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Concerns about gas bottlenecks: The demand for heaters, convector heaters and oil radiators is already increasing in summer this year
Photo: Felix Hörhager / dpa
Many people fear gas bottlenecks in winter - and are therefore already buying electric fan heaters, radiators or radiant heaters in summer.
However, two technology associations are now advising against their use: "We are concerned about the current development, since our power supply is not designed for such a simultaneous additional load," said Martin Kleimaier from the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE).
Since the heaters are simply connected to a household socket, they could - in contrast to electric heat pumps or night storage heaters - not be switched off by the network operator in the event of imminent network overloads, it said.
Local network overloads are therefore possible, said Kleimaier.
Also, on a very cold winter's day, under certain assumptions, the current power plant capacity is not sufficient for these additional loads.
Restoring power could be difficult
In the event of a power failure in a network area, it is also difficult to restore the power supply, according to the VDE.
If "as many affected customers as possible did not switch off their heaters manually, an attempt by the network operator to switch them on would immediately lead to them being switched off again".
Frank Gröschl from the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVWG) recommended increasing the efficiency of gas heating systems in summer - for example by lowering the room temperature, hydraulically balancing the heating system or carrying out maintenance.
"The gas heating can be operated in any case," said Gröschl.
In Germany, around half of all homes are heated with natural gas.
Because of the gas dispute with Russia, the demand for electronic heating options has risen sharply and is likely to continue to rise, the associations said.
However, this type of heating is very expensive.
kko/dpa/AFP
