Fewer and fewer gas heaters in new residential buildings

Gas heaters continue to lose popularity with German builders. The proportion of gas used as an energy source in new residential buildings continues to decline, having more than halved within three years.

In new residential buildings in Germany, gas heaters are being installed less and less frequently. In the first half of this year, the proportion of approved homes with primary gas heating dropped to 16.2 percent, like that Federal Statistical Office reported on Thursday. A year earlier, the share had been 25.5 percent. Compared to 2019, the proportion has even more than halved.

However, the statisticians see this as a long-term process driven by legal regulations. The war in Ukraine and the associated gas shortages have so far not had a clear impact on development. In the completed residential buildings, the proportion of gas is even higher: last year, the conventional energy source gas was still used in 34.3 percent of the houses.

Of the 60,200 residential buildings approved in the first half of 2022, almost three quarters (73.7 percent) are to be heated primarily with renewable energies. In the first half of 2019, it was just under half. Heat pumps play the outstanding role here.