Everyone should take this warning seriously
The federal government has decided that from 2024 only climate-friendly heating systems may be installed. Appropriately, there should be a subsidy that increases the incentive and does not overload anyone financially. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner is now stepping on the brakes and warning against expectations that are too high.
Funding for heat pumps should be limited
In Germany, millions of old oil and gas heating systems will have to be replaced in the next few years if they break down or have reached a certain age. The new heaters must then run on 65 percent renewable energy. Pure gas and oil heating systems that work with fossil fuels are then out of the question. The heat pump should take over.
Even if old gas and oil heating systems can still be operated and repaired after 2024, there will come a point at which a new heating system will have to be installed. According to Economics Minister Robert Habeck, this is exactly where a socially acceptable subsidy to compensate for the additional costs compared to gas heating should come into play. But the traffic light coalition is not quite unanimous either. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner has other plans and want to save.
The FDP boss says to the Rheinische Post (via daily News) that the government wants to speed things up and avoid social hardship, but he thinks that the support should apply to the heating system to be replaced and not just to income, as Robert Habeck envisages. So would they climate-damaging heaters are replaced and the effect on the environment would be greater. There should also be limited support for replacing the heating system.
The Federal Minister of Finance has not revealed exactly what this limit will look like. It is quite possible that, for example, you will be guided by the subsidies for electric cars. Initially, there might be a high promotion as demand is high and availability is poor. Over time, however, heat pumps will become cheaper and cheaper and this could lead to a limitation and expiry of the subsidy.
What you need to know about heat pumps:
Many details about the heating replacement are still unclear
There is currently a subsidy for the installation of a heat pump of up to 40 percent. It is still not known exactly what the new funding will look like, although it should apply from 2024. Many people currently do not know whether they should quickly install a new gas or oil heating system in order to save unnecessarily high costs. But Christian Lindner also warns against this, because the rising CO2 price will make heating with fossil fuels unprofitable in the next few years.
