Oil and gas costs skyrocketed in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine. But even those that are heated by electricity have to take into account the rising prices. Electricity prices have increased as some of it is produced in gas-fired power stations.
What does this mean for households heated by electric heaters or heat pumps? Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) has calculated the expected costs for a standard family home in Switzerland. The detached house was built in 2005 and has 150 square meters of living space. Such a property requires 120 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of heating energy per square meter per year.
Costs increase 100 percent
For orientation: For example, a cake can be baked with one kilowatt hour. If you balance the required kilowatt-hours with average electricity prices, it becomes clear: Anyone who currently heats with an electric heater is threatened with enormous additional costs in 2023.
According to ZKB, households with electrical heating will have to expect to cost up to 6,000 francs in 2023. On average, it is around 4420 francs, an increase of 100 percent over the previous year.
Old vacation homes are power slings
The question arises who still regulates the room temperature with electric heaters. In Switzerland they are mostly used in second homes. They are partially used there because of their low installation costs. But also because there is a lack of alternatives.
It is not uncommon for these types of holiday apartments to become old and poorly insulated. So they are real power slings. According to the Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), 43,000 vacation homes with electric heaters consume 625 gigawatt hours of electricity per year.
Heat pumps use less electricity
By comparison, households with alternative heating systems, also powered by electricity, fare much better. Anyone who has made the switch to a heat pump in recent years should also take into account the rising costs. But heat pumps are almost three times more efficient than electric radiators. So the electricity bill will be a fraction of the electric heating bill in 2023.
Heating costs for heat pump households will increase by an average of CHF 550 to CHF 1,580 in 2023. A conversion is therefore valuable not only for the environment, but also for your wallet. But this is likely to become more difficult in the near future. No home will switch to heat pumps this winter. Because the master and the material for it are missing.