Gas heating from 1.1.2024 - What to do if the heating is defective?

Hello!

My mother-in-law currently lives (is the owner) in a mid-terrace house from around 1920. The whole thing is uninsulated, old windows, etc. Heating is done with gas, the boiler is almost 20 years old.

As of 1.1.24 there is the new regulation/law that with a new heating installation 65% of the heating energy must come from renewable energies and we are, to put it mildly, a bit concerned about how that is supposed to work if the boiler should break down.

Option 1) Heat pump: Basically ruled out because we would have to completely refurbish the house (insulation of the basement, exterior walls, roof, new radiators and pipes, new windows). That is financially not feasible and also not possible at all while she is living there. Also, it is not possible to plan when the boiler will break down and with a one-year delivery time for a heat pump she would have a cold house for a year. In addition, she has a small extension with a rental apartment that we have just renovated. A new gas heating system has been installed there. If we switch to a heat pump now, that will definitely also lead to complications there.

Option 2) Quickly install a new boiler by the end of the year. Then you have peace for 20 years (repairs are still allowed). Mother-in-law is 76, that will probably be enough.

Option 3) When the heating breaks down, install a hybrid heating system made up of heat pump, gas and solar thermal. Although that will probably not be really cheap either...

Option 4) Switch to an eco-gas tariff (e.g. [Polarstern Wirklich Ökogas]) when the gas boiler breaks down.

Am I seeing it correctly so far? So, is option 4 really an option to avoid the renovation until she no longer lives there? Are there any other possibilities that we may not have considered yet? And if you can really avoid all this by switching to eco-gas – how is it supposed to be checked who has which contract, etc.?

1. Conversation with the mother-in-law, what do you want (unsere Schwiemu (88) wants to stay in the house until the end) not to remodel, so that she no longer feels comfortable and moves to the friend in assisted living. 2. How many m2 living space and previous gas consumption.

Option 5) install a good used gas boiler promptly.

Option 5) install a good used gas boiler promptly.

Who installs something like that? The specialist companies also refuse to connect self-purchased heat pumps or similar.

1. Talk with the mother-in-law, what do you want (our mother-in-law (88) wants to stay in the house until the end), not that you renovate, she no longer feels comfortable and goes to a friend in assisted living. 2. How many sqm of living space and previous gas consumption.

As said, renovation is currently not an option for mother-in-law, and is also financially at least difficult. Therefore, option 1 from the original post is not an option either.

Gas consumption is currently about 12500 kWh for approx. 145 sqm, but it is not really representative, as after the renovation of the extension there is also gas there (70 sqm) and mother-in-law does not heat the whole house either.

Our heating technician installed a used hot water storage tank for us last month that he took back from a customer. I would just nicely ask around at the companies. If they installed a heat pump somewhere or put in a new boiler three years ago, then they know the device.

Ecogas is not a renewable energy.

If the conversion is excluded, I would probably install a new boiler.

We are also troubled by the problem. Our gas heating system is now 13 years old. In the long term, we want photovoltaic and heat pump, but you also have to be able to afford it, and how are you supposed to solve the problem with delivery times if the gas boiler breaks down, say in October, and you can’t get another heating system? We are getting ST this year, but that does not result in 65% RE.