Calculating household costs when moving

yorkiechick

My partner and I are in the early stages of planning to move, and we're trying to do the maths on our budget with a potentially bigger house. 

Currently we are in a 1950s 3 bed semi, gas and electricity is £140pm, water £20 pm. Is there anywhere to find average utility costs?

We will be looking for a detached property, still 3 bedrooms and only the 2 of us as occupants. We only heat the rooms we use currently, so would bills go up by that much?

EssexHebridean

There will be a small increase due to the property being detached - heat loss is potentially greater than from a semi. There are a lot of other variables though too - the new house might be better (worse) insulated/have a more (or less) efficient boiler/have a better(worse) heating system... 

When we moved I budgeted for an increase which felt about reasonable and then just kept a really close eye on things through the first 12 months. 

No logical reason why water should change - you are metered now and will presumably be metered at the new property as well.  Edit - it's been pointed out below that this is incorrect as the property rating will be different!

freesha

EssexHebridean said:

No logical reason why water should change - you are metered now and will presumably be metered at the new property as well. 

There will be a higher standing charge and drainage amount.

EssexHebridean

freesha said:

EssexHebridean said:

No logical reason why water should change - you are metered now and will presumably be metered at the new property as well. 

There will be a higher standing charge and drainage amount.

Oh yes - thanks for pointing that out, I was just thinking in terms of water and forgot the added bits for the property being rated differently! 

yorkiechick

Thank you both. Looking into water, the standing charge is fixed for the year, and drainage/sewerage is based on water usage, so I don't think it will change drastically. However, I'll factor in an increase to be on the safe side. 

EssexHebridean

The other aspect with water is that if your new house has a larger garden you might use more water there! 

Albermarle

Every time there is a news story about energy costs they quote the figures for an average house usage of gas and electricity.
On 22 November 2024, Ofgem announced that the energy price cap, for a typical household who use electricity and gas and pay by Direct Debit, would be £1,738 from 1 January 2025. This figure uses Ofgem’s definition of ‘average energy use’ known as the Typical Domestic Consumption Values (TDCV). Ofgem sets the maximum amount that suppliers can charge for each unit of electricity and gas but not the total bill, so if you use more energy, you will pay more.

EssexHebridean

Yes, and it's about as much practical use as a chocolate tea pot at elevenses time. 

strawb_shortcake

I was really surprised when I found out ourselves and our neighbours all had different water bills, all very similar, some semi some terraced but ours is £46 a month and one neighbour is over £90. Both bills not metered.

yorkiechick

strawb_shortcake said:

I was really surprised when I found out ourselves and our neighbours all had different water bills, all very similar, some semi some terraced but ours is £46 a month and one neighbour is over £90. Both bills not metered.

Are they running a laundrette from home?!

Bigphil1474

We moved from a 3 bed terrace paying about £30 a month for water, to a 4 bed semi which is £70 a month - both non metered. We're getting a meter in as soon as we can. 

OP, we basically just added 20% to everything to give us a rough figure. Other than the water scare, we've actually been spending pretty much the same on heating - newer house has much better insulation, but its bigger so balances out. The council tax went up a band, we transferred Virgin Media for the BB and TV so same price etc. so have actually ended up paying maybe 10% more a month overall for everything except the mortgage.

Only thing to think about is that the new house may be on a rubbish tariff so initially you are stuck with whatever the vendors have in place. We managed to get a new fixed deal a couple of months after we moved in.