Smart thermostats help Hamburg reduce heat consumption by 30%

The thermostats are self-adapting and are able to maintain a constant temperature in public buildings

Today, Hamburg authorities announced that a new innovation in the district heating system would allow public buildings to save up to 30% of their usual energy consumption - smart and adaptive thermostats. As the winter season rolls around and Germany prepares to turn on the heaters, city officials hope to become a role model for energy efficiency.

Furthermore, according to an official statement, this innovation will not be used only during this winter’s energy crisis. Instead, it would help Hamburg’s public buildings become more climate-friendly in the long term.

Intelligent thermostats can account for wasted energy

City authorities have installed intelligent thermostats on around 10,000 radiators, that cover 50 public buildings. The combined effect of the thermostats should account for a drop in heating energy consumption of about 30% or 15 gigawatt hours.

For reference, this is the equivalent energy that 1,800 apartments of around 60 square metres consume in a year.

Work on the project began in August, while the ‘smart’ adaptive thermostats cost around 4 million euros. They would help balance temperatures in buildings like schools or offices to a constant 19 degrees.

While some public buildings need to maintain high temperatures, they remain unoccupied throughout 80% of the week - on weekends, after work hours or on home office days. With the introduction of smart thermostats, the interior temperature could be maintained without the input of a building’s residents.

The buildings that have already received the new tools include the Hamburg City Hall, the Altona, Bergedorf and Harburg city halls, the planetarium, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the courthouse on Sievekingplatz.

Finance Senator Dr Andreas Dressel was quoted in a press release, saying: "Our municipal companies and the public buildings have a role model function when it comes to the challenges of the energy crisis - they have a correspondingly strong leverage effect simply because of their size and can save significant amounts of energy. The project that is now starting is extremely promising and can make an important contribution to saving energy.”