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At the end of August, the heating from the summer break came back in many places.
The cold days at the end of August were a welcome change after the hot period with temperatures above 35 degrees. But what made a listener of the consumer magazine “Espresso” frown: his apartment was suddenly heated. And that, although the temperature in the living room was still over 23 degrees. “That’s absurd!”
Avoid automatic mode in summer
“It is a common phenomenon that the heating switches on as soon as the outside temperature drops,” explains the independent energy consultant at the Swiss Agency for Energy Efficiency, Andreas Pfeiffer. Normally the heating limit is 14 to 15 degrees.
“In practice, however, I find that the heating limit is often set very high, at 16 to even 18 degrees.” Andreas Pfeiffer calls this the “zero problem attitude”. This is because landlords would receive fewer complaints about cold living spaces. “If it’s too warm, hardly anyone complains,” says the expert.
In summer, we recommend switching the heating over to pure hot water operation.
Energy consultant Pfeiffer therefore advises against running a heating system in automatic mode: “In summer, we recommend switching the heating system to pure hot water operation.” The building also has enough storage space to bridge a few cold days.
Adjust radiators and underfloor heating manually
In a rented apartment it is worth turning off the radiators. The snowflake symbol on the thermostat is used for this. “If you have underfloor heating, you can set the thermostat to around 20 degrees,” then the heating hardly turns on. In this way, tenants can save energy and ancillary costs. Pfeiffer also recommends speaking to the landlord about the problem.
By the way: In the past, you weren’t allowed to turn the radiators off completely, because otherwise they would cause an unpleasant hissing or even whistling. This is related to the pumps of the heaters. Newer pumps adjust automatically, which is why the radiators can now be turned off completely.