It isn’t air conditioners and fans that are in high demand right now in stores carrying electrical appliances - it’s heating devices. Radiators, space and electric heaters are the summer sales hits. "We are currently seeing above-average demand for electronic heating devices," says Heico Roth. The managing director of the two Saturn stores in Sankt Augustin and Troisdorf assures that stocks have been increased in good time. "Nevertheless, there may be limited availability in both stores at the moment," Roth says.

This high demand is atypical for the warm season. "The devices are (normally) not in demand in the summer and correspondingly fewer are produced," says a spokesman for Gerd Karnath, a specialist electrical retailer in Siegburg, giving one reason for sold out heating devices. When the small number of devices on hand for summer is sold out, there could be a shortage. "Whether replenishment comes is always dependent on how the supply chain works," the spokesman said. But manufacturers have already realized the increased demand and ramped up production, he said.

Small storage heaters are already completely sold out. "They work similarly to the night storage heaters known from the past," explains Wiehlpütz from Euronics. "But we won't be getting any more supplies of those either, because they're not being built anymore." Besides storage heaters, he says oil radiators are also out of stock in his store. "They are called oil heaters, but actually that just means a heat-conducting agent flows through it and ensures that the radiator retains heat a little longer," the retailer explains. Supplies have already been ordered and are expected in August, he said. "Some of them have already been reserved and sold in advance," says the managing director.

Normally, he sells more cooling than heating devices at this time of year. "So far, I have not sold as many air conditioners as usual," Wiehlpütz summarizes. But fans were selling very well, as usual in the summer. "You can also use fan heaters as fans," he says as a tip. To do that, he says, you just have to turn off the heating function and turn on the fan.

But Wiehlpütz says he has not yet observed the paradoxical picture of customers putting a space heater and an air conditioner in their shopping cart at the same time. "A German has to sweat for three weeks before he decides to buy an air conditioner," he quips. But the current energy crisis with rising gas prices has people very worried about a cold winter, he adds. (Orig. text: Scarlet Schmitz / Translation: ck)