It’s getting cold and we can no longer avoid turning up the heating. However, heating requires energy and costs money – to save money, you should avoid these typical mistakes.
According to the Federal Environment Agency, heating accounts for over two thirds (!) of household energy consumption. So if you heat the wrong way, you are wasting an unnecessary amount of energy and therefore money. So never forget to close the doors to keep the room inside where you do your sports betting. As most German households still heat with gas or oil, the climate also suffers as a result. These are particularly common heating mistakes:
1. covering radiators
The desk, a curtain or the couch – if furniture, textiles or other objects are placed in front of the radiator or cover it, the heat builds up. The room remains cool because the warm air cannot spread evenly. Radiators should therefore always stand freely. Even small objects in front of the heater have an effect.
2. misreading the thermostat
The figures on the heating thermostat show how warm the room is getting – and also provide information on how to save energy. However, many people misinterpret the figures.
Heating thermostat
A radiator doesn’t get warmer faster just because you turn it all the way up.
This is what the numbers stand for:
- *: approx. 5° C, frost protection
- Level 1: approx. 12° C
- Level 2: approx. 16° C
- Level 3: approx. 20° C
- Level 4: approx. 24° C
- Level 5: approx. 28° C
Many people turn their radiators to level 5 to heat their homes faster, but this doesn’t work: a radiator doesn’t heat up faster just because you turn it all the way up. The level only influences the room temperature up to which a radiator continues to heat.
3. ventilate incorrectly
Ventilate correctly: tips against mold
It’s better to air rooms in winter. In winter, the humidity indoors can become too high – proper ventilation helps to combat this. However, you should never tilt the window permanently: Tilted windows hardly provide any air exchange, but cool down the walls near the windows. The heating then has to work even harder to maintain the room temperature – and the risk of mold forming on the cool walls increases.
Tip: If you are unsure whether you already have a mold problem, a test kit can help. Such kits are available online from Ivario, for example.
Regular airing is better: Open the windows completely for several minutes several times a day. It is particularly important to air the bedroom in the morning. The humidity in the room rises particularly high overnight.
4. poorly insulated windows and doors
Old, poorly insulated windows can be thermal bridges. Poorly insulated windows allow heat to escape.A lot of heating does little good if the heat does not stay in the home or the heated room. This happens when windows and doors are warped or the seals are porous and therefore leaky. Some of the warm air then escapes into other rooms or outside.
Check the seals on window and door frames.If you discover gaps or leaks, you can fill them with foam or rubber sealing tape (also known as profile sealing tape) – available for little money at DIY stores.Tenants:inside can also use draught excluders, which help to cover up leaking gaps – and thus save heating energy.Utopia recommends draught excluders made from organic cotton, available from Waschbär, for example.
However, you should also report such leaking windows and doors to your landlord. It can also be worth closing blinds, shutters or shutters and curtains, especially at night, to reduce heat loss to the outside.
5 Incorrect room temperature in the rooms
Not all rooms need the same temperature.Open the windows completely for several minutes several times a day.It is particularly important to air the bedroom in the morning.
- Bedroom: approx. 17° C (level 2 – 2.5)
- Bathroom: approx. 22° C (level 3.5)
- Kitchen: approx. 18° C (level 2.5)
- Living room: approx. 20° C (level 3)
In general, the room temperature should not fall below around 16 degrees to prevent mold growth.
If you are away for longer periods or never use rooms, you should still set the thermostat to the asterisk. The heating will then only run when the temperature falls below 5° C.This protects the heating from frost.
6. heating mistake: overdoing it with the heat
We like it nice and warm in our home – but leaving the heating on at the highest setting is not a good idea. Heating costs a lot of energy.For every degree Celsius less, you can save around six percent of heating energy.
Or the other way round: if you heat the rooms to 24 degrees instead of 20 degrees, your costs may be 24 percent higher. You can get used to temperatures around 20 or 21 degrees.Wear warm sweaters instead of T-shirts at home in winter.Keeping your feet warm is particularly beneficial.
7. dry laundry on the radiator
Even if it works well, you should not leave your wet laundry to dry on the radiator in winter. This causes two problems at once: Firstly, the heat builds up under the textiles and the heat is not distributed throughout the room. Secondly, the wet laundry increases the humidity in the room – especially in winter, high humidity is an ideal breeding ground for mold.
8. heat at the same temperature throughout the day
If you’re not at home all day, you don’t need your home to be cozy and warm. And it can also be worth lowering the temperature slightly at night.
Experts recommend lowering the temperature to (at least) 18 degrees for shorter absences and to at least 16 degrees for longer absences. It also depends on how well insulated the building is: well-insulated new buildings can usually retain heat for longer than older buildings.
It can also be worth lowering the heating – depending on the type of heating and building. Here too, the temperature should not fall below 16 degrees in order to keep the risk of mold low.
You should bear in mind that radiators and rooms retain heat for a while even after the temperature has been turned down, i.e. you can often turn the thermostat down an hour or so before going to bed. Because underfloor heating reacts more slowly, it is even assumed that this will last for two to three hours. Lowering the temperature at night is usually only worthwhile in older buildings with poor insulation.