The demand for heat pumps is through the roof given the high gas prices. The family company Stiebel Eltron benefits from this – and wants to triple production.
They can hardly save themselves from orders: The Lower Saxony family company Stiebel Eltron is a specialist for heat pumps – i.e. for heating systems that do not need fuel but get their heat from the ground or the air. Since gas prices have skyrocketed, more and more homeowners are switching to the technology. “We could currently sell significantly more than we can produce,” says Stiebel Eltron boss Kai Schiefelbein in the podcast “The hour zero”. “The demand is extremely high.” In order to be able to produce more, the company hires new people and invests heavily. 600 million euros are to be invested in production, research and development in the coming years.
From Schiefelbein’s point of view, almost every single-family house is suitable for the installation of a heat pump, which is why their market share on the heating market has almost doubled in the past ten years. However, the costs vary greatly. “The worse the house is thermally insulated and the higher the heating requirement of the house, the more expensive it becomes,” says the Stiebel Eltron boss. In addition, the systems also have a power requirement that, in the best case, is covered by their own photovoltaic system. Despite these hurdles, homeowners are still very interested.
However, the expansion is currently reaching its limits. The lack of semiconductors as a result of the pandemic leads to problems, as does a lack of skilled workers. “The shortage of microchips hit us twice,” says Schiefelbein. “Where we use them ourselves in our controllers – and at our suppliers.” In order to remedy the lack of workers, the company relies on European placement agencies, since there are often hardly any people left in their own region. The demand for training is also extremely high among installers. “Many craftsmen who have installed gas and oil boilers in the past have realized that they now have to install heat pumps if they want to continue in their profession,” says Schiefelbein.
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