Cold local heating network new development area connection line

Dear forum, in the new development where we actually wanted to start building now in March, the local district heating operator has now sent us their latest cost update for 2024. Basically, it says that they want to operate a cold district heating network with about 38 degrees for the underfloor heating and lay a second line with about 70 degrees for the domestic hot water heating. A hot water storage tank or a solar system in the house for domestic hot water heating are contractually excluded. The labor cost is supposed to be 15 cents/kWh, which is already very high. However, my problem is the required connection capacity of 15 KW, which according to the heating operator must be that high since the 70-degree hot water must always be provided in the second district heating line. For each KW of connection capacity, a fixed annual charge of €119 is charged. That would mean a fixed charge of €1785 per year alone. With everything included, we end up paying over €300/month for heating a KfW 55 house!? MY QUESTION: Can the district heating operator really demand this 15 KW connection capacity and simply exclude hot water storage tanks? For heating the house alone, about 6 KW would basically be sufficient. Has anyone even heard of a line for the underfloor heating in district heating and a second line for domestic hot water supply?

Hi,
that is exactly the disadvantage of local/district heating: you are at the mercy of a supplier who can dictate completely absurd prices to you.

Better assume that this is not the end of the line. The thing with the two different circuits sounds to me more like maximizing the effort to increase the contract value as much as possible.

The 15 kW are needed for heating the drinking water. If the trick water is to be heated virtually on the fly, you need that.

The question is whether you have to pay for the "heating" = transfer station in your house yourself or if it is included in the base price. If you save 15-20 k€ on a heat pump, you can of course pay a base fee for a long time and still come out ahead. Depreciation and maintenance of your own heating system also add up to a fixed 1500 euros per year, which most just forget. Then the offer would not be totally absurd.

If you also have to shell out additional money for the transfer station in your house, the calculation looks bad...

Best regards,

Andreas

Morning, yes basically you would be right with the heat pump investment. However, this is a developer new-build area and the developer has designed their calculation so that a heat pump is not needed, but the price for the house is not really reduced because of that. Instead, they offered a somewhat more generous building specification than usual for this development. This would have of course needed to include 15,000 to 20,000 more in luxury, but the whole amount was rather around 4,000 €. And since the connection to the local heating network also costs nearly 7,000 €, you really feel ripped off. If the plot wasn’t so suitable, we wouldn’t have chosen this developer area anyway. But you are right, this is the big disadvantage of a local heating provider, whose cost calculation is currently somewhat over their head due to declining new builds. In the end, you have to decide for yourself whether you really want to go along with it :( Basically, I was only interested in whether everything is legally correct with the 15 KW connection capacity because of the 2nd hot water circuit. And it is questionable to me whether something like this with the two local heating circuits has ever actually been technically implemented anywhere?

We also have a local heating connection and laugh about the heating costs. We couldn't have gotten it any better. Maintenance costs are almost zero, no chimney sweep needed. It couldn't have been cheaper.

But why do you need 2 circuits? That's nonsense, right? What's the point, I can operate a heating system with 70 degrees as well?