What would these be for typically? (In South Africa this isn’t common…)
Some heatpump manufacturers mix their own gas… Normal refrigeration gas is perfect for cooling. The mixtures makes the gas more effective in absorbing heat and transferring it to the water.
To get you as customer! First year you get xxx€ reduction, second year they increase the price by 100% 
. Have had that! If you are lazy (or do not realize it early enough) you have paid more after two years than without this ‘bonus’.
Mostly complete bs. I try to avoid this sort of ‘providers’. But sometimes you get a few percent reduction if you take power and gas from the same (mostly local) provider.
I am not sure about a European context but here in South Africa that is terribly expensive, but I guess that’s the price you pay if you want it to be on all the time 
29ct EUR / kWh = R5.85 per kWh our residential rates are typically around R2.6 / kWh
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Cape Town high end is R3.63 right now, but it goes up in july. Divide by 20 to get EUR, so just over 18c.
I just had a look at our local municipal rates for 2023/2024 Tarrif B on a single phase 16kVA connection has a fixed monthly fee of R756 (Incl VAT) / 20.21 = 37 EUR
And a per kWh rate of R3.18 VAT Incl so about 15.7 EURc
Prepaid with IBT could work out cheaper, but you would need to use less than 600kWh per month.
@JBecker 's fixed line fee is actually pretty cheap (If that 10-15 EUR he says is the base fee is the connection fee), especially if its true that he has a 3 phase connection to his house? (Seems like it is quite standard in places like Germany)
The fixed line fee for a residential 3 phase setup (25kVA 45A) in our municipality is R3011 VAT Incl pm
Or ~ 148 EUR
Yes, 10-15€ is for a standard three phase connection. And due to 3.3kWp PV and 35kWh battery storage we only need around 500kWh from the grid. So the kWh price is not bothering me so much.
Would be different when using a heat pump. I was thinking about it due to the situation and the new regulations but at 8.5ct/kWh for gas this is not cost effective atm. The yearly efficiency factor in our region and for our house when using a heat pump would not go over appr. 3(00%).
If your heatpump can average a COP of 3 the cost of heating per kWh would be very close between gas and a heatpump, of course there would be the capital cost of the heatpump that would break that argument
But if you averaged a COP of 3 on the heatpump your electrical cost of 29c / kWh would give you 3kWh of heat. so essentially 9.6c / kWh of heating.
More expensive yes, but probably more stable in the long run and less reliant on the whims of authoritarian governments
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Yes, same thoughts here!
But I think that the gas prices have not quite reached the bottom yet and electricity prices are steadily going up.
On the other hand I have surplus PV power (but not in winter!) for which I do not get anything for feed in (still a ‘pirate’ installation due to excessive bureaucracy).
I will now install a new gas heating system because the old one is worn-out. And maybe a simple heat pump (Panasonic Aquarea monoblock) in parallel for testing if this works for me in wintertime (will be on the edge with my 120 year old house).
Man, I can attest to this from my European travels. I remember being in Berlin in July 2012. Sun comes up some time before 6AM, it was usually up by the time I woke up. Or more like, by that time the sun was “burning me out of bed” already, as we say here. And then it set again at 11PM.
In winter it is probably the polar opposite. Pun intended.
I can absolutely understand why energy prices go negative in summer.
Not so much over here. Our winter/summer variance is a lot less.
I just checked mine, the reduction in my generation from the month of December vs the month of May was ~ 30% less.
All the rain here up North really kills the potential Summer generation sometimes.