Everything should be working fine now: There is money from the government, the heat pumps are there. But hardly anyone wants to buy them. Instead, customers continue to rely on gas heating and tradesmen are despairing. Has the government miscalculated?
When Markus Hufeld talks about his heat pump, it seems as if he is talking about a difficult breakup. He still remembers the exact day, the escalation stages. It was January 8, 2022, and it was cold. “I just wanted it to be warm again,” says Hufeld. The frustration began with the first defect, he paid 5,000 euros for the repair, shortly afterwards the heating broke down again, irreparably this time. A new heat pump could not have been delivered until the following autumn. He decided on a gas heating system. Energy prices were already high at the time because the world was consuming more energy again after the pandemic. The natural gas crisis came a few weeks later when Russia invaded Ukraine. Nevertheless, Hufeld says today: “I am not expanding my gas heating system anymore.” And: “My running costs are currently half what they were two years ago with the heat pump.”