If you heat with gas and live for rent, you can even count on a small refund of the advance payments on your heating bill for 2022. Gas costs are around 3 percent lower than in the previous year. This is the result of an analysis by the metering service provider Ista based on 157,000 existing heating cost bills
Gas price level not yet reflected in the bills
The heating bills for 2022 will be sent out in the coming weeks and months. The sharp increase in gas prices over the past year will not be felt much there. According to Ista, taking into account the December aid, an average of 6.7 cents per kilowatt hour of natural gas is due – hardly more than in the previous year (5.8 cents/kWh).
For comparison: the average gas price for new customers is currently around 12 cents/kWh. “The current price level reaches consumers with a considerable time lag. The majority will only feel the full impact of the prices in the current year,” says Ista boss Hagen Lessing.
Gas consumption has dropped significantly
Gas consumption in households as a whole has fallen sharply and is also reducing heating costs. In the 17,000 apartment buildings evaluated, gas consumption fell by 17 percent last year. Ten percent of this can be attributed to the mild weather and seven percent to frugal user behavior.
“The mild weather, considerable savings efforts by consumers and the December aid more than compensated for the price increases on average,” says Hagen Lessing. If the down payment was calculated at the previous year’s level, many tenants can therefore count on a balanced final invoice or even a repayment.
Heating costs in 2023 will be significantly higher
At the current price level of 12 cents/kWh for natural gas, Ista expects an increase in heating costs of 58 percent in the most favorable case – provided that consumers remain frugal until the end of the year and the temperatures are as mild as in the previous year. In a less optimistic scenario, there are additional costs of up to 116 percent – if, for example, heating behavior and weather are at the level of the pre-crisis year 2021.
“Landlords and tenants should definitely adjust the deductions to the new price level or create appropriate reserves. Otherwise there is a real shock with the bill for 2023, which will be sent to the tenants in 2024,” says Lessing.