If you moved from a 3 bed to a 4+ bed house - did you notice an increase in bills/ expenditure?

[housedilemma]

We're thinking about moving from our 3 bed, 2 rec 1 bath home in the next year or so.

Ideally, we'd like to buy something which will last us until we're retired and the kids have moved out, so something with as much space as possible. Then possibly downsize to something like our current house.

I guess the ideal house would be 5 bed, 3 rec with 2 baths. Though would consider anything so long as the actual 'space' was more.

If you did move from a smaller house to a larger house, did you notice an increase in bills (not really mortgage as we'd plan for that)? Do you regret the move for this reason?

Moved from a 2 bed/1bath flat to a 4 bed/2bath house and leaving aside council tax (a little higher) everything else seemed surprisingly similar. No huge increase in gas, electricity or water. In fact, saved money by not having a service charge but that was offset by having to buy own buildings insurance and do own maintenance.

Moved from a 3 bed, 2 recep detached 1930's house to a brand new, 4 bed, 2 recep, 3 storey semi townhouse and our bills have more than halved. New build with good insulation and heat recovery system makes a huge difference!!

Main difference is council tax; bills are less because of better insulation

a bigger house will tend to use more heating, but this will depend even more on age, and quality of insulation and draughtproofing.

It will certainly use more carpet and wallpaper.

We recently moved from 3 bed, 2 rec, 1 bath house to 4 bed, 2 rec, 2 bath house and yes our gas, electricity and water bills are a fair bit higher.

CT , maintenance costs, fuel bills all rose.

moved 2 years ago. Our gas and electric is less because the house is better insulated but council tax a band higher.

The downside? I find it takes me much longer to clean it

We moved from a 3 bed terrace to a 4 bed detached and everything has gone up.
Water rates were £25 a month - now we pay £91 on a meter
council tax is higher
gas and electricity is higher but is not going up anymore due to us getting well insulated and having a new boiler

we went from a 2 bed, 1 bath to a 4 bed 2 bath about 4 months ago and all bills have increased. CT from band D to band F (about £50 pm), water isn't metered here so much more expensive and gas and electricity have risen by about 30%.

Rachel you have heat recovery ventilation? Tell me more!

I'd love to have this - do you like it?

Can I ask what the plusses and minuses are? Eg, is it noisy, do you spend your life cleaning filters, does it create cold spots where the vents are?

(Sorry, OP, crashing into your thread.)

Our council tax is higher (obv) as are our water bills (now on a meter). Our gas bills drop during the summer because we switch on our solar heating system.

Interesting that you say that your water bills have increased on a meter ronxand insancerre. I had a meter at my old house and it was much cheaper than the rates are at the new place. I was thinking of asking for a meter to be fitted but I'm having second thoughts now!

We moved from a 20 year old detached 4 bedroom house (more top heavy than bottom heavy, if that makes sense!)

to a

semi-detached period 4 bedroom house (big on top (2nd floor loft conversion) and big on bottom (open plan apart from hallway and utility room)

and... our bills are much more.

Gas and electricity was £170 for February!!!!

Also, our contents insurance was more expensive due to us moving nearer to towards town.

We traded up... much better area - neighbours - school - just everything is better. We moved last summer, wish we did it years ago! We might be attached one side - and have a slightly smaller garden... and yes, our bills are a bit higher.. but, no regrets. There's always going to be compromise!

We moved from a victorian, brick built 4 bed semi to a 6 bed stone built detached in a much much colder part of the country, and our bills have fallen considerably. We are now £112 per month for gas and electricity combined. BUT
We have 2 woodburners, which we use daily in winter. We're using scrap wood just now, but last winter we had to buy logs, which cost us about £400.
We have insulated curtains, which get closed as soon as it gets dark. We have the heating on two circuits, so that upstairs only gets heated when it needs to be. We have a super efficient gas boiler and water heater. The loft is mega insulated.

Being careful about insulation and heating seems to have been key. And stone is not nearly as draughty as brick was.

Go on, go for it!

Yes, our bills went up massively, but that has more to do with going from a well-insulated modern house with minimal maintenance to a large listed building which had been somewhat neglected - so maintenance is much more, CT is more, and energy is more because it is much bigger and not as well insulated.

That said, we too have woodburners and they make a huge difference. We upgraded one of the two last year to a larger stove and have made a conscious effort to use the heating less and the fires more this winter (logs are a lot more expensive than they were last year, but still cheaper for the effect on the house than oil) - and we have definitely saved more on oil than we have spent on logs. Electricity bill is large, but that is at least in part due to the electric underfloor heating in the kitchen which is a luxury but makes life so much better for my feet.

serialkipper I don't really know a huge amount about it TBH it was just part of the energy saving measures by the developers!! There are ceiling vents in each room which are adjustable and then the ones in the bathrooms and kitchen are fixed (no adjust). It's an ambient system apparently (acc to DH) and the unit is up in the loft and will need servicing along with the boiler each year and I think they change the filter then. Advantages - you don't need extractor fans in the bathrooms as the system removes the warm air, it reduces bills (not sure how much but we are currently on £99 total for gas & elec for a house of 1459 sq ft. There is a background noise which you can hear when the room is silent but it's pretty quiet like a quiet air conditioning system - I actually find it quite soothing!! No idea how much it costs as I say it was part of the build and we didn't really know we were having it until close to completion!!

Many thanks for that, Rachel. It's great that this is going in as part of the build, because retro-fitting is always more expensive.

Thanks everyone, this has been very helpful.

We went from 3 bed semi to 5 bed detached & apart from council tax & water, our bills have gone down. We've insulated the loft, but I think having sep. lounge & dining room means a little oil radiator does the job so we don't have the heating on as much.