Germany bans oil heaters, requires renewable heat
At the beginning of the year, new rules came into effect for new buildings, which are now required to get at least some of their heat from renewable energy – and oil heaters cannot be installed in such buildings any longer
Remember the Danish ban on oil heaters? Three years later, Germany has followed suit by disallowing the oil heaters in new buildings. The German ban does not go as far as the one in Denmark, however; in Germany, oil heaters can theoretically still be used in renovations.
The building code is stricter, however; the limit on primary energy consumption has been reduced by 25 percent. Only the most efficient gas-fired heating systems can be used under those requirements. Renewables now have to be a part of a building’s heating system for new builds.
Because the ratio of primary to final energy is considered to be 100 percent for solar thermal systems, the new requirement is expected to boost that market. Heat pumps also provide space heat with efficient primary energy consumption and should benefit from the new requirements. A combination of pellet boilers and solar thermal could become popular because fossil-fired boilers cannot be used in combination with solar thermal under the new rules.
For most German buildings, little has changed. In residential renovations, various restrictions apply. Inefficient oil and gas boilers that are more than 30 years old must be replaced – but that requirement took effect in 2015 (report in German). Germany is currently shooting for a two percent renovation rate, meaning that 98 percent of buildings each year are not renovated. And given the current slump in oil and gas prices, the payback for ambitious weatherization is quite long at an estimated 29 years (report in German).
Overall, the new rules are quite complicated. Those wishing to delve deeper can visit the EnEV website (the law is called the Energy Saving Ordinance, abbreviated in German as EnEV), which is unfortunately only available in German.
Source: erneuerbareenergien.de - 13.01.2016
<Remember the Danish ban on oil heaters? Three years later, Germany has followed suit by disallowing the oil heaters in new buildings. The German ban does not go as far as the one in Denmark, however; in Germany, oil heaters can theoretically still be used in renovations.
The building code is stricter, however; the limit on primary energy consumption has been reduced by 25 percent. Only the most efficient gas-fired heating systems can be used under those requirements. Renewables now have to be a part of a building’s heating system for new builds.
Because the ratio of primary to final energy is considered to be 100 percent for solar thermal systems, the new requirement is expected to boost that market. Heat pumps also provide space heat with efficient primary energy consumption and should benefit from the new requirements. A combination of pellet boilers and solar thermal could become popular because fossil-fired boilers cannot be used in combination with solar thermal under the new rules.
For most German buildings, little has changed. In residential renovations, various restrictions apply. Inefficient oil and gas boilers that are more than 30 years old must be replaced – but that requirement took effect in 2015 (report in German). Germany is currently shooting for a two percent renovation rate, meaning that 98 percent of buildings each year are not renovated. And given the current slump in oil and gas prices, the payback for ambitious weatherization is quite long at an estimated 29 years (report in German).
Overall, the new rules are quite complicated. Those wishing to delve deeper can visit the EnEV website (the law is called the Energy Saving Ordinance, abbreviated in German as EnEV), which is unfortunately only available in German.
Source: erneuerbareenergien.de - 13.01.2016