Cost of running a 2000-4000sqft Georgian or Victorian house?

[8ahwe]

Thinking of a move from a newly build house to a large detached Georgian or Victorian house, assuming single plane sash windows to the mners who own similar houses what does your gas/electric cost to heat the house and how high do you have the temperature?

At the moment we average £50 a month over the year and it doesnt drop below 23 degrees.

Thanks!

2,000 sq ft Victorian all single glazed sash. £280 a month but we have a 40 year old boiler. Generally have it heated to 17/18 when we have the heating on.

We also have an open fire so will have that on in the afternoons/ evenings at weekends and turn the heating off.

Thank you that isnt so bad but I wonder if you put the temp up a few more degrees what it would be.

Good idea on the fires thats a lovely idea.

nearly 2000 square feet Victorian single glazed house. Spent £600 in two weeks in gas last December. Was freezing the whole time.

Victorian villa style detached property. We have secondary double glazing fitted to the sash windows and we don’t heat every room but it still cost us £500 a month to heat effectively.

I have a 3000sq ft detached house and it is costing a fortune in gas. Not helped because it has minimal insulation. House is rarely warm everywhere but by selectively heating particular rooms we manage. We only heat to 18. But bills range from £500-1000 depending if we're all home and how cold it is outside. We also have a wood burner and got through 3 or 4 big sacks of wood. I spend a lot of time under a heated throw.

Mine is probably smaller than this (can't do sq ft but it's a small 3 bed) but we still spend £230 pcm on gas and electricity. Victorian semi, sash windows, wooden doors.

We have just fitted secondary glazing to all but one upstairs window, so might make a small saving this winter. Saving up again to do the rest!

thank you its really helpful

It would probably double it. My experience of old houses (200 plus) is that they can't retain heat so you have to blast it high, and that really does double the cost. In my house there was naff all point keeping it in on low, it didn't retain anything. Had put the heating on 20/21 to feel anything whatsoever. Even doing that for a few hours cost as much as being on lower all day.

We moved when we realised it would cost £1250 a month to still be really quite cold during a similarly stormy November. 1500 sq ft detached stone build with no insulation.

Being surrounded by trees probably didn't help. Went back during a heatwave in July and it felt like a winter's day inside.

if you had the wood would it be feasible to have a few fires going at once throughout the day and evening in winter?

Thank you. Ouch, at that rate you may as well turn it off and still be cold but with some cash!

It’s not just the cost of gas and electric - you need to factor in that big Victorian stone built houses are really really expensive to maintain.

Roof repairs, gutter cleaning, repointing chimneys, repairing and repainting all those lovely sash and case windows inside and out, repainting high ceilinged rooms etc all cost a fortune because they often involve scaffold and towers, specialist materials and lots of time. It gets worse if you’re in a conservation area, too.

i know these all sound like they’re occasional spends but the external stuff has to be done to keep you watertight and it’s much more frequent than we’d accounted for.

And that’s before the months get to your woollen carpet.

Victorian = money pit

Yes, absolutely. That helps keep the cold off big cold houses a lot. But a few things re that:

You have to physically be there stoking fires constantly. I have been unlucky with my current house as our chimneys are poorly fitted and they burn through a log in 20 minutes (LL is going to try to fix the chimneys).

It takes a lot of physical work and planning to run fires all day. Our garage has 4 cubic metre bags last year and that wasn't enough for one fire! (About 3.5 tons)

Wood has gone up around 40-50% since we first moved into houses with wood burners just over two years ago.

It gets far more expensive in winter and places run out. We still needed more in February and our local stockist wasn't due to have any ready til June. You can't just pop down to B&Q when you rely on vast quantities.

The bags took up about 1/6th of our garage which is 25ft X 28ft. You need storage.

If you are home all day and are physically capable of constantly stoking and topping up fires, it definitely helps.

Personally I got sick of lugging it in from the garage every day during horrific weather, but a lot of folks build massive wood stores against walls on the outside of their houses to make it a bit more practical.

Over the last year, with the ridiculous gas costs, about £8,000 a year. In a more normal year, maybe 4-5k. House is maybe 3-4,000sqft.

We tried. The OH would have five layers, a hat, shoes and gloves on whilst WFH and would still be shaking.

It was generally only 0.5- 2.0 degrees warmer inside than outside.

I gave up cooking because downstairs was so cold.

It was a rental. We left. It was unbearable.

I have a much smaller Victorian terrace with oldish double glazing. It was costing on average £230 a month in gas and electric over the winter months. The house was just about warm. My heating was on for 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening. I can never get it above 18 degrees. Lots of layers and blankets required. As other poster's have pointed out, it's really difficult to retain the heat and they require lots of maintenance. I'm currently saving for new windows.

Its lovely in the summer months as it never gets too hot, but winter is tough.

We loved 2.5 years ago from a victorian large 2 bed flat and our bills then were £125 a month, heated to 20 degrees in winter and fans etc..... going in summer and a tumble dryer. Now that would be £250-260 easily with the price rises.

I think you would be looking at £6-700 a month depending on what temperature you had it set on. They are money pits! We have now moved to a 90s build and our energy costs are about £140 a month. But we still have it on 20 in the winter and have fans going etc.... in the hot weather.

*lived

2300sqft detached Georgian with single glazed windows. After last winter our DD has gone up to £500pcm, and we’ve almost paid off the amount we accrued last winter. When it’s cold it’s a struggle to keep the house at 18 even when the heating’s on full time.

Why don't you just get the EPC for the house ?

If it doesn't have one get the owners to get one.

The energy usage won't be that realistic, but it won't probably be out more than a factor of 2. My house is about 8.5k kwh on the EPC, but I was frugal and used about 4k kwh. 8.5k is a fairly realistic figure.

Also you can ask for a copy of last years bills. If they refuse to give them to you, then the odds are they are horrible.

https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/find-a-certificate/search-by-postcode?lang=en&property_type=domestic

Enter the postcode and house number here.

You won’t get a old house that size with single glazed window to 23 degrees no matter how much you put the heating on.

Does the property have a recent EPC certificate. That should give some idea on gas/electric costs.
I personally wouldn't move into such an old house which will cost £10,000+++++ to insulate. It would costs £30-40k to just insulate the external walls on our 1930s semi approx 1600 sqft. You then need to insulate floor and probably increase it in the loft. Also what would you do about the windows.
At some point the govt will insist that all houses for sale and rent have an EPC of at least a C.

These old houses really are energy pits.
The government has already moved against cars and power stations, you can be sure houses are on the list somewhere.
It will be worse when gas boilers are outlawed. It will surely come.
It should be reflected in the asking prices, but not so far.

In the winter it was about £956 - £1200 (because I am billed on use not averaged). However it may well be less this winter. It is quite a big house eg we have two boilers.

About 200 pcm for oil and electricity. We have it set at 19 (hour in morning and 2 hours at night) and a woodburner in front room. It’s not a cold house but we wear a jumper slippers and socks. When very cold either sit in lounge or in very well insulated extension with ufh.

single glazing (conservation area) and semi detached.