Cheaper and also warmer : Five tips for economical heating
Berlin Heating costs burden many households. The Federal Government wants to pay therefore to owners of housing subsidies even a unique subsidy. But you can often save a little yourself.
By Simone Andrea Mayer, dpa
Heating is expensive. And often this is due to ourselves: We carelessly turn the heating up too high and let the heat out to the room in the wrong place.
This is how you burn cash – especially annoying in times of high energy costs. With these tricks heating is not only cheaper, the room will also be warmer:
Saving tip 1: Turn down one degree
Of course, no one has to freeze at home, and there’s no need for an extra thick sweater either. But usually you don’t need such high temperatures in the room to feel comfortable at all.
For example, the Federal Environment Agency recommends only about 20 degrees in the living rooms during the day. For the kitchen – where heat is produced by cooking anyway – 18 degrees is also sufficient, and 17 degrees in the bedroom. After all, these are temperatures at which we even wear T-shirts outside in spring.
This allows savings to be made: According to the non-profit consulting company CO2-Online, every degree less reduces heating costs by an average of around six percent. Also heating breaks bring something: At night one can lower well the heat regulation around 5 degrees, with absences even the room temperature on 15 degrees set.
Programmable thermostats can help with these heating breaks, but you first have to find the money to buy them. But you can also make the handles yourself on the mechanical thermostat. If you want around 20 degrees room temperature, choose the level three. Level 2 brings 16 degrees. It gets tropically warm at level 4 with about 24 degrees, at level 5 with 28 degrees.
Saving tip 2: Keep radiators free
Who doesn’t know this: The heating is set to 20 degrees, but the felt temperature is far below that? Under certain circumstances this is indeed the case.
Because: For example, curtains over and furniture in front of the radiators hinder the heat emission to the air in the room, according to the Initiative Warme+, an association of heating manufacturers and industry associations. And if then the thermostatic valves are covered, they can not properly detect the room temperature and incorrectly regulate the heat output.
Saving tip 3: Ventilate heating system
If the radiator does not get warm properly, especially in the upper part, there is no point in turning the thermostat up fully. Then there is air in the pipes, which you have to drain, explains DIY Academy. One speaks here of venting.
To do this, use a square wrench to open the valve on the side of the radiator and leave it open until only water comes in. To make sure nothing gets wet, it’s best to keep a bowl handy to collect it.
If a lot of it comes out before you can quickly close the valve again, you have to refill the heating water. A pressure drop is recognizable at the manometer at the plant in the cellar. Tenants in apartment buildings should therefore discuss venting with their janitor or property manager.
Savings tip 4: Don’t turn up the volume too high when you come home
You come home freezing to cold rooms and turn the mechanical thermostat full up to get warm faster? Unfortunately, this does not work – and on top of that may cost extra.
Because with the thermostat one regulates only, which final temperature the area is to reach, not however how fast this is to go. That means: Who sets the thermostat on five, waits not only exactly so long, until the area is warm, as with the step three. It may unthinkingly heat at full power for much longer if you don’t turn it down soon. co2online points this out.
Saving tip 5: Do not ventilate with tilted windows
Even on cold winter days must be regularly aired, otherwise mold will grow in the apartment. However, you should not leave the windows open for a long time in tilt position. On the one hand this airing is inefficient, because over it only few air is exchanged, since no strong air suction develops.
On the other hand thereby the heating costs might rise according to future old building. You do, after all, vent heat out over a long period of time. In the meantime, the walls around the windows cool down, which extracts additional heat from the rooms – which you then have to generate again. Also, this method of ventilation is more likely to cause mold growth around the edges of the windows.
Advised therefore to the regular shock and cross-ventilation – on winter days about every two hours for five minutes, advises the initiative heat+.