What heating systems will be allowed in the future? Many owners are racking their brains over this right now. If you own a wood-burning fireplace, you should pay attention to a few things - it is not allowed without restriction.
Berlin – The whole of Germany is discussing the new Building Energy Act (GEG). It has not yet been decided, but many owners are already thinking about their heating future. There are also questions about heating with wood. Are wood-burning stoves allowed according to the GEG? Can they work together with a gas heating system? We answer the most important questions.
Wood-fired heating is still permitted in existing buildings
The short version is: Wood heating will not be allowed in new buildings, but it will be allowed in existing buildings. The option will not be available in new buildings, partly because wood is not available in large quantities.
As with all heating systems from 2024, attention must be paid to the share of renewable energies of 65 percent in existing buildings. This means that if you want to use a pellet stove in combination with a gas heating system, you have to ensure that the pellet heating system provides 65 percent of the heat.
The wood-burning stove is popular. But will it soon be banned? © Jan Woitas/dpa
Wood stoves are not the best option
However, Thomas Hermes, heating expert at WirtschaftsWoche, considers it questionable to choose this option. Because if you have a functioning gas heating system, you don't have to replace it. So it would not be necessary to take action now and install a wood-burning fireplace.
Only when the old heater is completely in the bucket does it have to think about a new system. However, a combination of gas and wood would be very uneconomical: both energy sources are expensive and will remain expensive. This option would therefore entail unnecessarily high heating costs.
However, Hermes adds that pellet heating can be the best option in single-family homes that are poorly renovated in terms of energy efficiency. In houses that were built before 1978 and have hardly been modernized since then, it is necessary to install a heating system that can operate at a high flow temperature. The heat pump - which would be the better option in most cases - needs a particularly low flow temperature to operate efficiently.
Wood heating can also be useful in buildings that are listed and therefore modernization is difficult to implement.
