Employees working from home face higher heating bill during coronavirus pandemic – Verivox

Working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic containment measures implemented in Germany could increase the affected households' heating demand by up to four percent, price comparison website Verivox has said. Coupled with rising gas prices, this could result in additional costs of up to 45 euros for the average household, it adds. "Those who work from home have to expect increasing heating costs." If employees stayed at home continuously from October until March 2021, they would have to use more heating energy on 120 days more than under pre-pandemic conditions, Verivox said, meaning their heating demand will increase especially during the regular eight working hours from early morning until the afternoon. While this means an increase in heating demand of about 18 percent at peak hours, the levelled increase including unchanged demand in the evening, at night and during the weekends would be four percent. The main reason for rising gas prices in 2021 will be the introduction of Germany's CO2 pricing system in the heating and transport sectors, Verivox said.

The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown measures aimed at reducing physical contacts across the population have had significant effects on everyday behaviour, mobility and energy consumption in Germany and many other countries around the world. However, while energy consumption dropped considerably during the first months of the pandemic after March 2020, the effect had been levelled out by September and is expected to be less significant during the second lockdown that commenced in November, which so far has not been given a definite ending point but generally has been less strict than the previous one.