Heating with biogas

An important technical measure for reducing energy consumption was the conversion of oil heating to energy-efficient gas heaters in 2011.

Because we collected data on heat consumption for the factory outlet in this form for the first time in 2013, is it useful to look only at the buildings at VAUDE Straße 2 when assessing the development of consumption.

15 percent more heating energy was required in 2013 (weather-adjusted) than in 2012 for these buildings. This is due to the fact that we had five percent more heated rooms than last year for the full year 2013. Secondly, it is because rooms were already heated in order to dry the cement-mix flooring during our administration building renovation project.

At the end of the year, we had a total of 18 percent more heated space, which, however, was not heated the entire year.

In order to consider the thermal energy consumption independently from outside temperatures and the duration of the heating season, we have aligned the consumption values with the regional degree days for Ravensburg (GTZspez). This is 3884 according to the Energy Agency Ravensburg. This results in a weather-adjusted heating energy consumption of 1,207,601 kWh for the entire site including our factory outlet. We needed less heating power than would have been expected taking the calculation of ambient temperatures and the number of our square feet of our buildings into consideration.

We will be increasing our focus on heating energy requirements and will try to heat more economically with the help of technical measures as well as by raising employee awareness.