Heating with oil or gas
Weather warmer, prices lower: heating costs fell in 2024
Gas and oil prices are still significantly higher than before the Russian attack on Ukraine. But the situation has eased further over the past year. The weather also played a role.
The heating costs of households with gas or oil heating have fallen significantly on average over the past year. This emerges from calculations by the comparison portal Verivox, which were available to the German Press Agency in advance. The reasons for this are lower heating requirements due to warmer weather and lower fuel prices.
The heating costs for a model household (single-family house) with gas heating fell by around twelve percent last year compared to 2023. According to the calculations, they averaged around 1,762 euros.
Portal: Average gas price will fall to 11.05 cents in 2024
“In addition to the lower heating requirement, gas prices have also fallen compared to the previous year,” explained Verivox energy expert Thorsten Storck. According to Verivox calculations, the average gas price was 11.88 cents per kilowatt hour in 2023, but in 2024 it was 11.05 cents. “Before the war in Ukraine started, however, it was around 6 cents.”
According to Verivox, an oil-heated single-family home had average heating costs of around 1,629 euros in 2024, around eight percent less than in 2023. The average price for light heating oil fell from 104 per hectoliter in 2023 to 99 euros last year.
The calculations were based on data from the German Weather Service on heating requirements. For the gas price, the portal also used its own price index. For the model household, consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours is assumed for the base year 2011.
Verivox: New gas customers currently pay around 10 cents
At the beginning of 2025, gas prices were again significantly above the annual average for 2024. The Verivox index currently gives a value of 11.53 cents per kilowatt hour. Gas prices for new customers are currently around 10 cents per kilowatt hour.
More than half of all apartments in Germany are heated with gas. The Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry puts the current share including biomethane and liquid gas at 56.1 percent – the trend is declining for the second year in a row. 17.3 percent of all apartments are currently heated with heating oil. The value here has been declining for years.
dpa
Source: Stern
