Why Is Heating Becoming More Expensive — and What Are We Actually Paying For?

When comparing heating systems, we usually start by looking at the price of energy.

How much does a tonne of wood pellets cost? How much does a megawatt-hour of gas cost? How much does one kilowatt-hour of electricity cost?

But that alone is not enough to understand how much heating actually costs us.

A heating system has to be purchased and installed. It may require regular maintenance and repairs. Fuel has to be delivered and stored. Different systems also vary in efficiency, service life and the level of control they offer over energy consumption.

We pay for more than just energy.

1. Purchase, Installation and Service Life

Before the first kilowatt-hour of heat is produced, money has already been invested in the heating system.

Depending on the technology, you may need:

🟧 ✓ a boiler or heat pump

🟧 ✓ radiators or underfloor heating

🟧 ✓ pipes and manifolds

🟧 ✓ circulation pumps

🟧 ✓ a chimney

🟧 ✓ fuel storage space

🟧 ✓ electrical system upgrades

🟧 ✓ installation and system commissioning

But the initial investment is only part of the picture.

If one system requires major repairs or replacement of key equipment during its lifetime, while another lasts longer with lower maintenance costs, comparing only the initial purchase price no longer gives us the full picture.

That is why the cost of a heating system should be assessed over its entire expected service life.

2. Maintenance and Repairs Are Part of the Cost of Heating

A heating system operates for years or even decades.

Depending on the technology, it may require regular maintenance, cleaning, replacement of filters or other components, servicing and repairs.

In one year, these costs may be small. In another, they may be significant.

A single service bill may not seem like much, but when maintenance and repair costs are added up over 10, 20 or 30 years, the picture can look very different.

Maintenance is also part of the cost of heating.

3. Fuel, Production and Delivery

With wood pellets, firewood and other solid fuels, there is another chain of costs to consider.

Wood pellets have to be produced, transported, unloaded and stored.

The price of wood pellets depends not only on the cost of raw materials, but also on production costs, electricity, labour, fuel, transport and demand.

As transport and production costs rise, they can also be reflected in the final price.

That is why the price of a tonne of wood pellets and the actual cost of heating a room are not the same thing.

A similar principle applies to other energy sources — between the energy we buy and a comfortable indoor temperature, there is always a specific heating system.

4. System Efficiency and Auxiliary Energy Consumption

One unit of energy does not tell us how much useful heat we will actually get from it.

Different heating technologies work in different ways, and their efficiency is not always constant.

For example, heat pump efficiency is affected by the outdoor temperature, the required heating system temperature and the operating conditions of the specific unit.

The actual efficiency of a boiler, in turn, depends on the equipment itself, its settings, operating mode and technical condition.

Circulation pumps, fans, control systems and other auxiliary equipment must also be taken into account. The energy they consume is also part of the total cost of heating.

5. Building Heat Loss Is One of the Biggest Costs

This is one of the most important factors in the entire heating-cost equation.

The heating system does not create the need for heat — the building itself does.

Heat is lost through:

🟧 ✓ external walls

🟧 ✓ the roof

🟧 ✓ windows and doors

🟧 ✓ the floor

🟧 ✓ ventilation and air exchange

The greater the building’s heat loss, the more energy will be required, regardless of whether the building is heated with gas, wood pellets, a heat pump, district heating or infrared heating.

That is why even an efficient heating system cannot fully compensate for high heat losses in a poorly insulated building.

6. Energy We Consume Unnecessarily

There is another part of the cost that does not appear as a separate line on the heating bill:

• energy consumed at times and in places where heat is not actually needed.

Does every room need the same temperature 24 hours a day?

Does the bedroom need to be as warm during the day as the living room in the evening?

Does a guest room need to be kept at a comfortable temperature when nobody is using it?

Does an office need the same temperature at night as during working hours?

If a heating system cannot adapt accurately enough to how rooms are actually used, some energy is consumed without any real need.

This is no longer a question of energy price — it is a question of heating control.

If the heating system allows each room to be controlled individually, energy consumption can be matched much more precisely to actual needs.

However, the way this level of control is implemented, the infrastructure required and the associated costs can vary significantly between heating technologies.

And this is exactly where it makes sense to take out the calculator and include infrared heating in the comparison.

Take Out the Calculator and Compare Infrared Heating

If you are choosing a new heating system or planning to replace an existing one, infrared heating is worth including in the same calculation.

Do not compare only the price of a kilowatt-hour of electricity with the price of wood pellets, gas or another energy source.

Compare the entire system.

A Sundirect infrared heating system does not require:

🟧 ✓ a heating boiler

🟧 ✓ a hydronic heating pipe system

🟧 ✓ circulation pumps

🟧 ✓ fuel storage

The infrared panels themselves have no moving parts, fans or filters and do not require regular technical maintenance.

Routine care essentially consists of occasionally cleaning the surface of the panel.

~30 years

~100,000 hours of expected operating life*

Sundirect professional infrared panels have an expected operating life of approximately 100,000 operating hours.

A similar figure — approximately 100,000 operating hours — is also stated by several other high-end infrared heating manufacturers. This highlights one of the key characteristics of high-quality infrared heating: these panels are designed for long-term operation, not just for a few heating seasons.

With seasonal heating use, ~100,000 operating hours can correspond approximately to around 30 years of operation.

The actual service life will, of course, depend on operating intensity, the building’s heat loss, temperature settings and other conditions.

A very cold winter will increase the operating load on the heating system — and this applies to all heating technologies.

*100,000 operating hours is the expected operating life, not a 30-year warranty.

And this is where the maths becomes interesting.

How much will you pay over 20–30 years for regular maintenance, servicing, repairs and equipment replacement with another heating system?

We are not saying that you should simply believe that one technology will always be cheaper than another.

We are saying:

Take out the calculator. Add up everything. Then compare.

The Cheapest Energy Source Does Not Always Mean the Cheapest Heating

The question:

• “How much does one kWh cost?”

is only the starting point.

For a more complete comparison, the equation should look like this:

• Purchase + installation + energy + efficiency + maintenance + repairs + service life + control

Then a much more interesting question emerges:

“How much does one year of comfortable heating actually cost me?”

And in the long term, an even more important one:

• “How much will this heating system cost me over 10, 20 or 30 years?”

But How Much of This Can We Control?

We cannot control global energy prices.

We cannot determine what wood pellets will cost next winter.

We cannot predict whether it will be +5 °C or –20 °C outside in January.

But there is one part of our heating costs that we can influence much more:

• when, where and how much energy we consume.

And that is exactly what the next article will be about.

How Can We Control Heating Consumption and Reduce Costs?

In the next article, we will look at individual room temperature control, heating schedules and how to heat rooms according to how they are actually used.

Then we can compare which heating technologies make this level of control easiest to achieve.