Up through 2021....the average German household pay around 415 Euro a year for their power bill. Some more (because of older freezers, or heavier use of electrical heaters). Some less because of their solar panels on the house.
For natural gas bills? For hot water and heating....the bill usually averaged out between 50 and 200 Euro a month....depending on the home size, the quality of insulation, and age of your furnace.
Presently? If you gauge the trend and look at spring of 2023....your electrical bill will probably double (as a minimum)....meaning you are close to paying near a thousand Euro a year for your connection to the grid. On natural gas? Based on various trends and projections....you can figure 150 Euro now being the minimum, and the maximum slipping to 500 Euro (a month, a ballpark number).
Who can afford this? Well...that's going to be an interesting case in the spring.
Adding to this....with various natural gas providers in serious financial troubles....the government will add a fee onto your bill....roughly 1.5 times the current rate of your bill....to help get the providers 'over-the-hump'.
The only way you can reshape this problem? Well....use less electrical and natural gas.
You might walk into a German neighbor's house in January....to find the interior temperature around 18 C (64.4 F). You'd keep your jacket on, trying to avoid any discussion about the issue.
Are Germans already doing a lot to limit use of electricity? I sat and looked at my house. With one exception....every light is LED. The freezer? It's relatively new and low-energy. Same for the refrigerator. The washer? Bought just three years ago. The dryer? Only used six month out of the year, with most laundry air-dryed on the balcony.
How I see public frustration in the spring of 2023? The politicians will do everything possible to reach the spring and call the 'great battle' a success. The problem is....nothing really happens then. Resolving the power and natural gas issue simply continues on. There's never going to be a happy ending with the Russians.....the cost factor will continue to escalate....and finding some solution is near impossible.
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