Heating

[steve]

When I moved to my new home I paid 54 cents/liter for heating oil. This,a year later, has now risen to over 90 cents !! Obviously the rising prices of fuels are very much in the news at the moment. Although I understand most of what is reported,from a language point of view, I don't know whether gas is MUCH more expensive than it was a year ago. What is the general feeling around at the moment? Has gas gone up a huge amount? Is it worthwhile me considering a change over to gas even taking into account the cost of changing boiler etc ? What do the experts in Belgium perceive will happen to the prices in the future?
I'd appreciate your thoughts.Thanks,Steve

[berten]

Hi,

Gas prices in Belgium(like in all europe) are going up with the prices of oil but with a delay of six months!! From Januari 2005 it went from 2.336 cent/kWh to 3.513 cent/kWh in December 2006. That is 50 procent higher in 2 years time! For a normal family usage of 25000kwh a year that is 294 euros more to pay in a year! The prices fluctuate every month (only nuon has a contract of 3 years with a fixed price). But nuon seems to be one of the most expensive. Lampiris is known to be the cheapest.

Connecting to gas circuit costs about 250 euro and the inside network costs about 400 euro. A aardgasketel costs between 1000 and 1500 euro(depends what type). So to install it costs around 2000 euro!
Prices of gas and stookolie are like similar over the years if u look at everything. Some say stookolie is still the cheapest and vice versa, because of installation, lifetime of the ketel etc etc......
Berten

[steve]

Thanks mate.Guess I'll stay with what I have at least for the time being!