In the surrounding area, some pools are already being heated more, but the municipal utilities do not question the cooler water temperatures in the indoor pools. But that doesn’t seem to deter visitors.
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Leah Kramer
It stays cool in the Munich indoor pools. Stadtwerke München does not intend to raise the water temperature in the municipal pools again. In contrast to the surrounding area, where the number of visitors in Erding, for example, has fallen by up to 40 percent since the start of energy-saving measures, the people of Munich continue to go underground on a regular basis. “Comparing the first two weeks of October 2019 and 2022, we are currently seeing around 80 percent of the number of visitors from 2019,” says an SWM spokesman. Comparing the number of visitors with those of previous years is difficult due to the corona restrictions. But the weather also has a major influence on whether many people come to the bathroom in autumn – or not.
In order to save energy, municipal bathing establishments throughout Germany have reduced the water temperatures in their pools. Since the end of July, the Munich sports pools have been heated to a maximum of 26 degrees, previously it was 27 degrees. All teaching pools are now 28 degrees instead of 30 degrees. The children’s paddling pools are a little warmer at 30 degrees, in the heated outdoor pools you can swim at temperatures between 28 (Westbad) and 30 degrees. Higher temperatures are only possible again as soon as the heat supply situation has eased, according to the municipal utility.
Of the ten saunas in the Munich baths that were also closed in the meantime due to the energy crisis, four are now open again. “We know that for many Munich residents, going to the sauna is not only relaxing, but also important for their health,” says the SMW spokesman. You can currently swim and have a sauna in the Olympic swimming pool, in the Nordbad, Südbad and in the Müller’sches Volksbad. The sauna accounts for only a small part of the total energy requirement of a bath. “An average Finnish sauna requires about as much electricity per hour as five hours of continuous drying with a 1800-watt hairdryer,” says the SWM spokesman.