Dbeing in demand is new for Christine Schaller. Also that politics suddenly plays such a big role in your job. The energy consultant always had to know about funding pots and building regulations, but the issues are a few sizes larger right now. The war in Ukraine, the rising gas prices. In addition, there is the fight against climate change: in Berlin they are actually banning oil and gas heating, in Brussels they are discussing compulsory insulation for buildings. A lot of people are looking for Schaller’s advice.
When she started twenty years ago as an energy consultant for the consumer advice center in Nuremberg, Schaller was often smiled at. Like many others in the industry, she now tells of long waiting lists and customers who she has to put off with online courses. “People have been running into our booth since the war, we can hardly cope with the rush.” The stories that Schaller is currently experiencing give an impression that the heat transition could become more complicated than the federal government imagines.
Christine Schaller wants it to succeed. She does the energy advice out of conviction. Schaller, who works as a freelance architect when she is not working as a freelancer for the consumer advice center, drives an electric car and volunteers in a one-world shop. When she bought a house from the 1950s in Schwaig near Nuremberg in 2007, she first insulated it properly, installed underfloor heating and built a photovoltaic and solar system on the roof. She wants to buy a heat pump soon. “I’m concerned with counteracting climate change,” she says.
Energy consultant for twenty years: Christine Schaller in the garden of the Kuhl family, whose house she examines from the basement to the top of the roof.
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Image: Tobias Schmitt
However, Schaller follows with dismay what politics is currently doing. “The way things are going, it only creates uncertainty,” she believes. When Schaller says this, the discussion about the idea from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to ban the installation of oil and gas heating systems from 2024 is in full swing. Much has become clearer since the cabinet decision on Wednesday, but the uncertainty has not disappeared. Schaller notices again and again what this uncertainty leads to. Last year, for example, many of their customers were still afraid of not being able to pay their bills and wanted to get off gas as quickly as possible – now suddenly many want to quickly install gas or oil heating before it is banned.
Uncertainty can also be felt in the Kuhl family in the Thon district of Nuremberg, whose house Schaller inspected from the basement to the top of the roof on a cloudy morning. Dana and Johannes Kuhl bought the property in 2020: a terraced house, recently renovated by the previous owner, with a small garden. Dana Kuhl currently finds what many young families dream of “already stressful”, she says with a view to the many crises and debates. “You don’t know where it’s all going,” she says. “It’s also a big financial burden for us.” Her husband works as an engineer in the automotive industry, she is a doctor, but is now on parental leave after the birth of their daughter.
Dana and Johannes Kuhl did not contact the consumer advice center because of Minister of Economics Habeck, they simply wanted to find out what else could be done about their house for a long time. He is enthusiastic about technology and has already covered the roof and the garage with photovoltaic modules. She calls herself the “brakewoman” and now they just want some expert advice.
Should stay for now: Kuhl shows Schaller the gas boiler in the basement.
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Image: Tobias Schmitt
After a few minutes, Christine Schaller advised the Kuhls not to use a photovoltaic system. After a quick look at the family’s records, the energy consultant knows that the three consume significantly less electricity than the average. “With their low consumption, a photovoltaic system will not be profitable,” she says. The purchase, the fixed costs, you would have to recoup that first. “But things like that can change quickly, maybe the family will grow again, and with a teenager you use up a lot more.”
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