Letter to the editor from Klaus Lehmeyer
With great interest I read your article “The search for alternatives in the heating sector” in the H2-international issue January 2019.

I have had a fuel cell heating system for almost a year now. I spent quite some time looking for a new heating system for my building (built in 1955). As a certified energy consultant and efficiency expert, I have not made the task easy for myself.

Since I am a convinced hydrogen fan (participant at the JESS Summer School for Fuel Cells in Athens 2018), the fuel cell was my choice. After almost a year of practical experience, I am now able to come up with reliable figures.

The plant cost almost 30,000 euros with condensing boiler and fuel cell. The grant from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) amounted to EUR 9,300. In my case, I also received a grant of EUR 926 from BAFA. So that I did not have to found a GmbH to be allowed to give the current surplus into the net, I selected the option of the one-off remuneration. As a result, the municipal plants added a further 1,800 euros as a lump-sum feed-in tariff. This lump sum is valid for ten years and serves as a replacement for the lost feed-in tariff (approx. 180 euros per year). And I spared myself the administrative act of founding a GmbH and also the annual reporting costs to BAFA.

My old low-temperature heating (also built in 1995) was replaced. The exchange against a conventional condensing heating system (condensing boiler, buffer storage etc.) would have cost me according to the offers available to me about 13,000 euros. Now the calculation was quite simple.

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read more in H2-international July 2019