The gas price brake is coming – not only from March, but also for January and February 2023. That’s a good thing, because according to forecasts, prices will rise significantly at the turn of the year. Since consumers can use less burden well. There is so much relief.

The federal government has announced the good news that the gas price brake, which will only take effect from March, will also apply retrospectively to January and February 2023. With further price increases expected in the new year, that’s a good idea.

The comparison portal Verivox has looked at what concrete relief private households can expect from this. Before the result is revealed, let me remind you again: Even if the state takes numerous measures to ensure that energy costs don’t get out of hand, that doesn’t change the scarcity of resources. Reducing personal energy consumption not only serves to keep one’s own additional burdens as low as possible, but also to secure the supply in the first place.

After that has been clarified, here are the results of the investigation: With a gas price of currently 17.79 cents/kWh, the annual costs for a single-family house (annual consumption of 20,000 kWh) fall from an average of 2786 by extending the gas price brake to the first months of 2023 euros to 2632 euros. Which means a relief of 154 euros per year. For a single person with an annual consumption of 5000 kWh, the additional saving is 38 euros, a couple household (12,000 kWh) saves 93 euros. That’s the extra saving that comes from having the thing backdated to January and February.

If 80 percent of the basic consumption is capped at 12 cents per kWh for the whole year, the gas bill at current market prices drops to 2632 euros – this corresponds to a reduction of 26 percent and 926 euros per year. A two-person household (12,000 kWh) pays around 556 euros less, a single household saves around 232 euros.

Added to this is the one-off relief planned for December of this year. Based on the current market prices, the average down payment for a single-family house is currently around 297 euros. If the state pays an installment, the annual costs drop from 3558 euros to 3261 euros, which corresponds to a relief of around 8 percent.