“Maximum 11 degrees in the rest of the house”: the couple has been living without heating for weeks – a consolation offer from the community

Created: 12/31/2022, 5:06 am

By: Volker Camehn

Leen De Geest tries to bring at least some warmth into her apartment with an electric heater.

However, the device does not make it to a room temperature of more than 19 degrees.

© Volker Camehn

The low groundwater puts the heat pump of a Neubiberg couple out of action.

As a result, they have been living without proper heating for six weeks.

Neubiberg

– Leen De Geest and her husband Peter Gorcica have had a more comfortable time around Christmas.

The groundwater heat pump, with which the couple has been warming their house in Neubiberg for 20 years, failed completely on November 12th.

The heating stayed cold from now on, there was no hot water either.

And it wasn't because of the aging heat pump: the groundwater level in the region has fallen so much that it was no longer possible to operate the heating system accordingly.

Specialist company on the case from Neubiberg: Never experienced anything like this

"The Brunnenbau Huber company found that there was hardly any groundwater left during an inspection - they had never experienced anything like it," says Leen De Geest.

In fact, the Bavarian low water information service of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) has been showing water levels for the Unterbiberg area that have been falling steadily for months, most recently a new low on December 22nd.

"We then bought two radiators with which we at least heat the living room," says the 63-year-old.

But that's expensive: "The electricity costs us 35 euros a day," according to De Geest.

The heat pump consumes just 170 euros of electricity per month.

And in the meantime, the Neubiberger electricity providers have also increased the prices, so from February the electricity costs are likely to rise to up to 1400 euros per month.

So what to do?

Authorities can't help

Leen De Geest and Peter Gorcica contacted the Munich District Office.

Here they were understanding, if a little helpless: "The district office has no options for action in the matter, since the decline in groundwater is of natural origin.

A permit under water law cannot give a right to an inflow of water in a certain quantity and quality,” says an email reply dated December 9th.

The advice: The couple should contact the municipality of Neubiberg.

Here, too, one did not get beyond words of comfort and referred to "the newly furnished warming rooms".

In the senior center (Hauptstraße 12), older people could meet "and warm up with a hot cup of tea or coffee".

A second warming room "can be found in the municipal library at Rathausplatz 8".

Couple from Neubiberg: Only the living room is heated

Meanwhile, Leen De Geest and Peter Gorcica are trying not to lose their optimism: "Somehow we manage to live with it, we are boomers who have been around the world and are making the best of the situation," they say.

And they were forced to take measures: "We sealed off the open living room with a thick thermal curtain." The living room acts as a "warm room", it is electrically heated to 17 to 19 degrees.

"In the rest of the house, the maximum temperature is 11 degrees." A new heating system, which is operated by an air heat pump, is to be purchased in the medium term. A not very cheap conversion, the costs for this should be in the five-digit range.

Leen De Geest: "In addition, an air heat pump will probably not be available until autumn."

This is how the pump works

A groundwater heat pump works as follows: groundwater is extracted from the ground via a suction well, also known as a feed well, and the heat pump then extracts the heat from the water.

The cooled water is then returned.

In order to put a groundwater heat pump into operation, however, groundwater must be available in sufficient quantity and quality.

The groundwater must not contain too much iron or manganese, otherwise there is a risk of deposits in the heat exchanger.

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