New Build Heating / Insulation

Hi Everybody, this is my first post, hope i've put it in the right forum.

I've just bought a large apartment in a new build development, I moved in in November 2008 and seem to be having heating problems.

The construction is concrete floors with breezeblock outer/adjoining walls. External walls a covered with a facade, internally dot and dab with plasterboard and skim and then painted that new-build magnolia colour. The size of the property is 1400sqft with 3 bedrooms. The living space is fully open plan rectangular living/dining/kitchen. My apartment is top floor, I have no directly adjoining neighbour, there is a hallway and stairwell inbetween which isn't heated. I am quite exposed on 3 sides as the apartment is the front-to-back of the top floor of the building.

Sadly, the whole block is electric only so wall-mounted convection heaters have been placed in the rooms to provide heat.

However, I seem to be having an almighty heat disipation problem.

I can feel the heat disipating out of the exterior walls almost immediately that the thermostat on the convection heat shuts down.

The builder says it isn't a build fault.

I haven't decorated the place as yet because I like the clean modern look.

I have been monitoring my electric usage with the heaters set to about setting 4 (which is the only level or above at which the temp doesn't feel icey) and have worked out that it'll cost me anything upto £400 per month in the winter to run the place in electric alone.

I have two questions:

1) Are there any decorating/insulating steps I can take to help reduce heat loss. I have hung old lined curtains on certain key walls (especially my office room as it gets very draughty around the legs) but would like a more permanent solution.

2) Do I just accept that the winter will be costly but the bill will drop like a stone during the rest of the year as the heaters won't be running for about 8 months out of 12.

I would naturally prefer some help with a solution that doesn't rely on option 2 as we all know what the energy companies are like (have you tried finding a unit cost - it's a more heavily guarded secret than area 51!)

Hope to hear from someone soon.

Thanks
James

PS. If anyone has any structured wiring, telecoms, internet deployment (wifi or wired) or home automation questions please keep me in mind as I deal a lot in these areas and will happily contribute to the forum.

in my bachelor days i lived in a block of six, town centre flats. the girl opposite my flat plugged an extension lead into the communal hallway plug and run her flat from this.

i kid you not!

i haven't a clue who it was billed to.

£400 per month sounds excessive and financially prohibitive. it would pay you to move.

since the 1st march 2006 i have paid £1663 in gas bills. (heating, cooking, hot water). ok, i am due a bill any day soon, but it gives you some idea. the most i have paid for a quarter is £220.

Yeah, my electric bill at my old place was about £94 a month and gas was about £40 in the winter. I work from home a lot so my bills are a bit higher than normal.

I also don't believe in timer circuits for central heating and the like, if you let the house go cold the system runs for longer to bring it back up to temp than if you just turn the thermostat down, it ticks over a bit at a time.

Not that I sanction the idea but stealing the power from the communal area would actually be possible as I could just jack onto the back of a socket through the wall and divert the cable for the panel heaters to it. It would all end up getting paid for as we have a monthly building maint charge to pay for the communal areas, lifts, street lighting, entry gate, intercom etc - not that they management company can get the bins emptied of course!

Not really an ideal solution.

I've got an idea, the energy companies keep whining on about saving energy - why don't they just reduce the unit costs, we'd use more and they'd be even more profitable than they already are!

James,
Do you know the SAP rating and how many storeys is the building?

What energy rating does your EPC say?

I was told it had a rating of 104 out of 120 if I remember rightly, however, I can go into the marketing suite and get the exact info.

Also, it's a 3 story building and i'm on the 3rd floor. I have roof space above the ceiling which I can gain access to and insulate.

I would have thought that the heat from the neighbours downstairs would have helped out a bit but there's their ceiling, a 300mm gap then 150mm concrete then an accoustic mat then 65mm screed before you get to my carpet which is probably why my concrete floor is quite cold.

computergeek said:

I was told it had a rating of 104 out of 120 if I remember rightly, however, I can go into the marketing suite and get the exact info.

Click to expand...

That can't be right, it only goes up to 100 eg http://www.landlord-epc.co.uk/assets/sample_EPC.pdf You should have a copy of this certificate yourself. (Not that these certificates are worth much before the abuse starts)

Make no mistake, this sort of energy cost can blight a building and affect value significantly.

By law you should have been provided with an energy performance certificate that tells you the annual energy costs for the building. You should obtain a copy of that certificate from the sales office. The cost prediction is based on a notional usage of the building so won't match your real costs exactly but if you are using the flat in a fairly average way they shouldn't be signifacantly different.

Also by law, a copy of the SAP energy certificate (it's a different document - don't confuse the two) should have been posted in the building when it was completed. This is a requirement of building regulations and the regs completion certificate should not have been issued without the cert being posted. Again, I would ask for a copy immediately.

If these certificfates are not forthcoming immediately I would write to the sales department and tell them that the builidng is defective and does not comply with building regulations and that you want you money back. Do this in writing - not verbally.

Also complain to the building control department and ask them to explain why the builidng was complated without the legal documents (the certificates) being in place.

Are you sure that you have worked your potential electric consumption out correctly?

Your £400 per month would translate to about 4000kWh of power - which is just short of what a typical 3-bed house would use in a whole year

If it is correct, then yes Houston we do have a problem

computergeek said:

I also don't believe in timer circuits for central heating and the like, if you let the house go cold the system runs for longer to bring it back up to temp than if you just turn the thermostat down, it ticks over a bit at a time.

Click to expand...

Start believing.

Check the loft insulation- my daughter has a 18 month old flat and there were large gaps in the loft insulation, they used three full rolls (i.e. 3x the 1200mm wide rolls) to fill the gaps when I complained, then they had to re-paint the ceiling because some of the nails came though the plasterboard!.

Take off some of the electrical accessories (taking proper precautions) and see if you get a draught from the back-box - would indicate they have not finished off the dry-lining correctly and the air gap is ventilated.

If you have recently moved in are you sure the first meter reading was correct?

Hers is quite warm now.