The Laboratory of Steam Engines and Boilers of the School of Mechanical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (www.lsbtp.mech.ntua.gr), in collaboration with the Institute of Chemical Processes and Energy Resources of EKETA (www.cperi.certh.gr), has published the updated version of the study comparing heating costs of various technologies that was originally published in December 2017.

The main objective of the study is to provide a short-term assessment of heating costs in Greece, under the current rally of price increases observed across Europe, in electricity, heating oil and natural gas, respectively.

The energy crisis creates new circumstances for households and their pockets, which has significantly increased the cost of heating homes, creating additional “burdens”.

The changes that have taken place in the cost of heating, depending on the technology chosen to meet the needs of households, highlights the study conducted by the Laboratory of Steam Engines and Boilers of NTUA, in collaboration with the Institute of Chemical Processes and Energy Resources of EKETA and the results of the study show the increase in heating costs for an average household in Greece, at least as far as the current time period is concerned. 

Indicative of the changes is the comparison between the current prices and the heating costs of four years ago: natural gas has increased by 128%, heat pumps have increased by over 73%, heating with electric resistance devices has increased by 59%, while heating with a standard oil boiler has increased by 6.56%.

The current data, somehow, has made gas one of the most expensive forms of heating (third in line after electricity and open chamber fireplaces according to the study), (*pre-crisis the cheapest solution), unaffordable heating with electric stoves and one of the cheapest forms of energy is oil.

Suffice it to mention that natural gas since the beginning of the year has increased by 150% to 200%!

In this study, the basic scenario taken into account for the derivation of the cost of useful thermal energy is the four-monthly fuel or electricity consumption of an average household with a thermal need of approximately 3. 000 kWhth (kilowatt-hours) per 4 months (Baseline Scenario), or equivalently 4,500 kWhth per season (where the winter season equals 6 months, i.e. from October 2021 to March 2022). It is noted that for the calculation of the cost per heating type, an oil price of 1.13 euro per litre was taken into account. This price was reduced to kilowatt-hour in order to make the comparison easier and more meaningful.

In conclusion, as the survey shows, electricity is the most expensive means of heating, open fireplaces are the second most expensive means of heating, while the third most expensive means of heating is gas!

The most cost-effective solution, albeit with high investment costs, are heat pumps that have a high efficiency and biomass (wood pellet) heating.

Source: protothema.gr