The new year is still young enough to wish everyone a healthy and successful 2025.
I would like to apologize at this point for the length of the explanation and the professorial semantics. This was not planned and only became apparent while I was writing. The "quick wins" are summarized near the end under 1. to 3.
In the Allgäu (a region in southern Germany, roughly between Lake Constance in the west and Augsburg in the east) I learned the following saying: Money educates people. And unfortunately, this also applies to the topic of sustainability, because careful use of resources actually has nothing to do with costs. But this approach doesn't get us any further.
First of all, energy costs should be divided into those that can be directly influenced and those that cannot be influenced/only indirectly influenced. I am concentrating on an apartment in an apartment building. This corresponds to my offer on Airbnb.
The costs in the apartment are particularly directly influenced. This mainly concerns the electricity used in the apartment and the costs for heating and hot water production.
The electricity costs result from the electricity price and the electricity consumption used. I can regularly compare the price of the electricity I use in the apartment using the well-known comparison portals and, if necessary, optimize it by changing provider. However, if the choice of provider is based solely on costs, sustainability aspects such as "green electricity" are not taken into account.
Let's move on to electricity consumption. Almost 30% of electricity is used in the kitchen (cooking, cooling, freezing, washing up). The corresponding electrical appliances are the cause of costs. Whether it is worth purchasing new appliances depends on the new price and the future development of electricity costs. The savings potential is therefore a solvable but also designable 😉 calculation problem.
What is certain, however, is that the use of old appliances that have been "discarded" elsewhere is an extreme cost driver that should be avoided.
The same applies to electricity costs for IT, TV and audio devices (approx. 30% of electricity consumption) and washing/drying (approx. 15%). It is also no secret that LED lamps use less electricity when it comes to the lighting used in the home (approx. 13%). All information on electricity consumption comes from the "Electricity Mirror" on www.enercity.de."
The following explanations on the costs of heating and hot water preparation are based on my professional work as an expert in real estate valuation and 30 years in the management of a real estate company. In doing so, I will refrain from discussing the complex effects on heating costs that result from the energy configuration of the building, the heating technology used and the primary energy used. The focus is on consumer behavior and the possibilities of influencing this. It is important, however, that the principle of economic efficiency applies to property management, i.e. expenditure on technology, energy supply and facility management is subject to economic efficiency. In addition, according to the normative framework applicable in Germany, 50 to 70 percent of the total heating costs are to be billed according to consumption and the remainder according to living space. The higher the proportion billed according to consumption, the fairer the cost distribution is.
So it is essentially about user behavior. The real estate associations have brochures on correct heating and ventilation that you should be familiar with and that can also be used if prepared correctly. For example, refraining from ventilating with windows in the tilted position and turning off radiators during the heating period. Value-forming parameters are temperature and humidity. In the home too, the perception gap between the real temperature and the perceived temperature must be closed. In simple terms, the rooms in the home should be about the same temperature. Warm air can absorb more of the moisture that develops in the home, which can then be better removed by short bursts of ventilation. In simple terms, the following recommendations can be formulated:
- Ventilation works best if you open the windows opposite the home with the doors open until the water vapor visible on the open windows has disappeared.
- Unheated rooms should be avoided. Opening a door from the heated area to an unheated room has the same effect as taking an ice-cold bottle of beer (and all other drinks) out of the fridge in midsummer. Condensation forms on the cold walls. Heating damp walls leads to higher energy consumption and can cause mold to form.
- Combined measuring devices for humidity and temperature provide guidance. The humidity in the apartment should be between 40 and 60 percent, and the temperature between 19° and 21° C.
I am now very excited to hear the response - I am happy about positive feedback, negative feedback will help me move forward.
