This Old House - German Home Energy

Thanks, nice vids! It's true that most homes have very nice windows and insulation, especially modern houses. And we use hot water radiators a lot. However, the other stuff shown there is not even close to a normal German house. Most houses still use oil / gas heating and have no solar panels at all

So don't be too jealous. The EU government also forbids importing cheap chinese solar panels, probably to protect some German manufacturers, so we don't really get a lot of new solar lately. And as soon as someone wants to install new wind generators, you can be sure that a bunch of people will sue them because there's a lot of NIMBY going on here. Also, the new insulation laws that were planned to go into effect soon might be pushed back for 3 years or so to decrease cost of building refugee homes. (Don't get me wrong, we need a place for refugees to live, but why not spend the extra few % to reduce heating costs for the next 20-50 years?)

So the videos depict Germany in a way I'd like it to be, but I know it's not 100% correct.

 

Home ownership since wwII is still far lower in Germany than other developed countries. I don't know all the reasons, but $10K patio doors is probably one of them.

 

Germany's recent step down in solar installs is entirely due to the lowering of the rate homeowners are paid for juice they feed back into the grid. They pay $.28-.30 per kWh at retail which is huge, but only get I think $.12-.16 for each kWh they feed back into the grid. Needless to say, the battery market in Germany is likely exploding!

The Germans single-handedly started this solar revolution 10+ years ago and remain 6-10 years ahead of the US in solar.

 

No. It's because Germany sees housing costs and debts as costs to control, rather than an engine of growth. Germany has a combination of tight credit controls, strong renter rights, and planning policies that keep housing prices down. Ally those with a rationalistic culture and you aren't going to have people desperate to buy.

 

I hate to have to disagree with someone but the real reasons are population. I actually like German innovations in home energy however, the reason the German housing market is stagnant is that Germany has the same population today that it had in the late 1990s, so almost 20 years and no population growth, in fact it is decreasing slightly. This is why Germany is admitting refugees, sure it causes chaos but Germany is desperately short of labor. Same as in the 50s-60s when they admitted Turks to work in factories.

When you have nearly flat growth, and smaller family sizes buying a home is a tough call, it is not going to make you much money that is for sure. In the US in the same period we added nearly 40 million people. 1/2 the population of Germany.