It is interesting to see how it differs depending on where you live. For example, we live in Hungary where our government is more prone to support its citizens than to support the anti-Russian sanctions. Hungary is 100% self-sufficient in electricity but is dependent on Russian gas for heating. Hungary has separate access through the South Stream pipeline that runs through Turkey and ends in Hungary passing through Bulgaria and Serbia. However, the EU has mandated all EU countries with the energy to give up 20% to countries that have cut themselves off from Russian energy (or because the pipelines were destroyed by NATO countries that will remain unnamed).
All that said we are seeing a 700% increase in natural gas and 150% in electricity. We have a scaled payment system based on annual consumption and if you exceed the median usage you pay a heavy fine for the price of the energy. For gas, the median use is 144 cubic meters per month and up to that amount, the price is 102 HUF/M3 or roughly 26 US cents per cubic meter. Above 144 cubic meters, it is 816 HUF/M3 or $2.06 per cubic meter. For electricity, things are better and the median point is 210 kWh/month and is priced at 38 HUF/kWh and 70 HUF above that (38 HUF is $.09 and 70 HUF is $.18). To complicate things this is based on a particular meter and we have a night and day meter. Night rates run 26 HUF/kWh or $.07/kWh. Only hot water can be put on the night meter and nothing else.
We have attempted to cut our gas use and put our house thermostats at 19 degrees C. Our main floor has a mini-split A/C that can run as a heat pump and we heat that area during the day to 22 degrees C (my wife pays the bills but gets cold a lot). Our bedroom is set to 17 degrees at night as is the entire house. If she gets cold at night I put on that room's mini-split for a few minutes to get it up to 20 degrees and it generally stays there more or less for the night as our bodies generate enough heat to maintain that temperature.
In the past, our normal usage is roughly 24 kWh/day for electricity and gas is generally 35 M3 per month in warm months (we used gas to heat hot water) but goes up to 500 M3 a month in winter (up to 750 if it is really cold). So, if we keep using as we did in the past our bills in winter for gas would be between 305,000 HUF to 448,000 HUF or $772 to $1,134 per month. I am hoping switching to electrical heating helps a lot because these costs are enormous. We will see how it goes. It has been very cold the past 2 weeks so we should be in the winter consumption levels now. I won't know what the costs are until we get the bills which are amazingly complex as they also switched to charging in megajoules which is based on the energy in the particular gas being supplied. I have yet to break it down into MJ rates as these are dependent on the gas energy which is an unknown. Also, they have changed our billing to payment in advance based on weather predictions so you get bizarre bills and it all will get balanced out on the annual meter readings. I am required to do that myself for the first time and must supply photos of the meters on the day I read them. I normally read all meters once a month so not especially different. Most Hungarians use an average rate based on the previous year's consumption but we like to see what we are paying so I opted for monthly reporting. we have no automated system whatsoever except for some kind of weird switch for night electricity that is based on demand rather than on actual time of day. Some days there is no night if consumption is high so you end up with no hot water sometimes for weeks in the summer if people are using A/C a lot hence why we have a second gas water heater. I have both on normally and it feeds from the electric first then switches to gas if that runs out. I am tempted to switch to an on demand system for our bedroom where it heats the water as you use it and out in a second one in the kitchen.
Worse, we switched to an all electric vehicle which is what the greens all want everyone to do except now there isn't enough electricity to charge them so there is a massive sense of buyer's regret for many who now are facing high charges to recharge their cars. There are no special rates for people that have EV's. We are "lucky" as we actually have two houses on the same property and that house is vacant 11 months a year. It has 6 electric meters, 3 for day and 3 for the night and each meter is on one phase of the 3-phase electrical system. So, I charge the car at that house and in general, we are using roughly 200 kWh per month which is below the 144 kWh per meter so costs 38 HUF ($.09) per kWh so not bad. I keep the second house cold except when in use in August and drain the pipes completely so they don't break. The costs for that house are minimal although we have a large garden pond and a water well for our enormous garden which we run sprinklers for.
We are toying with the idea of going off-grid but the costs are enormous and there is no buyback for excess here at all. To get 24 kwh a day would be a very large system and we don't have the roof to support it which is the main reason I haven't gone that route.
Keep in mind though that this is just in Hungary which is Russian-friendly and has a source of gas. The pricing is high to support the poor who get far better rates and is not because our energy prices are all that high. It also supports the gasoline/diesel supplement as these are capped at 480 HUF per liter ($1.21) in defiance of EU mandates. However, cars and trucks without Hungarian plates are charged at market rates which are roughly 2 times higher. The rates are high for excess consumption people like ourselves. I wonder about the average consumption rates and these must be based on old soviet apartments with central steam heating as no one I have talked to uses anywhere near the averages. We are actually closer to the average for homeowners.
Anyway, other countries in Europe are seeing far higher rates and it will only get worse.
