ᐅ Second meter for heating electricity?

Hello,

we have finished building (near Velten in Brandenburg), and now the construction power supply should finally be removed. My electrician called me and asked whether we want one or two meters, and if we want a separate meter for heating. He himself advises me to use just one electricity meter for both house and heating power, since the savings on heating electricity costs are not that significant, and there is also the issue of “peak/off-peak hours,” which means sometimes you might not be able to heat or have hot water.

I wanted to do some research first, but mostly found threads from 2012, so quite outdated. We have a 6 kWh heat pump. Of course, I can’t estimate the annual consumption yet since we just moved in. I’m roughly estimating about 3000 kWh.

Here are some questions I have not found answers to:

1. Posts in the threads said that heating electricity is no longer that cheap and that many people now run everything through the house electricity meter. I quickly checked on Verivox: heating electricity costs about 19 cents, household electricity about 29 cents. So a 10-cent difference and possibly some savings. Did I misunderstand something, or has the cheaper heating electricity price improved again?

2. If peak and off-peak consumption prices are the same, does this mean there are no peak and off-peak hours anymore? We actually don’t want to give up the convenience of being able to heat or have hot water at any time… Or do these time-of-use rates no longer exist? Or what should I watch out for to avoid this?

3. Are you still tied to the local supplier, or can you switch the heating electricity provider at any time (of course, following the contractual notice periods)? I know you can switch the house electricity provider. So, for example, could I save twice by using instant bonus offers?

4. It’s possible to have two different electricity providers, one for house electricity and another for heating electricity, right? So you don’t have to get both from the same provider if you switch?

5. This is a very general question and probably can’t be answered universally: Does having a separate meter for heating electricity make sense “again” nowadays?

Thanks in advance for all helpful answers!

I faced similar questions myself.
I decided to install two meters first so I can easily monitor the consumption of the geothermal heat pump. If everything runs on a single meter, this is not so easy to do.

This was important to me because, in the first few years, I want to find the perfect settings for the heat pump (flow temperature, heating curve, etc.).

It’s still too early to say what will actually be cheaper since you don’t yet know how much heating energy will be used (a catch-22 situation).

Regarding point 3: You can always switch and receive bonuses for both household electricity and heat pump electricity.

Regarding point 4: Yes, you can have two different providers.

It seems that “peak” and “off-peak” times no longer exist, at least not with the providers I looked at. Also, there are no longer any blackout periods. This means you can heat at any time. If anything, there used to be only one or two hours per day when heating was restricted. Even then, you wouldn’t have noticed because your water and underfloor heating system have a certain thermal buffer that won’t cool down in such a short time.

So we also installed two meters, mainly to keep track more easily.
Besides that, we use about 4000 kWh and save around 8 cents per kWh, which amounts to €320.
The meter costs €9.80 per month, so it’s definitely worth it.

You can also have an additional sub-meter installed if you only want to measure consumption separately; in the long run, this is usually cheaper than paying fees for a second meter (if that is the only reason). Otherwise, it varies greatly depending on the region. If there are tariffs where heating electricity is significantly cheaper, it makes sense to have two meters.

I chose to have two meters but currently only save about 50-100 euros per year, so it might not be cost-effective.

Generally, with an air-to-water heat pump, you will need around 3000 kWh.

https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/Wärmepumpe-an-sep-zaehler-oder-zusammen-mit-Haushaltsstrom.15242/page-4

Quickly found one from last year that I could remember:
There are several threads on this topic.
For us, having two meters never made financial sense. I had a submetre installed afterwards for this purpose.

For us, the second meter (which we actually had) was no longer cost-effective after the first year. We need about 2,000 kWh of heating electricity plus 1,000 kWh for hot water. With a savings of 4 cents per kWh, this amounted to 90 euros per year. However, the additional meter also had to be paid for. So in the end, there was no difference.

Since we installed a photovoltaic system, the second meter became even less worthwhile. So it was removed.

The only question you need to ask yourself is: Is the cost savings greater than the additional meter fee?

WARNING: Some household electricity providers exclude the operation of heat pumps in their terms and conditions.