Can i ask your energy costs in an old house?

[Itsallabouttea]

Just trying to gauge how common our situation is!
We moved to a 3 bed Victorian end terrace last summer, typical house of the period, solid walls and EPC rating D. Prior to this I was a lodger with bills included so had little awareness of the cost. At the moment we're spending £8-9 a day just to be remotely comfortable - heating on for a couple of hours in the morning and maybe 3 in the evening. We both work from home and the house constantly feels absolutely Baltic - even when the heating's been on for hours it never gets above 16°. Is this just normal for houses of this age and are we destined to be bankrupt by the energy bill? We're paying 27p kWh for electricity, 7 for gas with Octopus

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@MereDintofPandiculation was internal insulation very expensive? I was pondering this v external. Internal seems pretty disruptive but probably better

@neverwakeasleepingbaby there is insulation in the loft but it looks pretty old and flat. Waiting to see if we can get any help via the government scheme thing

@Fairyliz is she able to swap provider or not until the issues is sorted. My 2 bed flat costs £72 electric and £15 gas per month with heating on maintaining 18 all the time as I'm WFH with British Gas. They also have 1/2 price Sundays so you can whack the tumble dryer on to get washing dry and batch cook for the rest of the week or at least that's what I intend to do as it takes a few days to kickin once you sign up

Insulating lining paper is a game changer although prone to being dented due to the polystyrene insulation layer.

Thick curtains on windows and external doors.

Buy a couple of rolls of insulation and lay it in the loft @Itsallabouttea just nip to B&Q tonight and pick a roll up to get you through this cold snap, you can always add more if you get a grant.

What did you sue for internal insulation? In a new to us Victorian house which definitely needs better insulation but not sure what we should use that keeps the breathability of the walls (ie avoids future condensation/mould)...

If it is solid walled and not cavity, any sort of impermeable insulation will ruin the fabric of the building. SPAB's old house handbook and eco handbooks are great for exploring what actually works. Ventilation is actually really important, open windows for as much as you can as they let the warm wet air out to be replaced with much drier cold air which then holds heat better. This also dramatically reduces the risk of damp related mould. Keep large pieces of furniture away from external walls, and use heavy curtains.

We are in a 3 bedroom townhouse built in 1810. Currently spending around £400 a month for gas and electricity - around £300 of that is gas. But we do have thermostat set to 22c during the day and 20c overnight. It still doesn't feel massively warm though.

3 bed old semi

£75ish oil averaged out and £167 electricity but that includes charging 2 EV’s on an agile tariff.

We do have 2 open fires but they aren’t in use as couldn’t afford the insurance premium with them included this year. Robbing bastards.

Victorian 4 bed mid terrace, stone walls so no cavity to insulate, all windows double glazed and thick curtains but bill was 478 for the month mid Dec to mid Jan. The 4th bedroom is in the loft space and is original (from about 1880) so the roof insulation there is non existent, the rest of the loft has modern insulation.
We also have solar panels so in the summer our bills are virtually standing charge only with just a bit of gas for cooking - unfortunately we get clobbered in the winter. It wasn’t a problem until a couple of years ago. With Ecotricity, which I know is a bit more. Might shop soon.

That's really interesting what you say about opening windows @Scampuss. We always have our windows open in the morning but then I worry it will make the house take much longer to heat up again.

We are just testing leaving the heating on for longer to see how much more expensive it is but it's a 3 bed Victorian semi with the insulation that's in partition walls on the exterior walls(here when we moved in so don't know much about it. With log burner and occasional 1 hour of heating it's £130 a month for gas and electricity.

That's really interesting what you say about opening windows @Scampuss. We always have our windows open in the morning but then I worry it will make the house take much longer to heat up again.

It feels really counterintuitive but it's really simple science!

SPAB say that the insulatory effect of dry solid walls over damp ones is around 30-40% improvement, a figure that would be hard to get with most insulations (and then you lose the ability for the walls to act as heat sinks).

About £16 a day in heading. Single glazing. It’s not very enjoyable. I’m kind of hoping we have some sort of leak to help justify this.

Stone barn conversion here.
Oil about ££1500 a year. Logs £200. Electricity about £70 a month in winter but that's because we have solar panels and two batteries.

You need another heater as well as central heating. If not a stove then a gas fire.
My living room would not go above 15 if I left the heating on all day, much as I loathe it we have a multifuel stove. It would be out like a shot if we had gas.

House built in 1900s or so
5bed family of four.
Gas costs us about £50 p/ month in winter but about 20-25 in the summer.
Elec is nearly always £90 p/month

We've got a couple of oil filled radiators but they don't do a great deal, was wondering about getting a portable calor gas heater although I gather the gas bottles are quite hard to find at the moment, plus they can create condensation... I live under my heated throw when I'm working but of course all these extras just rack up the daily costs, just want to not be freezing for once!

1922 house, semi 3 bed ranges £110-160 per month has and electric

Oh god, absolutely don't get a calor gas heater, as well as being dangerous they will increase moisture.

Yes, that's a worry to me too. We've used Kingspan on the upstairs with no condensation or damp problems but I want to use a wool-based one on the downstairs walls.

Hard to know what the cost was because in both cases we did it as part of a major renovation - in one case putting in a wall of fitted wardrobes, in the other, putting in an internal division to install a shower room. In both cases we also needed to restore the Victorian deep skirting boards, the cornice, and the paneling around the sash windows.

We live in a 3 bed victorian terrace, it gets really cold in the winter, no insulation in the flooring, walls, nothing. We have a thermometer in our bathroom and kitchen, usually reads around 7-9°c in the morning, a bit TMI but when I use the bathroom, the toilet bowl steams. We're spending roughly £11 a day on gas at the moment due to how cold it is, keeping the heating on all night at 18°c and during the day, no idea on electricity as I don't really look. We've installed a 3rd layer of insulation on the windows, foam around the doors and windows, put down rugs, filled any gaps where drafts come in and it's still cold enough to see our breasts when we first come downstairs in the morning.

19th century 3 bed cottage. Solid walls and rooms-in-roof. Secondary glazing. Thermostat set to 17°C 6.30-9.30. It was saying 13 when I got up this morning despite heating having been on for half an hour 🥶

Woodburning stove lit all day when it’s freezing, evening only when it’s a bit milder.

December was £130 of gas and we are already up to £126 this month so it will be nearer £200.

Our neighbours on oil (we are the last house on the gas main) have it worse.

Victorian semi, mostly single glazed. Pay about 100 pcm all in, gas ch and water plus electric other. But we huddle around a wood stove (yes, yes, don't care, it's free fuel DH collects from hedgerows) in the lounge and it rarely gets above 17 degrees C.We wear two or three layers in winter.

@MereDintofPandiculation thanks. Good to know you've been okay with kingspan. Our bedrooms are in reasonable decorative order but were end terrace so lots of external walls. Already built in wardrobes but built onto external facing wall with no back panel. Like a fridge inside those wardrobes so keen in time we rebuild with something much better!

I've also ready about cork insulation being breathable but not researched enough as to thickness / how insulating it is compared to kingspan.

5 bed, 3 storey. House bill in 1881. Heating on 2 hours morning 2 hours evening plus a bit extra this cold snap. In winter the temp in the rooms will unlikely reach 18. We've just got used to it. Humidity stays around 50/60%. (I love data so track everything)
My gas and electric was £400 for December. I am terraced and I know my neighbours on either side keep their houses mosty toasty. I just don't know how they afford it.

If you have double glazing and adequate loft insulation, I think most properties are similar, old or not. Flats are better, because of heat insulation of other floors above and below, and obviously very modern green/eco homes are better-although they're silly expensive. Ours is expensive, but it works out at about 2200 per year (180 per month). Victorian. I think carpet and good underlay helps, and well fitting window and doors. We looked into further wall insulation, but it wasn't worth it. We are rated band c for energy efficiency, which isn't terrible. We added a lot of extra loft insulation, and have heavy interlined curtains.

5 bed detached £600 a month in winter (£400 oil tank and £200 electricity), this goes down to about £300-350 a month in summer.

Large 4 bed 1920's semi, three levels.
I'm with Eon. No smart meter, not able to have one so my monthly dd is £300 for gas and elec. I'm well in credit too so will need to reduce dd.

Heating is on from 5am to 8am and 6pm to 10.30pm. Weekends its on for longer. When we renovated we put new insulation in the attics (I have three) this has made a huge difference, the summer was very comfortable in here.

Gas is the biggest bill, I have a 2 oven gas aga which is on from September to March, it keeps the kitchen very cosy for me and the dog and I don't need the heating on in the rest of the house. Plus it dries my washing.

We've had shutters installed this has made a difference as well.

I do need to get a curtain for the front door, thats on my to do list.

1930's terraced house here. Pay £300 a month for dual fuel with Octopus but am still £500 in credit this month so I could probably drop it but I'd rather have more than not enough. I cannot bear being cold.