Since January 2022, an amendment to Germany’s Heating Costs Ordinance (HKVO) has required landlords with remotely readable devices to provide their tenants with intra-year consumption information (uVI) for heating and hot water.
Recent market research by the energy services provider Techem shows that intra-year consumption information works: it creates transparency and consequently encourages more conscious energy use. However, some people remain unaware of the existing uVI obligation. Thirty-four per cent of the private landlords surveyed said they did not know about the requirement to provide uVI regularly. This gap in knowledge is also reflected in implementation: only 37 per cent of the tenants surveyed currently receive intra-year consumption information. Timely implementation is becoming increasingly urgent. By 1 January 2027, every meter in a residential building that cannot be read remotely must be retrofitted or replaced. The Heating Costs Ordinance therefore requires landlords to switch to modern radio-based systems and consequently to provide tenants with monthly consumption information.
How effective is intra-year consumption information?
The Techem survey shows that 50 per cent of tenants who already receive uVI say it makes them more conscious of their energy consumption. Respondents receiving uVI also said they understood their consumption better (47%), experienced greater transparency (46%) and identified specific opportunities to save (45%). Forty-four per cent of this group say it also helps them avoid unexpected additional payments more often. A similar picture emerges among landlords: 47 per cent of landlords aware of the uVI obligation regard the greater transparency for tenants as a major advantage. At the same time, almost 40 per cent of this group see uVI not only as a regulatory obligation, but also as an opportunity for greater transparency and efficiency. Around 30 per cent of landlords who have already introduced uVI are also observing reduced energy consumption in their buildings.
Techem enables simple, legally compliant implementation
Techem offers a digital solution for intra-year consumption information that complies with the law and is presented in an understandable form. The information is supplemented with comparisons against the previous month, the same month of the previous year and the appropriate user category, and is visualised clearly. Charts show trends over time and help identify irregularities. The tenants surveyed who receive uVI confirm this: 70 per cent of them find uVI generally understandable or very understandable.
“The survey shows very clearly how large the gap between statutory requirements and actual implementation remains,” says Matthias Hartmann, CEO of Techem. “At the same time, it makes one thing clear: where transparency is created, behaviour changes. Intra-year consumption information enables millions of households to understand their energy use better and act more consciously. Our solution makes it easy for landlords to comply with the requirements while ensuring that tenants benefit directly from clear, understandable data.”
Transparency as a route to greater energy efficiency
The market-research results show that regular consumption data promotes more conscious energy use and therefore makes a noticeable contribution to savings in the building sector.