How much can I realistically save by scheduling heating?

It depends on how much heating you can shift and on the spread in your market. The widget above uses last winter's real hourly prices per country: a 2 kW load shifted for 3 hours a day is typically worth tens of euros per winter in calm markets and well over a hundred in volatile ones. Add a hot-water tank and an EV and the total multiplies.

Will my home get cold during the expensive hours?

Not if the schedule pre-heats before them. Walls, floors and furniture store heat, and a well-insulated room drops less than a degree over a two-to-three-hour pause. Your thermostat remains the safety net: if a room falls below its minimum, it heats regardless of price.

Do I need a spot-price contract for this to work?

You need a price that varies during the day. Spot (hourly) contracts capture the full spread; day/night grid packages capture part of it. On a flat fixed price, scheduling changes nothing on the bill.

What equipment do I need?

For radiators and water heaters, a metering smart plug or relay such as a Shelly costs 20–40 euros and pays for itself within the first winter. Cloud-connected heat pumps and EV chargers can often be scheduled with no extra hardware at all.

Will winter 2026/27 prices swing as much as last year?

Nobody can promise the level, but the shape is structural: cold, dark evenings raise demand while wind and solar output vary hour by hour, so the cheapest and dearest hours will keep drifting apart in winter. A schedule earns more the more volatile the market is, and costs nothing when it is calm.

I have district heating or a gas boiler. Is any of this for me?

The heating itself cannot be shifted, but hot water, EV charging, appliances and any electric top-up heaters can. The checklist items on contracts, grid packages and appliance timing still apply.

Središče vodnikovWinter savings checklist

Winter 2026/27 Guide

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.

Country / price area

Heating power you can schedule2.0 kW

0.5 kW12 kW

Hours it runs per day3 h/day

1 h8 h

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.

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

Electric radiators / convectors

Shiftable?: Yes, fully
How to schedule it: Smart plug or relay; run in cheap hours, pause in peaks

Hot-water tank

Shiftable?: Yes, fully
How to schedule it: Relay on the heater circuit; reheat once or twice a day in cheap hours

Underfloor electric heating

Shiftable?: Yes, very well
How to schedule it: The floor stores heat for hours; pre-load overnight

Air-to-air / air-to-water heat pump

Shiftable?: Partly
How to schedule it: Move the setpoint up in cheap hours, down in peaks; never hard-cycle the compressor

Storage heaters

Shiftable?: Yes, by design
How to schedule it: Charge only in the cheapest hours instead of a fixed night window

District heating / gas boiler

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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