This year, before the start of the new heating law, many homeowners bought a new gas heater.
The lengthy and public debate surrounding the Building Energy Act (GEG) resulted in bringing forward effects, said Ralf Kiryk, department head at the Federal Association of the German Heating Industry, to the German Press Agency. “Most of the people quickly invested in gas heating in order to evade the GEG requirements.”
Great uncertainty among homeowners
A month-long debate about the new Building Energy Act, the so-called Heating Act, with the obligation to install climate-friendly heating systems had caused great uncertainty among many homeowners. After a long struggle, the traffic light coalition then agreed on a compromise. The requirement that from 2024 every newly installed heating system must be powered by 65 percent renewable energy will initially apply to new development areas from January. There are longer transition periods for existing buildings.
As the Federal Association of the German Heating Industry announced upon request, the heating industry is heading for a record year in 2023. In its forecast for 2023 as a whole, the association assumes around 1.3 million heaters will be sold in Germany. By the end of October 2023, more than 1.16 million devices had been sold – an increase of 43 percent compared to the same period last year.
The heating industry last had a similar market development in the 1990s, when the new federal states were thoroughly modernized.
Sales increase of 38 percent for gas heating systems
By the end of October there was an increase in sales of gas heaters of 38 percent to around 694,500 units, and of oil heaters an increase of 107 percent to 94,500. Sales of heating heat pumps rose by 75 percent to 320,500. However, interest in heat pumps has waned as a result of the GEG debate, according to the association. This is due, among other things, to the long-unclear funding situation regarding federal funding for efficient buildings. Applications for funding for heat pumps from the responsible Federal Office of Economics and Export Control fell sharply in 2023.
The member companies assumed that the market would decline sharply in the first quarter of 2024, according to the federal association. “Our companies do not expect a market revival as a result of the Building Energy Act.”
