Adequate Heating and Ventilation

Heat moderately but constantly

The temperature in the living area should be set to 20 °C. The walls should be sufficiently warm to ensure that no cold emanates from them. For if the temperature of the walls lies more than 5 °C under the room temperature, mould can grow more easily. At nighttime and at daytime, when the apartment is deserted, the thermostats should be turned down, but not completely turned off!

Reducing the room temperature by only 1 °C, you can save about 6 % of the energy!

Avoid shielding of the radiators

Curtains and objects placed in front of a radiator diminish its thermal efficiency and thereby increase the energy consumption and the heating costs. Shielded radiator valves cannot correctly control the room temperature.

Do not hang or put anything in front of the radiator to ensure a maximum performance!

Control the humidity level

A humidity level up to 60 % is innocuous. However, if it exceeds 60 %, you should ventilate the room to prevent mould growth. Notably in wintertime, the humidity in the rooms may rise considerably. The excessive humidity can be caused by plants, aquariums, cooking fumes, shower steam or wet clothes.

You should avoid drying clothes in the bedrooms or in the living area. If this is inevitable, the rooms should be ventilated more frequently. After a shower or the preparation of a meal, a short thorough ventilation of the apartment may be useful to reduce the humidity in the rooms.

Ventilation

When ventilating the apartment, make sure that the air is completely exchanged. In summer, when the heating is turned off, there is hardly any problem. In winter you should however avoid leaving the windows cracked, since this would favour mould growth above the windows while having only a minor ventilation impact.

When you ventilate the entire apartment, keep all the internal doors open to maximize the effect throughout the apartment.

Adequate ventilation

Ventilate your apartment several times a day for three to five minutes, opening wide the windows and doors. Turn down the radiator thermostats during ventilation in winter to avoid an excessive energy consumption. Once the air in the rooms has completely cooled down, you can close the windows again. This way the warm moist air is replaced by cold and dry air from outside, while the furnishings and walls still retain the heat.

Bedroom temperature

The bedrooms shall be moderately heated. A room temperature of 16 °C is considered sufficient for a healthy sleep. If you cannot ventilate the apartment during the day, you may exceptionally leave the bedroom window cracked at night. Yet, to avoid excessive energy consumption, you should turn down the radiator.

Do not waste heat energy

Keep the internal doors closed, when the apartment is heated, to ensure that no warm and moist air from the bathroom or the kitchen penetrates the colder bedroom where condensation would occur on the walls and possibly cause an imperceptible mould growth behind a large wardrobe.

Keep furnishings away from the walls

Behind the furniture standing in front of the outer walls the temperature may be particularly low. Therefore, furniture, such as large wardrobes or settees, should be kept 5 to 10 cm away from the wall to allow the air to circulate behind.

Big wardrobes should be installed on legs rather than on a plinth and you should provide for ventilation slots to ensure a sufficient air circulation.

Our experts provide further tips for adequate heating and ventilation. We will also help you with mould problems.

Do not hesitate to get in touch with us calling the number 0800-66 88 117 (free call in all German networks)