Europeans have dialled down their heating this winter, apparently heeding government calls to conserve energy amid the Ukraine crisis, with Some delaying switching on heating on by almost a month and setting the temperature lower, data shows. Data comes from hundreds of thousands of smart thermometers installed in households across Europe. As temperatures dropped, households responded to dire warnings about higher heating costs. The proportion of homes with the heating switched on across Europe passed 90 per cent on Nov 28. Home heating settings averaged almost a degree lower this winter than in previous years, according to Tado’s data.
After a hectic time, energy regulators are more relaxed about Europe’s gas supply prospects. There have been huge efforts to reduce reliance on Russian gas and increase imports from European gas producers like Norway and the Netherlands. while Germany has quickly built LNG terminals.
Gas prices in Europe have fallen sharply from a peak in August, as a rush to fill storage pushed the market higher. Tado’s data, based on readings from 340,000 cloud-linked smart thermometers around Europe, is relatively resistant to varied weather conditions over the four winters it measured since it records the target temperatures households set.
