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Hamburg’s environment minister has warned Germans that hot water could be rationed and limits on maximum room temperatures introduced as a result of the energy crisis.
“The state environment minister, Jens Kerstan, announced that the hot-water supply for private households could be reduced,” reports Deutsche Welle.
The district heating grid could act to lower the maximum allowed temperature for households as part of a general lowering of living standards caused by support for ‘the current thing’.
“If there were to be an acute gas shortage, hot water could be made available in an emergency only at certain times of day,” he told the paper Welt am Sonntag.
As we previously highlighted, Germans are being told to take fewer showers to save energy, with Bild even running an article that suggested washing less makes you smell better.
The article was published after Klaus Mueller, the head of Germany’s Federal Network Agency, asked his fellow countrymen, “whether you really need to take a hot shower seven days a week – with gas heating.”
Government minister Peter Hauk also told Germans they should cope with soaring energy costs by merely turning off the heating and wearing warmer sweaters.
The vice-president of the European Commission also suggested citizens should ‘support Ukraine’ and the embargoes on Russia by taking fewer showers, not driving cars, and airing their clothes instead of washing them.
Meanwhile, new poll finds that around half of Germans fear being unable to properly heat their homes this winter as a result of energy shortages caused by the war in Ukraine.
A survey conducted by the Institute for New Social Answers (INSA) found that 75% of respondents are struggling with the burden of recent price hikes, with around 50% fearing they will have problems keeping warm in the colder months.
Germany is dependent on Russia for over a third of its gas and Moscow has reacted to sanctions by reducing supplies via the Nord Stream pipeline.
This combined with soaring inflation across Europe has prompted panic buying of stoves and firewood in Germany, with supplies of those being exhausted until next year.
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