District heating connection - questions/assessments

Hello everyone,

I would like to have your assessment regarding the district heating connection (mandatory in the new development area). I am having some difficulty with the classification. The plan is Kfw 40 with a southern orientation (150 sqm).

Question 1: The connection fee includes a buffer tank from the company Enerpipe HP1000ZL. 1000 liters seems a bit much to me - we are currently 2 people. How many liters do we actually need here?

Question 2: The ongoing costs are (all incl. VAT):
30 € monthly basic fee
plus 4.5 cents/kWh
The minimum consumption is 10,000 kWh, which means the costs amount to at least 67.50 euros per month (810 per year).

The minimum consumption seems very high to me - what are your costs per sqm in a KfW 40 house? How can all this be meaningfully compared? We currently pay about 70 euros in the Kfw 70 semi-detached house with about 120 sqm.

Thank you very much for your comments

Buffer tanks are always designed quite large in the systems to avoid being left empty in case of faults. However, the tank has nothing to do with the fresh water, I think you still have a fresh water station included.

The 10,000 kWh of heat in total is already okay for a single-family house. In general, you don't really have any other choice anyway.

The connection is mandatory - but how exactly can the contractual issues be imposed (minimum purchase quantity, size of buffer storage, etc)? Does anyone have experience / is familiar / has district heating themselves?

We had district heating for 10 years before, and in the current development area you could choose it. But we didn’t take it because we had too many bad experiences. If it is tied to the building plot and is basically sold along with it, they can dictate the conditions as they please. If you fuss about it, someone else will just get the building plot.

Unfortunately, we also have this district heating obligation throughout the entire construction area and the same problem as you.

Several neighbors have already told us that their energy costs in the Kfw55 standard have increased compared to their (significantly) older previous houses.
My parents-in-law's house has over 200sqm of living space and four of us live there. The monthly gas costs are lower than what we then have to pay as a basic fee + minimum consumption.
We also find it outrageous, but like you, we had no other choice.

It's great to have a biogas plant... up to the horizon everyone just grows corn to then sell it for good money to the operator. Thanks to subsidies, he makes a killing with that nonsense, and you yourself have 1000 liters of 80° hot water in the house, which nobody can make even the slightest use of, except mixing it back with cold water to about 30° supply temperature for the underfloor heating.