Despite the mild winter, households in Germany are likely to face high back payments for heating.

The Internet portal Verivox once estimated how the extremely high energy prices will make themselves felt there on average.

For households with oil heating, the increase in ancillary costs compared to the previous year amounts to an average of 75 percent according to these calculations - households with gas heating in the basic supply would have to bear an average of 15 percent higher costs.

For some consumers, however, the increases are significantly higher.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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According to the German Weather Service, the past winter was one of the warmest since weather records began.

Between September 2021 and April 2022, the heating requirement fell accordingly: A model household in a single-family house had to use around 5 percent less heating energy compared to the same period last year.

In the case of oil heating, however, the burden from the rise in oil prices far outweighed the benefits from the mild weather.

Despite reduced demand, the average costs in the current heating period have risen to 1822 euros.

Heating with oil is 75 percent more expensive than in the same period last year, which corresponds to additional costs of around 781 euros per year.

In the case of the gas price, not all price increases from the exchange price have reached the consumer for the past heating period.

Nevertheless, a family with gas heating has previously paid an average of 1,613 euros for a warm home.

The heating costs rose by 15 percent compared to the previous year, the gas bill is around 213 euros higher than last year.

New customers in the basic service would have to expect significantly higher price increases of around 95 percent, it said.

Across all tariffs, prices have even risen by 111 percent.

"When the heating bill comes in the summer, many households are threatened with high back payments," says Thorsten Storck, energy specialist at Verivox.

"Consumers should already consider this in their budget planning."