Heating costs: If the winter is cold, you heat more – and that costs money. (Symbol image) (Source: imago images)
Many households don’t want to be without their gas heating system. They assume that the heating method is the cheapest. An analysis now shows something different.
Demand for gas heating was still relatively high until the middle of the year. Before a possible ban on the heating system, which was threatened by the amendment to the Building Energy Act (GEG), some households wanted to install a new device in order to be able to heat with natural gas for as long as possible.
However, an updated analysis by the comparison portal Verivox GmbH shows that the heating method is not the cheapest . According to them, a heat pump heats a third cheaper than natural gas – if the device works efficiently. However, if its output is not set correctly and the local conditions are not correct (more on this below in the text), heating with a heat pump is only four percent cheaper than heating with natural gas.
Up to a third lower heating costs
For the analysis, the energy consumption of a sample household (single-family house) with an annual consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) for natural gas was compared with the energy consumption of various heat pumps.
According to Verivox, the model household that heats with natural gas pays around 1,774 euros per year; i.e. 8.87 cents per kilowatt hour. However, if the same household uses an efficiently working heat pump (annual performance factor 4), a total of 5,000 kWh of heat pump electricity is required to provide 20,000 kWh of heat.
According to this, heating costs would be 1,241 euros per year – insofar as the model household can benefit from a new customer tariff for electricity (currently 25 cents/kWh). This means that the annual heating costs for a single-family home are lower if a heat pump is used instead of gas heating.
If the heat pump is a less efficient device (annual performance factor 2.7), the required heat pump electricity increases to 7,500 kWh, which in turn causes costs of 1,837 euros per year.
Gas heating versus heat pump: analysis has weaknesses
The price comparison does not take into account the fact that installing a heat pump is not worthwhile for all households. For example, the house must be renovated and equipped accordingly so that the heating system works more efficiently than gas heating.
This means that it must be insulated and ideally equipped with underfloor heating. The correct heat pump must also be selected. Your performance must therefore be neither too high nor too low for the relevant property.
It is also important that an appropriate heat pump tariff is used. Because this is usually lower than the standard electricity – this was shown by an analysis by Stiftung Warentest .