Heat pump electricity price: when heating runs cheapest
A heat pump with a buffer or hot water tank can preheat for a few hours. The calculator finds the cheapest window for it.
Cheapest start
tomorrow at 02:15
€1.65 for 8.00 kWh, done by 06:15
| Average all-in price in the window | 20.6 ct/kWh |
| At the most expensive time | €2.37 |
| Run time used | 4.00 h |
Exchange price + 0.00 ct markup + 10.72 ct grid fee + electricity tax 2.05 ct + levies 2.946 ct + concession fee, plus 19% VAT. Standing charge and meter fee not included.
Latest day with prices: 25 October 2026. Day-ahead wholesale prices: Bundesnetzagentur | SMARD.de (CC BY 4.0), fetched on 24 October 2026. Calculation: Radif Partners
A heat pump uses a lot of electricity in winter, which is exactly when exchange prices often swing widely between night, midday and evening. On a dynamic tariff it pays to put its running time into cheap hours, as long as the house or a buffer tank can hold the heat for a while. As an example, we assume the pump draws 8 kWh over four hours in a row. On 25 October 2026 the cheapest four-hour window in Germany runs from 02:15 to 06:15; there the block costs €1.65 at an average all-in price of 20.6 ct/kWh, while the dearest window, from 17:00 to 21:00, costs €2.19. The figures use the German average grid fee, electricity tax, levies, concession fee and VAT, without any supplier markup. For comparison, the all-in price at the average exchange price of the last 30 days was 39.1 ct/kWh. Whether your heat pump can actually be shifted depends on storage, insulation and controls: the values here are assumptions, not a measurement of your home.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Two heating blocks on 25 October 2026
| Block (assumption) | Cheapest window | Cost, cheap | Cost, dear | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 h, 4 kWh | 13:15 to 15:15 | €0.82 | €1.13 | €0.31 |
| 4 h, 8 kWh | 02:15 to 06:15 | €1.65 | €2.19 | €0.54 |
When power was cheap on average
| Time of day | All-in, no markup |
|---|---|
| 00:00 to 03:00 | 37.6 ct/kWh |
| 03:00 to 06:00 | 37.2 ct/kWh |
| 06:00 to 09:00 | 42.8 ct/kWh |
| 09:00 to 12:00 | 37.8 ct/kWh |
| 12:00 to 15:00 | 31.5 ct/kWh |
| 15:00 to 18:00 | 38.4 ct/kWh |
| 18:00 to 21:00 | 46.7 ct/kWh |
| 21:00 to 24:00 | 40.6 ct/kWh |
Exchange values come from Bundesnetzagentur | SMARD.de: wholesale electricity prices (CC BY 4.0), the average grid fee from the Federal Network Agency and Federal Cartel Office: Monitoring Report 2025, table 25. In winter the pattern shifts: the solar dip at midday is weaker, wind matters more and the evening peak is sharper.
What you need
A dynamic tariff, which every German supplier must offer customers with a smart metering system (Energy Industry Act (EnWG), section 41a: dynamic tariffs), and a heat pump that can store heat. How large the advantage is over a whole month is on dynamic electricity tariff; the fixed parts of the price are on German electricity price breakdown.