They look like they used to: black clothes, sooty cheeks, metal broom on a leash over their shoulder. But the job has changed – and is facing major changes.
The ladder is put on and then onto the roof, flat roof in this case. Today, master chimney sweep Markus Banghard has to sweep the chimney at the bungalow in Maulbronn (Enzkreis). He lets the metal broom attached to a line, weighted down by a rubberized ball, slide in until the broom reaches the basement audibly and yet fairly noiselessly. Nothing to complain about.
Banghard is an authorized master chimney sweep, responsible for the Enzkreis No. 2 sweeping district – and chimney sweeping alone is no longer the core of his work. The profession is facing upheaval, and the amended Building Energy Act is doing the rest.
“Some work, including traditional activities, will be eliminated and others will be added,” says Banghard. “Fossil energies should end in 2045 – our young colleagues have to think carefully about how they will position themselves in the future.”
Chimney sweeps are often trained energy consultants
Keyword: heat transition: Especially in urban areas with large rental residential units, it can be expected that chimney sweeps will soon no longer have as much to do there. Because if entire city districts are connected to a district heating network, there will no longer be any floor heating systems that need to be checked. “We don’t really have anything to do anymore,” says Banghard.
The same would apply if heat pumps were installed in the future, which only need to be serviced at long intervals, during which nothing burns, and which do not require a chimney – and therefore actually also do not require a chimney sweep.
With these developments in mind, many chimney sweeps have long been trained energy consultants. According to the Federal Association of the Chimney Sweep Trade, more than 11,000 of around 21,000 employees are energy consultants (as of August 2022). Some people only do this and nothing else. “As a climate-relevant trade, we are involved in the implementation of the energy and heating transition,” says association spokeswoman and board member Julia Bothur.
According to Banghard, colleagues also specialize in cleaning ventilation, commercial extractor hoods, and possibly also in cleaning fine dust filters, should this become mandatory. “We will need even more colleagues to take on the tasks ahead,” says Volker Jobst from the state guild association of the chimney sweep trade based in Ulm.
No shortage of skilled workers in the profession
More colleagues, of course – but so far the industry doesn’t have to worry too much about young talent or even about a shortage of chimney sweeps. In Baden-Württemberg, for example, out of 920 so-called sweeping districts – areas in which sovereign tasks such as fireplace inspection have to be carried out – only 13 are unoccupied.
Nationwide, the chimney sweep industry has so far been largely spared from the shortage of skilled workers, says Bothur. Nationwide, around 1,900 people start training to become chimney sweeps every year. “We are fortunate to have full employment in the chimney sweeping trade,” said Bothur. But there is further need – especially in future areas.
Source: Stern
