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How much does working from home in Germany hike up your electricity bill?

Lots of people in Germany have been working from home during the pandemic. As well as having a shorter commute from your bed to desk (or couch), it also has an impact on your wallet.

Published: 12 January 2022 17:25 CET
People have to pay more for electricity when working from home.
People have to pay more for electricity when working from home. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Patrick Pleul

A new study sheds some light over how much working from home pushes up the cost of electricity bills. 

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, lots of workers have been doing ‘home office’ instead of going into their office, to help control the spread of infections. 

Spending more time at home means you consume more electricity. But how much more expensive is it? Experts from a comparison portal have done the maths.

While working from home, an employee’s electricity bill can increase by around up to €94 a year, says comparison portal Check24.

READ ALSO: How households in Germany can tackle rising energy costs

According to their calculation, the use of a laptop, monitor, desk lamp, kettle or coffee machine and the use of an electric cooker or microwave oven result in additional costs of around 25 to 43 cents per day.

For the calculation, researchers assumed that:

  • An employee, minus holidays and public holidays, works 220 days a year from home and pays an average price of 33.9 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity
  • During this time, they operate a laptop for eight hours a day (0.12 kWh), a monitor (0.24 kWh) and an LED desk lamp (0.056 kWh)
  • They also use a kettle (0.33 kWh) or a coffee machine (0.25 kWh) for 10 minutes and an electric cooker for half an hour at lunchtime (0.5 kWh)
    or a microwave for five minutes (0.066 kWh)

When it comes to phone charging, experts say it doesn’t make much of a difference to household bills. “Charging a smartphone barely plays a role in the additional costs in the home office, because only 0.3 cents is due per charging process,” the authors of the study explained.

Calculated over the 120 days that serve as the basis for the home office allowance (more on that below), an employee pays €30 to €51 more for electricity.

German households pay some of the highest costs for electricity in the world. 

Electricity prices for consumers reached an all-time high in December.

Since the year 2000, household electricity bills have on average doubled in price.

A three-person household in Germany now pays an average of €93 a month on their electricity bill, up from €41 twenty years ago.

READ ALSO: German electricity prices ‘among highest in the world’

“If you use more electricity in your home office than you previously thought, you can increase your monthly rate with your provider to prevent larger additional payments at the end of the contract,” said Steffen Suttner, Managing Director Energy at Check24.

“It’s also worthwhile for consumers to compare whether other providers offer cheaper prices for higher consumption.”

Additional costs for heating, water or Internet push bills up even further. 

Should Germany have a permanent home office flat rate?

During the pandemic, workers can reduce their annual tax bill with the home office allowance (Home-Office-Pauschale). It allows people to claim €5 per working day (up to €600) in the home office for a maximum of 120 days per year. The lump sum is in place for the years 2020 and 2021. 

The German government introduced it to help compensate employees for the higher electricity, heating and internet bills they face due to home office.

Bavarian finance minister Albert Füracker called on the new federal government to permanently continue the allowance, which expires at the end of this year. 

People want to know “what they can or have to prepare for next year”, said the CSU politician.

Füracker said Bavaria is committed to a lump sum of €1,000 per year because the working world had changed as a result of the pandemic.

As The Local has reported, Germany’s Labour Minister Hubertus Heil wants to permit more remote working in future.

READ ALSO: German Labour Minister wants to allow remote working after pandemic

Vocabulary

To consume – verbrauchen

Additional costs – (die) Mehrkosten

Average price – (der) Durchschnittspreis 

How much more expensive is it per year? – Wie viel teurer wird es pro Jahr?

We’re aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

Member comments

  1. Would be interesting to see if there was any increase at all in total outgoings resulting from home office working when you consider the savings made on commuting costs, especially with the high costs for petrol and diesel…..working at home for me means that I am no longer driving 500 Kms/ week to and from work…

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BANKING

Reader question: Is it safe to give out your IBAN in Germany?

Even in privacy-obsessed Germany, you'll often be asked to provide your bank details - or IBAN - when purchasing products or setting up contracts. Is it always safe to do so - or is there a chance of fraud?

Published: 20 September 2024 12:28 CEST
Reader question: Is it safe to give out your IBAN in Germany?

When it comes to personal data concerns, there’s arguably no nationality who is more keen to keep their private lives private than the Germans. 

This was summed up recently at one cashless business in Berlin, where the owner revealed that people were concerned that paying by card would let the company see into their bank account. 

But in spite of the general suspicion towards digital technologies, there are plenty of situations in Germany where you’re likely to be asked for your International Bank Account Number – or IBAN for short – and are expected to give it willingly.

You may be setting up a new contract for your electricity supply, a new mobile phone or for a rental flat. Or you could be buying something online via a direct debit or hunting for bargains on an online marketplace – in all these cases, giving your IBAN to the seller or company is a must. 

READ ALSO: Why German banks are getting more customer complaints than ever

Though simply jotting down your details is treated as par for the course, are there situations where consumers should be a bit more cautious? 

Here’s an overview of what you should know about the risks of giving out your IBAN and how consumers can best protect themselves against fraud. 

Is giving out my IBAN safe?

According to Matthias Lange, payment methods expert at the German Association of Banks (BVDB), the answer is generally yes – and often there are no ways around it.

“For example, if I want to pay my rent or have my money transferred to my account for a sale via classified ads, I have to give the account details to my landlord or the buyer,” Lange explained on the ING website. “And if I buy something by direct debit, they will also ask for my account number.”

Lange also points out that it’s perfectly normal for companies to include their IBANs on letters and bills they send out, which shows just how relaxed their are about customers having this information. 

What could a fraudster do with my IBAN?

Very little, is the answer – though there are options. 

The most important thing to know, however, is that nobody will be able to access your bank account using the IBAN alone.

In online banking in the EU, two-factor authentication is a minimum. Normally, that means you’ll need a password to access your account, as well an authentication app or a code that’s sent to your mobile phone.

All of this makes it much harder for criminals to access your financial data and make fraudulent transactions.

READ ALSO: How to grow your savings in Germany during high inflation

However, there is one way that fraudsters could try to use your IBAN to steal money from your account: setting up a Lastschriftmandat, or a mandate for a direct debit. This can usually be done by setting up a simple form and sending it off to the bank or company in question.

Even in this situation, however, the problem can be easily resolved. 

Woman paying by card online

A woman checks her card details while completing a purchase online. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/ZHPH Production / Stocksy United | N26 GmbH

“If a fraudster has actually completed a direct debit with your account details, it is possible that the amount will initially be debited from your account, but you will be able to get the money back quickly and easily,” said Lange.

This strategy is also a risky one for any criminal, since the bank will have plenty of information on hand about the person that the money should be transferred to.  

Another old-fashioned option is for someone to intiate a paper translation by forging your signature on a paper transfer form – though this would probably arouse suspicion as this type of transfer is so rarely used today.

Lange also points out that this would involve the criminal supplying their bank details, and that a swift response to the issue would enable any victims to get their money back right away. 

How can I best protect myself from fraud? 

Though giving out your IBAN is generally safe, you should still remain cautious about giving out more details than are necessary – particularly when it comes to things like passports or information that’s included on personal IDs. 

A major red flag for phishing attempts – that is, attempts to steal your data – is if you are approached out of the blue and asked for specific data.

That could be through an unexpected phone call, a link to a website or an email that looks like it comes from an official source, like a credit card company or a bank. In these cases, a good rule of thumb is that no bank will contact you and ask for a tonne of personal details, and especially not passwords or pin numbers. 

In other circumstances, such as applying for a flat, if are asked for extra information – like your passport and bank account statements – make sure that the housing company is reputable before handing all the information over. 

If in doubt, simply get in touch with your bank and ask them for their advice. It’s in their interests to avoid fraudulent transactions on your account, so they will be more than happy to help.

Another important thing to do is to check your bank account regularly for unexpected transactions. You can generally recover any money that’s taken from you fairly easily, but the quicker you respond, the better.

According to Lange, there are key deadlines to know about if you want to challenge or withdraw a direct debit transaction.

READ ALSO: Why it’s almost impossible to find a free bank account in Germany

In normal cases, you have eight weeks to do this – but if the transaction is made via an unauthorised madate, this can be extended by more than a year. 

Though there are no official figures on the level of IBAN fraud carried out in Germany, Lange believes it’s nothing in comparison to the some 11 billion direct debits that are completed in the country each year.

A more common practice is for criminals to buy goods via invoice and get the invoice sent to an unwilling addressee. 

“But that’s more of a problem for the retailer and has nothing to do with fraudulent IBANs,” Lange explained. “And of course, you don’t have to pay the invoice.”

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