By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

Last week ended with his international price oil to shoot back up to $90/barrel jumping over 4.5%. And the future is unclear since according to all analyzes it depends on whether and how much the war in Israel will escalate.

At the same time, however, the price of natural gas also increased, which from October 5 and €36 has reached €56/Mwh, and as with oil, predictions cannot be made here. The events in Israelany new “accidents” in infrastructure such as the last one with the pipeline in Finland and also the intensity of the coming winter will determine how international prices will move here as well.

So given that we have entered the winter season as this is signaled by the start of the distribution of heating oil and that since the New Year the subsidies on electricity bills come to an end, it is reasonable for households to try to calculate which source of heating is more favorable to their budgets their.

We will take as a basis for our examples a house of 100 sq.m. with moderate thermal insulation – like the majority – in the center of Athens:

–HEATING OIL : Let’s consider that an average family operates the heating system 5 hours – although in many apartment buildings it operates significantly less – with the thermostat at 20 degrees. 5 hours is equivalent to approximately 3.1 liters/day and therefore a monthly consumption of 93 liters. Heating oil started to be available at €1.38/liter, so the total cost amounts to €128.3.

–NATURAL GAS : The conversion gives us that a liter of oil with let’s say 90% efficiency is equivalent to 10.6Kwh. Therefore the 93 liters in the previous example is equivalent to 986 – rounded off – thermal Kwh. With a natural gas price of €55/Mwh, this means that the total cost of monthly heating will amount to €986×0.055=€54

–AIR CONDITIONER (Here we are talking exclusively about inverter technology 1 body of 18,000 btu and 2 of 9,000 btu). The consumption for the 5 hours of the example is 15.3 Kwh/day and therefore 459 Kwh/month. With an average electricity price of 20 cents/Kwh, the final monthly cost amounts to €92.

– Air conditioner without inverter technology would cost €131-.

–HEAT PUMP (High energy efficiency) : Roughly such a system would consume 10 Kwh per day or 300 Kwh/month. With an average electricity price of 20 cents/Kwh, the final monthly cost amounts to €60.

–ELECTRICAL BODIES/HEATERS: Consumption with this system amounts to 30Kwh/day or 900Kwh. With an average electricity price of 20 cents/Kwh, the final monthly cost amounts to €180/month.

In conclusion, by far, the cheapest option is natural gas, followed by the heat pump. With last year’s prices when natural gas was €110/Mwh, the heat pump would easily be declared champion.

As expected, the most expensive way of heating is electric units, followed by old air conditioners and heating oil with a very small difference between them.