Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Yeah, About That Furnace Chatter

 In the last day or so.....the Economics Minister (Habeck, Greens) came out and said that there is a draft-plan existing....to carry out some mandated optimization of natural gas furnaces/hot water heaters in Germany. 

How this would work?  Unknown.

My wife generally has a 15-minute visit once a year by the furnace maintenance guy, and if there were issues....he'd note the estimate and man-hours involved. 

Do most Germans do that?  I doubt it.  

Cost factor for what Habeck is suggesting?  I would wager a 15-to-20 minute visit would run at least 100 Euro, and if some optimization chatter were to occur....you'd be talking about another 1,000 Euro minimum....possibly with the guy telling you that your unit is on it's dying legs, and needs to be replaced.

On the one hand....I'd go and also wager that more than a quarter of all German natural gas units are not working at optimum levels.  

But what he's suggesting here is the clear path where the inspection guy tells you that your 16-year old unit is marginally working and a quarter of yearly bill could be cut with a new efficient unit.  Then comes the cost factor....8,000 Euro to remove the old unit, and install a new/better unit.  Adding to this epic story....you'd normally do this in the May-to-September period....NOT October or November.

The negative thing about this whole trend?  Having some government guy mandate this, and it has a price tag attached for the effort required.  

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