Overview
- Destatis reports 5.3 million people in 2024 (6.3% of the population) could not afford adequate heating, down from 8.2% in 2023 and below the EU average of 9.2%.
- Household energy prices in September 2025 were 1.9% lower than a year earlier, with gas up 0.7%, heating oil up 0.1%, district heat down 2.2%, wood fuels down 1.8% and electricity down 1.6%.
- Techem’s 2025 atlas finds private heating costs rose about 82% from 2021 to 2024 while consumption in 2024 was flat or higher, indicating behavioral savings are largely exhausted.
- According to Techem, heat pumps were the cheapest to run in 2024 and district heating emitted less CO2 than natural gas yet remained the most expensive option, with about 87% of multifamily buildings still fossil‑heated.
- A new Fraunhofer IEG/ISI study finds hydrogen heating would raise bills by roughly 74% to 172% versus gas and faces retrofit hurdles, reinforcing a shift toward heat pumps and low‑carbon networks.