diff --git a/config/config.default.yaml b/config/config.default.yaml
index 93b0568e..633bed70 100644
--- a/config/config.default.yaml
+++ b/config/config.default.yaml
@@ -357,6 +357,7 @@ existing_capacities:
   grouping_years_power: [1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025, 2030]
   grouping_years_heat: [1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019] # these should not extend 2020
   threshold_capacity: 10
+  default_heating_lifetime: 20
   conventional_carriers:
   - lignite
   - coal
diff --git a/scripts/add_existing_baseyear.py b/scripts/add_existing_baseyear.py
index e8683e16..13527fad 100644
--- a/scripts/add_existing_baseyear.py
+++ b/scripts/add_existing_baseyear.py
@@ -429,7 +429,7 @@ def add_heating_capacities_installed_before_baseyear(
             if int(grouping_year) + default_lifetime <= int(baseyear):
                 continue
 
-            # installation is assumed to be linear for the past 25 years (default lifetime)
+            # installation is assumed to be linear for the past default_lifetime years
             ratio = (int(grouping_year) - int(grouping_years[i - 1])) / default_lifetime
 
             n.madd(
@@ -536,12 +536,6 @@ def add_heating_capacities_installed_before_baseyear(
                 ],
             )
 
-            # drop assets which are at the end of their lifetime
-            links_i = n.links[(n.links.build_year + n.links.lifetime <= baseyear)].index
-            logger.info("Removing following links because at end of their lifetime:")
-            logger.info(links_i)
-            n.mremove("Link", links_i)
-
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     if "snakemake" not in globals():
@@ -598,7 +592,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
             .to_pandas()
             .reindex(index=n.snapshots)
         )
-        default_lifetime = snakemake.params.costs["fill_values"]["lifetime"]
+        default_lifetime = snakemake.params.existing_capacities["default_heating_lifetime"]
         add_heating_capacities_installed_before_baseyear(
             n,
             baseyear,