Status: 04/12/2023 09:27 am
From 2024, newly installed heating systems should primarily use renewable energies. For tenants, this could mean higher burdens from which they would have to be protected, the tenants’ association demands.
The German Tenants’ Association calls for more support for tenants when switching to new heating systems. The Federal Director of the Tenants’ Association, Melanie Weber-Moritz, criticized the dpa news agency.
Who bears the costs?
The Building Energy Act, which the traffic light coalition has agreed on, is about to be passed. Among other things, it is planned that new heating systems must primarily use renewable energies from next year. But from the point of view of the tenants’ association, the draft law lacks social cushioning. In the end, the tenants alone would have to pay for the investments in heating through rent increases.
But those affected would also face higher heating costs after switching to heat pump technology, solar or biogas heating. The goal, on the other hand, should be falling heating costs for the millions of tenants in Germany. The tenants’ association calls for amendments to the law in order to ensure that the heating renewal is socially compatible.
Large majority still heat with oil and gas
Of the approximately 41 million households in Germany, almost half are heated with natural gas and almost one in four with heating oil. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, heat pumps currently account for less than three percent.
According to the plans of the federal government, from 2024 every newly installed heating system should be operated with 65 percent renewable energies. This is intended to herald the departure from gas and oil heating systems. Existing heaters should continue to be operated, broken heaters can be repaired. Boilers should only be able to run on fossil fuels until the end of 2044. The existing Building Energy Act is currently in the hearings of the federal states and associations.
The Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) also recently commented on the proposed legislation and called for improvements. Good wages in the skilled trades are crucial in order to get the conversion measures under way in the coming years.