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ENERGY

EXPLAINED: When should I turn on my heating in Sweden this year?

Energy costs in Sweden are set to reach sky-high levels this winter, which will leave many people wondering when they should start heating their homes. Here's what you need to bear in mind.

Published: 30 September 2022 13:03 CEST
EXPLAINED: When should I turn on my heating in Sweden this year?
Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT

What’s happening?

As a result of supply stoppages for cheap Russian gas affecting energy prices on the European market – particularly in Germany – energy prices in Sweden have been at record levels for months, especially in the two energy price zones in the south of the country.

With winter looming and no sign of things getting cheaper anytime soon, private individuals are starting to cut down on energy usage as much as they can to slash their bills this season.

Does it make a difference what type of accommodation I live in?

The right time to start heating your home depends on several factors including your own personal preference, the weather, whether you live in rented accommodation or own your own property, and on the age and features of the property you live in.

How does the heating system work in Swedish homes?

More than half of all houses and commercial properties in Sweden use district heating or fjärrvärme, with this number rising to around 90 percent for apartment buildings.

This system distributes hot water from heating plants to houses and apartments through underground water pipes, meaning that heating sources are centralised, rather than individual houses or apartments having their own heating source.

In smaller towns and in houses, district heating is less common, and it’s these households who can benefit the most from waiting longer to turn on their heating.

Do I control my heating?

It depends. If you live in a rented apartment or a bostadsrättsforening (co-operative housing association) with district heating, your landlord or the board of your housing foundation will usually decide for you when to turn your heating on.

Unlike other countries, Sweden has no official legal heating season, with heating in bostadsrättsföreningar usually switched on automatically following periods of cold weather, no matter which date they occur on.

This will usually be designed to provide an indoor temperature of around 21 degrees – you can turn your radiators down if you feel this is too warm, but you won’t usually be able to turn them up if you want the temperature to be warmer.

The Public Health Agency recommends temperatures of between 20 and 24 degrees indoors, with temperatures lower than 18 degrees in apartments posing a health risk.

Temperatures lower than 14 are not recommended as they can cause condensation and mould growth on walls and furnishings, which, again, are a health risk, and can cause permanent damage to properties.

Can I save money by waiting to turn my heating on?

Again, it depends. If you’re renting and you pay varmhyra – rent with heating included – then you won’t save money directly, but heating your home wisely could make it less likely for your landlord to raise your rent to cover increased heating costs.

If you pay kallhyra – rent without heating included, then waiting to turn on the heating will save money on your electricity bill.

Similarly, in some housing associations, electricity and heating costs are included in your monthly fee, meaning you pay your share of the heating costs for the entire building ever month. In this case, your energy costs are more affected by how much energy everyone else in your housing association uses than your individual usage.

On the other hand, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about how warm your heating is – if you have your heating on full-blast for the whole winter, your costs will increase as well as the costs of all of your neighbours, and if the entire association’s energy costs increase substantially, the board may decide to raise the monthly fee or avgift for everyone in the building to cover this.

If you pay an individual energy bill based on your own household’s usage, and not on an average of the whole building, it could pay to wait before you switch on your heating.

How else can I save money on heating costs?

Turning your heating down a couple of degrees can make a big difference to your heating costs, but you can also save money on heating and make your property feel warmer by making it more energy effective.

There are a few easy ways to do this, according to the Swedish Energy Agency.

Firstly, make sure your house is well insulated, not just your doors and windows, but also in the loft: a large amount of a building’s heat escapes through the roof. This also applies to the boundaries between well-insulated and poorly-insulated areas.

If you have a cellar or conservatory, for example, which is not heated and not insulated, make sure the door between this room and the rest of the house is well-insulated with no gaps around the doorframe where heat can escape into the colder room. 

In a similar vein, locate any drafts and do what you can to block them, either with draft excluders or by replacing worn-out draft excluder strips on old doors and windows.

You can also benefit from thinking about how you furnish your home – furniture placed in front of radiators mean it is harder for warm air to circulate, and you can keep your house warmer at night by closing your curtains or blinds to keep eat from escaping through your windows.

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MONEY

EXPLAINED: What is a Swedish ISK account?

Sweden’s government has proposed scrapping tax on ISK accounts with a balance of 300,000 kronor or less - but what are these accounts and how do they work?

Published: 15 April 2024 15:33 CEST
EXPLAINED: What is a Swedish ISK account?

What is an ISK?

ISKs, literally ‘investment savings accounts’ were introduced in 2012 as a way for people in Sweden to easily invest in shares and funds. An estimated 3.5 million people in Sweden have an ISK, with 75 percent of these accounts having a balance of 300,000 kronor or less.

How are they currently taxed?

They’re not subject to capital gains tax, but they are instead taxed at a fixed rate – known as schablonsskatt – an annual rate paid on the entire value of the sum held.

This differs from traditional AFs, where AF stands for aktie- och fondkonto or ‘share and fund account’, where any profits or losses on the sale of shares throughout the year must be declared individually in your yearly tax declaration.

If you have an ISK, you pay tax of 1.086 percent on your savings under current rules, which – to put it simply – means if you had 100,000 kronor invested you’d have a yearly ISK tax bill of 1,086 kronor, which you would pay whether your portfolio made a profit or not. Any figures needed for tax purposes are automatically added to your tax declaration by your bank, so there’s no need to do this yourself.

There’s a third type of investing savings account – a kapitalförsäkring or KF, which is an insurance product where shares, funds and other savings are held in your name by a bank or insurance company. A KF differs slightly from an ISK, but they are subject to the same amount of tax (although you might need to pay tax on a KF each quarter rather than each year). 

As a general rule, it makes financial sense to invest through an ISK or KF rather than another type of investment-based savings account if your yearly returns exceed the government loan rate – statslåneräntan – plus one percentage point. The government loan rate was raised to 2.62 percent at the end of 2023, meaning you should aim for your ISK or KF to have an average return of at least 3.62 percent.

In an AF, you pay 30 percent tax on any profit you make through sold shares in a tax year. If you make a loss, you pay nothing at all.

How do I open one?

Most consumer banks in Sweden, like Swedbank, SEB and Handelsbanken, offer ISKs and KFs, as well as specialist stockbrokers like Avanza or Nordnet, which are often significantly cheaper. 

It’s somewhat less convenient to have your savings in a separate place to your bank account, but this can also be a good thing if you’re the kind of person who is tempted to sell your shares or funds at the slightest sign of a downturn.

It’s relatively easy to set up an automatic investment each month from your salary account to an ISK, even if these are in different banks.

You can often open an ISK in minutes via mobile banking on your phone, although it’s a good idea to do your research first and compare fees between providers before you open one – small differences in fees can make a huge difference if you’ll be saving over an entire lifetime.

Having said that, it’s a good idea to be aware of specific rules in your home country, especially if you are still eligible to pay tax there.

In the US, for example, ISKs are very difficult to report to tax authorities, and you may be penalised for owning mutual funds over a certain amount – which is common both in ISKs and KFs.

How would the new proposal change things?

Under a new proposal, which has been co-authored by the government and the Sweden Democrats, tax on ISKs and KFs would be scrapped for any accounts where savings are less than 300,000 kronor. Currently, an ISK with 300,000 kronor saved would cost 3,258 kronor in tax in a calendar year, so it’s a sizeable saving for those with a balance above this amount.

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