Heat sparingly – but how?

Experts give tips

Created: 04/10/2022, 06:30

By: Felicitas Bogner

Many have woken up their radiators from their summer sleep in the past few days.

Due to the high energy costs, the question now arises as to what needs to be considered when keeping the apartment warm.

© dpa

It doesn't matter what kind of heating you have: The prices for gas, oil and electricity have risen dramatically.

It really starts to hurt from autumn, because a large part of a household's energy consumption is used for heating.

It is therefore worthwhile to think through the heating behavior.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen – Summer has said goodbye.

In most households these days the radiators have been turned on again.

It's more expensive than ever this year.

Experts from the Tölz region explain what needs to be considered in order to use energy as sparingly as possible.

"Natural gas can be saved by using less hot water by showering instead of bathing or washing your hands with cold water," says Martina Geisberger, spokeswoman for the Tölzer Stadtwerke.

In addition, heat is lost in the hot water circulation.

This can be turned off at the heating system.

In the current situation, the municipal utilities advise keeping the room heating to the absolute minimum.

According to Geisberger, if you lower the room temperature by one degree, you can save around six percent.

For efficient heat generation, you should have your heating system adjusted individually by the heating installer.

Thermal insulation of the house is crucial

Tobias Grünwalder, heating engineer in Bad Tölz, also noticed an increasing number of customer questions on the subject of heat reduction.

"Many are unsettled." Nevertheless, it is not a new topic for him.

"Even before the energy crisis, customers kept asking how they would heat most sensibly," he reports.

"One thing is clear: nothing comes from nothing," says Grünwalder.

“In other words, if you heat less, you use less energy.

It's as simple as that.” There is no general answer to how cold you can let your own four walls get without causing damage to the building fabric.

"That depends on the walls and the insulation of the house." You should pay attention to the individual room regulation.

"If certain rooms are warmer, it's usually not a problem to let others, where you spend less time, be cooler."

Control heating via app

Ludwig Triebenbacher, Managing Director at “Byenergie” from Benediktbeuern, says: “It is a matter of type how cold you want it to be at home.

For example, I don't want to sit in front of the TV in a hat and winter jacket.” In general, he recommends an app that can be used to regulate the times using thermostats on the radiators.

"This way you can keep it cooler in the house when everyone is at work and use the app to turn up the temperature before you go home," he explains.

Triebenbacher also advises a well thought-out ventilation strategy: under no circumstances have the windows open all day.” In this way, the heat would be gradually drawn outside.

"It's better to ventilate the room a few times and then keep the windows closed." Triebenbacher also recommends keeping the doors of the rooms that you like to be warm closed,

Ventilation is important

Paying attention to good ventilation is also recommended by Dr.

Simon Schmidt, head of the hygrothermics department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics based in Valley.

"If you lower the room temperature significantly, you have to pay attention to a number of things in order to avoid hygiene problems," he says.

Well insulated and modern homes and apartments would tolerate slightly cooler temperatures than older and poorly insulated buildings.

It should also be noted that more moisture accumulates when you are indoors.

Therefore, the following applies: The lower the temperature in the room, the more often you have to air it out.

"So it can be cooler if you're not home for a few days."

Triebenbacher advises, however, to always set the heating controller to the frost protection symbol in winter.

Schmidt recommends using a hygrometer.

"This is a measuring instrument for determining the relative humidity in a room." In well-insulated buildings, the relative humidity should not exceed 50 to 60 percent - in poorly insulated buildings it should not exceed 40 to 50 percent.

Turn down the heating earlier in the evening

The heating technician Martin Fischer from Bad Tölz makes a clear calculation: "The less you heat, the more energy costs you save." He advises not to keep rooms warm that you hardly spend any time in anyway.

He could not give an exact recommendation.

"Every person is different." Nevertheless, it is worth rethinking the target room temperature in every room.

"You can try out how it is with one degree less than you had before and think about how many degrees you need in which room," says Fischer.

The same applies to the times.

"If the heating is turned down an hour earlier in the evening, you save again." It is important to use energy consciously.

For example when showering.

"You can keep an eye on the water meter before and after you take a shower," he advises.

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