That was fast.

In view of the constantly rising prices for gas and fuel, we only calculated in February how much money the most well-known savings measures bring: if you heat less, drive to the office less often or accelerate a little less on the motorway.

But two weeks after the attack on Ukraine, the situation looks very different.

Saving energy is now almost a patriotic duty.

Patrick Bernau

Responsible editor for business and "Money & More" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Dyrk Scherff

Editor in the “Money & More” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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The situation also affects the account balance: Prices have skyrocketed to levels that hardly anyone could have imagined just a few weeks ago.

Gas cost 80 euros per megawatt hour on the most important European stock exchange at the beginning of February, now it is 118 euros.

At the petrol station, the price of petrol has risen by 47 cents to an average of 2.20 euros over the same period.

The price of diesel is even worse: it rose by 67 cents, overtook E10 petrol and last week averaged 2.31 euros across Germany.

So we recalculated.

Drive slowlier

If you take your foot off the gas on the motorway, you can even overcompensate for the price increase.

For example, on the route from the Frankfurt suburbs to the Cologne area, 200 kilometers on the A3, on which you can save a lot of time by driving at high speed in the evening.

If you reach an average speed of 160, you sometimes drive 180 or faster.

But if you do without an average of 40 kilometers per hour, you need half an hour longer and currently save 18 euros - that's more than the cost increase of the past few weeks.

The savings are remarkable no matter what car you drive.

Graz University of Technology determined two years ago that cars with different pollutant classes also have very similar fuel consumption differences.

The most important thing is whether the car needs petrol or diesel.

It is also clear that when the speed drops, the savings potential decreases.

If you don't reduce from 160 to 120, but from 120 to 80, you don't even save half as much.

Less often in the office

With high petrol prices, the daily drive to work also costs money.

If you have a car that consumes 8 liters and drives 50 kilometers there and back, you currently save 8.80 euros on each home office day in the case of Super E10 and 9.20 euros in the case of diesel.

On the other hand, around 1.50 euros are lost every day because you have to use the home office flat rate instead of the commuter flat rate.

Additional heating costs make little difference.

In the example, an additional home office day per week saves more than 300 euros over the year.

heat less

A wood pellet heater is unfazed by Russia.

Anyone who heats with oil is more exposed to the situation.

And if you have a gas boiler at home, saving energy is potentially very important.

So far, however, the high gas prices have not yet reached customers with old contracts.

So far, saving gas has primarily been a service to the general public.

However, if prices also rise for consumers in the future, the financial incentive will increase.

If the temperature is lowered by one degree Celsius, this saves around 6 percent of energy.

That would reduce the bill of a family of four, who normally uses 20,000 kilowatt hours of gas a year, by 192 euros a year.

An increase in the gas price from 14 to 16 cents per kilowatt hour is assumed.

If it even rises to 20 cents, it would be 240 euros.