How to Cut Your Winter Electricity Bill in 2026/27: The Complete Checklist
Heating is the biggest line on a winter electricity bill, and winter is also when hourly prices swing the most. This guide shows what moving your heating into the cheapest hours would have saved last winter in your country, then walks you through a 12-point checklist to lock in those savings before the cold arrives.
Why winter is where the money is
In most European homes with electric heating, heating and hot water make up half or more of the electricity used between November and March. At the same time, cold, dark, still days push the day-ahead price up in the morning and evening, while windy nights can send it close to zero. The result is that the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive hour of the day is wider in winter than at any other time of year.
That gap is the opportunity. Heating is a flexible load: a room, a hot-water tank or a concrete floor stores heat for hours, so you can buy the energy when it is cheap and use it when it is expensive without noticing a difference in comfort. You do not need to use less electricity to save money. You need to use it at a different time.
Share of winter bill
40–60%
heating and hot water in electrically heated homes
Cheapest vs dearest hour
3–5×
typical price ratio on a winter day
Comfort lost
0 °C
when heating is pre-loaded into cheap hours
What would you have saved last winter?
Real day-ahead prices for every country we cover, from the last completed heating season. Pick your country, set the heating power you can schedule and how many hours a day it runs, and see what moving those hours from the most expensive to the cheapest part of the day would have been worth.
A typical electric radiator is 1–2 kW, a hot-water tank 1.5–3 kW, a heat pump 2–6 kW. Count only the heating you can put on a schedule.
The winter 2026/27 savings checklist
Twelve things to do, roughly in order. Tick them off as you go: your progress is saved in this browser.
Before the cold arrives
Automate the big loads
Use less without feeling it
Stay on top of prices
Which heating can actually be shifted?
Not every heating system is equally flexible. The table below is the honest version of what a schedule can and cannot do.
| Heating system | Shiftable? | How to schedule it |
|---|---|---|
| Electric radiators / convectors | Yes, fully | Smart plug or relay; run in cheap hours, pause in peaks |
| Hot-water tank | Yes, fully | Relay on the heater circuit; reheat once or twice a day in cheap hours |
| Underfloor electric heating | Yes, very well | The floor stores heat for hours; pre-load overnight |
| Air-to-air / air-to-water heat pump | Partly | Move the setpoint up in cheap hours, down in peaks; never hard-cycle the compressor |
| Storage heaters | Yes, by design | Charge only in the cheapest hours instead of a fixed night window |
| District heating / gas boiler | No | Not electricity; shift the other loads in this list instead |
- Shiftable?
- Yes, fully
- How to schedule it
- Smart plug or relay; run in cheap hours, pause in peaks
- Shiftable?
- Yes, fully
- How to schedule it
- Relay on the heater circuit; reheat once or twice a day in cheap hours
- Shiftable?
- Yes, very well
- How to schedule it
- The floor stores heat for hours; pre-load overnight
- Shiftable?
- Partly
- How to schedule it
- Move the setpoint up in cheap hours, down in peaks; never hard-cycle the compressor
- Shiftable?
- Yes, by design
- How to schedule it
- Charge only in the cheapest hours instead of a fixed night window
- Shiftable?
- No
- How to schedule it
- Not electricity; shift the other loads in this list instead
Fixed or spot for winter 2026/27?
A fixed price buys certainty and gives up the spread. A spot contract exposes you to the peaks but lets you avoid them, and with a schedule you avoid them automatically. Last winter's numbers above show what that avoidance was worth per country. The larger the spread in your market, the more a spot contract plus automation beats a fixed price.
If you cannot shift any load, a fixed price may still be the calmer choice. If you can shift heating, hot water or a car, the maths usually points the other way. Fixed or spot: which to choose →
Let Elewatt build your winter schedule
Connect your radiators, water heater, heat pump or EV charger, set a price filter once, and Elewatt rebuilds the cheapest schedule every afternoon when tomorrow's prices arrive.
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