As of: February 21, 2024, 10:26 p.m
By: Amy Walker
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Even if the sales figures for 2023 were not rosy: the heating industry is adapting to the heat pump.
A large heating engineer is now completely discontinuing gas heating.
Berlin – 2023 was an eventful year for the heating industry: It was only the energy crisis that caused the prices for oil, gas and electricity to jump to new heights.
And then the debate about the Building Energy Act (GEG), which was ultimately nicknamed the Heating Act.
All of this gave the industry a record year.
In 2023, sales increased by more than a third compared to the previous year, as the Federal Association of the German Heating Industry (BDH) announced on Monday (February 19).
The year was characterized by special effects: a boom in demand for heat pumps was followed by increased demand for the modernization of oil and gas heating systems.
The uncertainty that accompanied the GEG made the heat pump less attractive - the order books remained empty until it was not clear what the funding for the new law would look like from 2024.
Thermondo is abolishing gas heating
But now that the GEG has finally come into force and the future of heat pumps has been anchored in law, the industry is hoping for a new boom.
For this reason, the largest German heating manufacturer Thermondo has decided, according to information from
Ippen.Media
, to completely remove gas heating from its range.
“Thermondo sold the last fossil heater in February 2024.
After almost eleven years, an era is coming to an end for Germany's largest heating installer: thermondo is now fully concentrating on heat pumps, photovoltaics and other technologies for climate-neutral living and sees itself as making the energy transition possible in single-family homes," says a press release.
It wasn't until the summer of 2023 that the company also removed oil heating from its range.
Robert Habeck (Greens) wants to see as many heat pumps installed as possible.
(Photomontage) © IMAGO/Frank Hoermann / SVEN SIMON
Gas heaters that have already been ordered will still be installed, Thermondo emphasizes, as will maintenance and service of installed heaters.
Heating industry expects better year 2024
In 2023, a total of 1.3 million heat generators were sold in Germany, as the BDH announced.
This corresponds to growth of 34 percent compared to the same period last year.
The last time the manufacturers achieved sales of a similar magnitude was in the 1990s, when the modernization of heating technology in the new federal states was included in the balance sheet.
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In the first half of the year, manufacturers recorded “a sustained boom in demand for heat pumps”, which was due, among other things, to consumer concerns about a possible gas shortage as a result of the war in Ukraine.
In the second half of 2023, however, the debate about the GEG amendment and future state funding led to increased demand for the modernization of oil and gas heating systems, while sales of heat pumps declined, explained the BDH.
When asked, Thermondo rated this development as a “positive development” despite the slump in the summer.
“Now there is clarity and it is important to convince even more homeowners to switch to the heat pump,” said a press spokesman for the company.
The first half of 2024 is still characterized by uncertainty
According to the BDH, the heating industry is optimistic for the first half of the new year, despite the current “high level of uncertainty in the market and the rather cautious expectations of manufacturers”.
“With the GEG and the new funding guidelines coming into force, there is now finally planning security for all market participants and, above all, for consumers,” explained BDH Managing Director Markus Staudt.
This means that “now is the right time to look at heating modernization and tackle the heating transition in your own four walls”.
Against this background, the BDH, together with the Central Association for Sanitation, Heating and Climate, appealed to politicians to launch an information offensive about heating technology solutions and new subsidies.
“Paragraphs must now become built-in heaters,” demanded BDH managing director Staudt.
With material from AFP