Heating: Germans hardly actively saved energy in 2022

Highlights: Heating: Germans hardly actively saved energy in 2022. Despite high prices and warnings of shortages, it was not the efforts of households that helped Germany through the energy crisis. This is shown by an evaluation of consumption in almost 4000 residential buildings. The households required a total of 10.6 percent less heating energy, but this was almost exclusively due to the mild winter. If you subtract the temperature effect, you get an active saving of only 1.4 percent. For households with gas heating, the figure was 3.5 percent.

Despite high prices and warnings of shortages, it was not the efforts of households that helped Germany through the energy crisis in 2022 – but above all the mild winter. This is shown by an evaluation of almost 4000 residential buildings.

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Boiler room in Arnsberg: "Appeals for savings alone are not enough"

Photo: Wolfgang Maria Weber / IMAGO

Private households in Germany hardly actively saved heating energy in 2022 – despite high oil and gas prices and urgent warnings of a supply crisis. This is shown by an evaluation of consumption in almost 4000 residential buildings, which was carried out by the non-profit consulting company co2online and which is available to SPIEGEL.

The households, mostly detached and semi-detached houses, required a total of 10.6 percent less heating energy, but this was almost exclusively due to the mild winter. If you subtract the temperature effect, you get an active saving of only 1.4 percent. For households with gas heating, the figure was 3.5 percent.

In the summer of 2022, the Federal Network Agency had actually set a savings target of 20 percent for gas consumption. Russia had gradually turned off the gas tap to the Federal Republic of Germany after the invasion of Ukraine.

Due to the lower deliveries, there was a threat of a supply crisis last winter. In the worst-case scenario, companies were threatened with forced shutdown. Supply chains could have ruptured and jobs could have been lost.

"The deeper data analysis shows that appeals for savings alone are not enough," says Tanja Loitz, Managing Director of co2online. Experts see several reasons for this.

For example, German gas storage facilities were well filled by the end of 2022 – which counteracted the urgent warnings of the Federal Network Agency. In addition, consumers receive little recognition for saving energy, and the effect of their actions on the big picture is hardly apparent. This is likely to dampen the motivation of many to change their own behaviour.

In addition, it is difficult to consume less heating energy, especially in energy-inefficient buildings – because the houses simply cool down too quickly. In 2022, consumption in buildings with a medium-poor efficiency class even increased by up to 3.4 percent compared to the previous year.

Co2online therefore recommends state minimum efficiency standards and renovation requirements. Tenants could thus be protected from excessively high heating costs, it was said. Energy-efficient houses with new heating and thermal insulation saved between 50 and 80 percent of energy. Experts also recommend that consumers be more actively informed about energy-saving measures and that they be more closely supported in their implementation.

At least a small population group was already particularly frugal in 2022. For around ten percent of the households evaluated, the temperature-adjusted savings were 20 percent and higher, writes co2online. What exactly motivated these people to change their behavior is not apparent in the data. There were hardly any deviations from the sample as a whole – except that they lived in slightly smaller apartments.