To enable households to save energy, the government will introduce new aid. This boost will benefit those who install a thermostat in their home. It will represent up to 80% of the expenses linked to the purchase and installation of the device. Here are the details.
The government faces a new challenge
After a convincing first year, Agnès Pannier-Runacher presented a second energy sobriety plan. Like the first, it will aim to reduce household energy consumption.
On October 12, the Minister of Energy Transition explained the contours of this new challenge. She had thus announced several projects, including a thermostat plan for all households.
Concretely, this plan will serve to encourage households to buy a connected thermostat. They will thus be able to save energy and reduce their bill. Note that the government’s objective is for all homes to be equipped with a thermostat.
5 new measures to continue reducing our energy consumption. 5 new measures to continue our fight against global warming. pic.twitter.com/z8HAR8gM5a
— Agnès Pannier-Runacher 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@AgnesRunacher) October 12, 2023
A project which is far from obvious if we know that still 27 million households do not have one. Indeed, there will still be a lot to do to achieve this goal. As the founder of Voltalis explained, 9 million households per year would need to purchase the device until 2027 to achieve this.
For information, only 200,000 thermostats were purchased last year. This shows the difficulty of the challenge facing the government. To hope to achieve the set objective, it will be necessary to do a lot of educational work and communication.
Help to save energy
The government wants to encourage households to buy a connected thermostat so that they can better control their consumption. Indeed, these small boxes allow remote temperature adjustment and programming of heating time slots.
According to the ministry, the use of a thermostat would allow considerable energy savings. With a good configurationthe tool can save up to 15% on the annual energy bill.
Note that the thermostat doesn’t cost as much than one might think. In addition to complex and expensive systems, there are simple models that can be installed on your devices. These are simple programmable thermostats.
But the problem with the thermostat is not so much its price, but its installation. In fact, to install a thermostat, you have to pay between 650 and 1,000 euros. A luxury that the most modest cannot afford even with the desire to save energy.
Furthermore, the expensive cost of installation is explained by the difficulty encountered by electricians during installation. As Mathieu Bineau explained, the latter can pass several hours on a single installation because of the complexity of the operation.
How much is the aid amount?
To encourage households to be equipped with a thermostat despite the cost, the government has introduced aid. Each household that purchases the tool will pay a subsidy. This subsidy will represent up to 80% of the cost of the thermostat and its installation.
It will be abouta lump sum which will not depend on household resources. In addition to this subsidy, households will benefit from more generous energy savings certificates. Moreover, the government also plans to strengthen CEE aid by the end of the year.