By USAG Stuttgart Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division
Cutting your energy consumption during winter can help the environment and your finances. By reducing the room temperature by 1°C, energy usage can be reduced by up to 6 percent. This reduces CO2 emissions, a major greenhouse gas that causes global warming.
The German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) has published guidelines for more efficient heating: A moderate temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius/68 degrees Fahrenheit in the living and dining rooms, 17 C/63 F in the bedroom, and up to 22 C/72 F in the office and children’s rooms is sufficient to still feel comfortable.
At night and when the house is not occupied for several hours during the day, you can reduce the temperatures to about 18 C/64 F. If you are on vacation, you can even reduce the setting down to 15 C/59 F.
Don’t forget that it is necessary to ventilate the rooms because of accumulated humidity, which can result in the growth of mildew. The proper way to ventilate is to open the windows completely a couple of times a day for about five minutes rather than having window in the tilt position for a longer time.
