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Will my gas and Elec be cheaper in a new build

amandathepanda
Posts: 424 Forumite
in Energy
at the moment I live in a 3 bed 1930's double glazed and cavity wall insulated semi. My Elec is £104pm and the Gas £108pm. The house is up for sale and we are hopefully moving to a 3 bed Bellway new build. Do you think the gas and elec will be cheaper, the house I'm in at the moment seems to eat up energy. Thanks.
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I moved from an old house almost 2 years ago to a new build and my elec and gas have more than halved.0
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In general, yes, simply as it's really, really hard to properly insulate old properties without ripping them apart.
As it is a new build, as I understand it, there should be an energy performance certificate available, giving details of the expected consumption, based on the construction.
Have you asked about this?0 -
Hard to say, on balance its likely to be slightly cheaper. Aim for 15%, anything more is a bonus.
So many things to consider. We moved from a 1990s 4 bed to a 2004 5 bed. House and ch is about 40% bigger and bill/usage went up 30%. On paper EPC it seemed much more efficient.
If you have an old house, perhaps older than the 70s some people like some of our relatives can use an enormous amount of gas if they have an uninsulated drafty house with old rads no trvs and an old boiler. Their house was an old 3 bed semi slightly smaller than our old 4 bed but they used nearly twice as much gas. Equally if they get a new oversized boiler not much can change. But if they get a new correctly sized boiler, fit trvs and have insulation installed, fix the drafts there is no reason to think the heating bills will be much different from the new build.0 -
Apart from anything else, the new build will have a condensing boiler, which your current property may not do.
Your current electricity DD is unfeasibly high for a property with gas CH and DHW-it should be much less than your gas DD. It indicates a consumption of around 10,400kWh pa-that's 3 times the UK average, so something is wrong. Post your actual annual kWh figures and proper advice can be given.No free lunch, and no free laptop0 -
Amanda, I too live in a well insulated 3 bed 1930's semi.
The big difference is you pay £212. Me £66.12 for gas and electric = 4 adults.
Getting a low bill has to be worked at. One of my favorite hobbies is unplugging when people go out or not using. Must have saved £'s.The secret to success is making very small, yet constant changes.:)0 -
In the recent snow, I noticed that the new builds lost the snow off the roof much earlier than the older houses. So much for better insulated!Pants0
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good_advice wrote: »Getting a low bill has to be worked at. One of my favorite hobbies is unplugging when people go out or not using. Must have saved £'s.
With modern appliances, this saving can approach (or in some instances be) zero.
Most new appliances I've got in the last 10 years - microwave, large monitor, hot air frier, ... use under half a watt, even with their 'ready' LEDs on.
I would recommend getting an energy meter, for a tenner, to see where things should be focussed, and what you don't need to bother with.
At some point you've got to ask yourself if the (say) £8 a year is worth 30 hours a year.
(assuming that you take 5 minutes a day doing this.0 -
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Or a steeper roof pitch?No free lunch, and no free laptop0
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amandathepanda wrote: »at the moment I live in a 3 bed 1930's double glazed and cavity wall insulated semi. My Elec is £104pm and the Gas £108pm. The house is up for sale and we are hopefully moving to a 3 bed Bellway new build. Do you think the gas and elec will be cheaper, the house I'm in at the moment seems to eat up energy. Thanks.
Initially, you may well find your gas & (possibly electricity) will be more in a new build, especially for the first couple of years whilst it is 'drying out'. Also you will be advised to try to keep the new build at a constant temperature during this period to reduce cracking. (Bellway should give you details about all this when you move in)
An average household uses about 3300 kWh of electricity and 16500kWh of gas a year.
That relates to about £35 a month for electricity and about £50-£55 a month for gas (on a good tariff), so I think you should be able to get a reduction in your current consumption no matter what house you live in (with a little effort).0
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