Can anyone give me a rough idea of heating this?

[ParkerTalbot]

Looking at a large house (by our standards, not necessarily the PH masses!)

It's 4500sqft on mains gas... But... built in 1820 so no cavity insulation or anything like that but does have double glazing. the ceilings are very high though - probably 20ft throughout.

Anyone with anything similar that can give me some sort of very rough ballpark?

[Olivera]

Depends where you are in the UK, how many rooms you heat, and if you have another source of heating (e.g. a woodburner). But I'd be guessing 3-4k+ per annum.

[ParkerTalbot]

Thank you, Surrey. Couple of woodburners/open fires (though I expect these cost more than gas) - knowing my wife the whole thing will be heated!

[ewanjp]

A lot. If it's solid walls, solid floor and minimal loft insulation you find that to get it up to 'modern' temperatures is just ridiculous. Our weirdly shaped bungalow (does have cavity insulation now plus loft, but solid floors and most of the walls are external) is about 2000sqft and just to keep the living areas at 16 degrees in the cold of winter is 2.5k of oil. I dread to think what it'd cost if I wanted say 20 degrees. Double glazing may not make much of a dent...

[lrdisco]

My house is 3000 squ feet. Fully refurbished, new windows and doors with external insulation and 400mm loft insulation and our Gas & Electric is £4000 PA and that only covers 2 hours in the am then 4 hours pm. Weekends are all day on Ground floor to 21 deg. Gas boiler.
Its very expensive having a big old house.

[iphonedyou]

Olivera said:

Depends where you are in the UK, how many rooms you heat, and if you have another source of heating (e.g. a woodburner). But I'd be guessing 3-4k+ per annum.

That may be quite light. We're paying about £3k p/a for our 1600sqft detached house built in 2016.

FIL's would be closer to OP's size, though smaller, and he's comfortably at £5k p/a.

[BoRED S2upid]

Get a few wood burners in there. Once you get one I find free wood finds you.

[TimmyMallett]

ewanjp said:

A lot. If it's solid walls, solid floor and minimal loft insulation you find that to get it up to 'modern' temperatures is just ridiculous. Our weirdly shaped bungalow (does have cavity insulation now plus loft, but solid floors and most of the walls are external) is about 2000sqft and just to keep the living areas at 16 degrees in the cold of winter is 2.5k of oil. I dread to think what it'd cost if I wanted say 20 degrees. Double glazing may not make much of a dent...

This. You'd need to adapt if you come from anything smaller and more insulated. To keep a house that size warm in winter you'd need it on 24/7 to keep it from dropping down too low. What you'll find is you'll just use the house differently in winter - get a burner in the main living room, heat the occupied bedrooms and kitchen, that's it. You just need to get used to never walking around the house in less than pyjamas and a nightgown

Even if you could afford to keep it on 24/7, on really cold periods the heat loss could be faster than generating it, so it's almost pointless on a north facing room with 2 external walls, for example.

OP....As an example we have a similar place and have a stove in the front room which is on 7 months a year, from about 4pm to 10pm and weekends - this uses about 4m of wood and about 30 20kg smokeless coal bags so about £800 in total, but that does mean the front room is warm, and in turn that permeates up to the main bedroom above it

Add to this GCH which is about £200>250 pcm usage at last winters rates for a very basic heat 6am to 9am and 4pm to 7:30pm but it's going to vary depending on your use and this really just takes the edge off, as opposed to make anything 'warm'. We have high ceilings.

Edited by TimmyMallett on Wednesday 17th April 13:12

[Tango13]

BoRED S2upid said:

Get a few wood burners in there. Once you get one I find free wood finds you.

I'd be fitting multi-fuel stoves with back boilers which could be connected to the central heating system.

[BigBen]

ParkerTalbot said:

Looking at a large house (by our standards, not necessarily the PH masses!)

It's 4500sqft on mains gas... But... built in 1820 so no cavity insulation or anything like that but does have double glazing. the ceilings are very high though - probably 20ft throughout.

Anyone with anything similar that can give me some sort of very rough ballpark?

My house is about that size although about 50 years newer. Similar ceiling height. I am frugal with the heating and have a system that enables me to heat only the rooms we use at the times they are in use the gas bill is still around £800 a month over winter.

What the other poster said about only heating the space you use is spot on, having the whole place at 20 degrees would be financial suicide.

[Equus]

ParkerTalbot said:

...the ceilings are very high though - probably 20ft throughout.

Really? On a 4,500ft2 house? That's well over twice a modern storey height (circa 8ft).

Obviously warm air rises, so you're going to heating (and losing heat from) a lot of volume that you'll never feel the benefit from.

[ParkerTalbot]

Equus said:

Really? On a 4,500ft2 house? That's well over twice a modern storey height (circa 8ft).

Obviously warm air rises, so you're going to heating (and losing heat from) a lot of volume that you'll never feel the benefit from.

Well maybe I've overegged it a bit but the ceilings are over double the door frame heights so certainly felt that way!

[classicaholic]

I had big old pile about that size and it was never warm even in the summer! Having a wood burning stove in the lounge is good as it radiates a good amount of heat in that room but does nothing for the rest of the house, the biggest downside is the mess cleaning it out & bringing wood (and even more spiders) in the house. The AGA in the kitchen was nice and warm but at over 100 its/week not cheap to run, the central heating just takes the edge off and during the winter the oil truck was a monthly visitor for another 2 or 3,000 L.

Electric blankets are the way to go for the bedrooms, at least you are warm at night!