consumption of electricity, wood pellets, biogas or district heating will be much lower. Maybe your municipality even has a special plan that is worth waiting for. Or there is a provider who offers you the heating as a whole as a service. At a fixed price, you will then get a new heating system installed, which belongs to the service provider. You always pay the same monthly for consumption. If savings are achieved, the service provider benefits. This is called contracting in technical jargon.

In addition, the consultant will discuss possible courses of action with you, describe the possible next steps and attach an approximate price tag to all this. This gives you an overview of the costs and allows you to plan in the right order. As a general rule, the insulation should be installed in front of new windows if possible. Only then the heater, where a smaller model is sufficient.

If you pay income tax, there is already a decent subsidy for such a step-by-step approach. In the case of existing properties, you can gradually implement the measures for which the money is currently available. You can then deduct 20 percent of the total costs from your tax liability, up to a total of 40,000 euros.

Implement the plan

Now you have your plan. Now it's time to put money aside and get offers for the first steps. If the prices of the offers are far removed from the house numbers that your energy consultant has called, please consult them. What does she say about the offers? Should you just wait until the madness stops with the craftsmen? Has the government now agreed on new funding programs, can you tap into subsidies?

Until your heating system breaks down in a few years, you can easily work through the first steps in your plan. Until then, let the hype subside, the craftsmen return to normal bills. The state authorities will establish the new subsidy and thus enable the disbursing offices to pay out subsidies promptly – not just six months later.

And if, probably frequently, it is to become the heat pump, it will be much cheaper and probably even better by then. The German manufacturers, from Viessmann and Bosch to Vaillant and Stiebel Eltron, are currently investing billions in order to bring millions of new pumps onto the market in the near future. And the international competition doesn't sleep either.

She, on the other hand, can leave all the back and forth cold – because you now have your own plan.