Professionally Happy

ALEXANDER WATZEK: We have known each other for so long, Rupert. Our first meeting must have been around 1993, right?

RUPERT RAUCH: Yes. Back then, I stumbled across those storage stones of yours and immediately thought: That sounds interesting. A floor and wall heating like a Roman hypocaust, only water-based? I really wanted to know how it works. Thank God there was no internet back then. Otherwise, I wouldn't have called you.

ALEXANDER WATZEK: I think it was less a happy coincidence and more predestination. In any case, the beginning of a long-term collaboration. It was immediately clear that we are both very happy with what we do. Or how do you see it? Are you happy?

RUPERT RAUCH: Hm... What is happiness? I would describe the concept of happiness more as a success. And things succeed when you make the right decisions. Behind a happy life is always a successful life. I was lucky that many things succeeded for me. Your company Variotherm has also been a continuous success story since its founding. But I wouldn't say that you have been lucky all these years, rather that you have succeeded well in existing and following your path.

ALEXANDER WATZEK: The last four decades have indeed been a long journey. In which direction will the journey likely continue?

RUPERT RAUCH: I used to be a fan of self-sufficiency. I absolutely wanted a well from which I could draw water and generate my own electricity to be independent. Today I think differently. Heating a building solely with wood stoves today makes no sense.

A tiled stove is nice, but it takes too long to heat the room. You also need the corresponding amounts of wood, which you then have to laboriously bring into the house with a wheelbarrow. The old dream of self-sufficiency is therefore limited in practice.

ALEXANDER WATZEK: That's true. But the current construction methods are not optimal either. Large window panes. Lightweight construction with thick styrofoam shells without storage mass. That is not climate-friendly. We have enormous temperature differences in our latitudes.

Almost 50 degrees difference between winter and summer. That's extreme. It only exists in a few regions of the world. If we export our construction methods to the south or north, then heating or cooling runs there 365 days a year.

I can't have everything just because I can afford it. That doesn't work. I have no right to it in terms of the environment.

RUPERT RAUCH: And then we wonder why we need more and more power plants. Only in our climate region do we need both. Heating and Cooling. For modern concrete construction with huge glass surfaces, no trees, no natural shade. Nothing. With Heating and Cooling that generate enormous energy demand. Looks great. But do you want to live in something like that? Even if you can afford it. I can't have everything just because I can afford it. That doesn't work. I have no right to it in terms of the environment. Not even if the planners put a PV system on the roof and say: With that, you're neutral anyway.

The next misdevelopment is the huge pool and an air heat pump that only heats the cold water. That is considered normal today – but it shouldn't be. Society can therefore still transform itself by learning in this regard. All municipalities distribute flower seeds for the election and at the same time radically mow all areas. And in the gardens, the robotic lawnmowers shave the entire ground and then people set up a bee hotel. It can't and shouldn't continue like this. Or to put it in the apt words of Gregory Bateson: “The creature that wins against its environment destroys itself.”

Interview: Alexander Watzek (CEO Variotherm)

Photography: Reinhard Gombas, Rupert Rauch