Overview
- Coverage on Friday and Saturday stressed low‑cost measures such as using waste heat from cooking, closing doors, drawing thick curtains, adding rugs and sealing windows to keep rooms warmer.
- Experts recommend keeping living and work rooms near 20 °C and avoiding sustained drops below about 16 °C to reduce mold risk and prevent pipe damage in frost.
- Specialists say leaving thermostats on a steady comfort setting heats more efficiently than repeatedly turning them to the maximum and that roughly 1 °C less room temperature saves about 6% of heating energy.
- Consumer advisers caution that ovens, tumble dryers and irons give off heat but are poor, costly and sometimes unsafe substitutes for proper heating and can increase indoor humidity.
- Households that cannot pay heating bills are advised to contact their Jobcenter or Sozialamt early because §22 SGB II allows case‑by‑case coverage of reasonable heating costs and may cover high arrears.