Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

Good idea.. The office heating is turned down to 3 here and with that I barely get it up to 19 degrees despite the still rather mild temperatures. The office just never gets any sun because it faces the courtyard to the north. So I’ve just caught a nice cold for now. Don’t even want to know how it’ll be in winter.

We can turn it up to 5, but the main heating is throttled. At first, they also turned off the hot water; showering after grimy assignments was still manageable. But when the plates and bowls didn’t get clean anymore with hand washing, they turned it back on in the kitchens. A colleague then complained that after washing her hands in the toilet, her fingers were even colder than when working; it was turned back on there too. It’s really crazy, the whole thing. If we didn’t have energy, people nowadays wouldn’t survive (excluding open fires), that’s how it is. You really need to realize that when you drive through the frost in your little tin can with crappy heating.

Butt heater is a good keyword. I once read that it even uses less fuel/energy if you only turn on the seat heater in the car (alone) and keep the other blower off or cold. Is there any truth to that?

Butt heater is a good keyword. I once read that it even consumes less fuel/energy if you only turn on the seat heating in the car (alone) and keep the rest of the fan off or cold. Is there any truth to that?

Once the engine is warm, certainly not. Combustion of gasoline/diesel produces so much waste heat that you don't need to heat electrically. As long as the engine is still cold, it can be different. Some models certainly still heat up, for some the heating stays cold. In our company, the heating is so botched that we have about 23-24 degrees even if all thermostats are set to 18 degrees. The landlord also doesn't seem really willing to change anything... well, we'll be out by the end of '23 at the latest and I myself will be mainly working from home starting February anyway...

Butt heater is a good keyword. I once read that it even consumes less fuel/energy if you only turn on the seat heater in the car (alone) and keep the other fans off or cold. Is there any truth to that?

Yes, that is THE recommendation to increase the range of (fully) electric vehicles. Steering wheel heater and "butt" heater on, normal heating/air conditioning off. Gives me about 10-20 km more range in winter despite the heat pump for heating.

I’ll try Tripper soon… oh no… Tibber. I’ll keep an eye on how the prices develop. The cancellation period is only 2 weeks, so I don’t think it’s much of a risk.

The catch with awattar/tibber is the initial conversion to a smart meter. That can apparently take quite a while.
Smart meters are also expensive (€100 p.a.) and that cost remains, unless you switch back if you want to turn your back on these providers.
Of course, sooner or later we will all be forcibly burdened with smart meters and the costs... but personally, I wouldn’t provoke that.

Yes, that is THE recommendation to increase the range of (fully) electric vehicles. Steering wheel heating and "butt heating" on, normal heating/air conditioning off. For me, that adds about 10-20km range in winter despite a heat pump for heating.

Absolutely, seat heating consumes a fraction of the electricity compared to heating the ambient air.

Hmm, my wife always uses both - now full blast. She doesn’t trust the automatic settings either. Always manual on the highest level for heating and fan...

And after 15 minutes she’s of course too warm and what does she do then - exactly, opens the window... :p