Gas central heating very expensive - poor insulation?

Hello,

I bought a new build dormer house about 2 years ago and moved into it in June last year. When it was being built, I requested Gas Central heating as I had lived in rental properties with GCH in the past, found it economical and liked the way it heated water instantly.

Anyhow to cut a long story short since I moved in, we have been using a full tank of gas (that approximately costs 550 euro to fill) every 8 weeks during the winter. (this is being very careful and the house is never warm)
When we used as much as we liked and were nice and cosy the tank emptied in 5 weeks. The house is just over 2000 Square feet.

I have had the system checked twice for leaks/faults and both times the engineer said that there were no problems.

So I think maybe there's a problem with the insulation. The builder is currently still on site building the last few houses.

Firstly I'm wondering who should I get to take a look at the insulation in the house? Could an engineer tell me if the walls are properly insulated? Windows, roof, floor? how much would this cost?

Would it be the builders responsiblity to ensure the house is correctly insulated if it turns out that the house isn't insulated properly? Can I go back to him 18 months later to fix it?

Sorry for the long post. Appreciate all help given..

fionahere said:

1. I have had the system checked twice for leaks/faults and both times the engineer said that there were no problems. 2. Firstly I'm wondering who should I get to take a look at the insulation in the house? Could an engineer tell me if the walls are properly insulated? Windows, roof, floor? how much would this cost? 3. Would it be the builders responsiblity to ensure the house is correctly insulated if it turns out that the house isn't insulated properly? Can I go back to him 18 months later to fix it? .

Click to expand...

1. What checks did he do?? did he do an airtightness test??? It doesnt matter how good a dwelling is insulated if its envelope is like a sieve. Large estate type developments are built with speed in mind so workmanship may not have been to the fore. airtightness test are not compulsory and hold no weight in a liability claim. 2. Each dwelling is supposed to be 'certified' to say it complies with the building regulations. Energy conservation is a big part of these regs. Has your dwelling been certified?? If it ends up been shown not to comply with the regs then that person who certified it is liable. there are specialist companies out there who can do an energy audit on the building, with an airtest you probably would be talking about 2 - 2.5 K. 3. Its actually not the builders responsibility to ensure the building is properly insulated, its the certifiers. the builder needs to satisfy the certifier as to compliance with regs. There is no legal obligation for the builder on the building once final certification and defects liability period are over. In ireland these periods usually cease when the building is purchased.

The first thing I'd do is get a torch and go into the attic to inspect the insulation there.

(This is assuming you have access into the attic - I know it is a dormer bungalow).

Even if you can't see all the insulation, e.g. in the upstairs rooms between the ceiling and the roof, any you can see should give you an indication of the quality of the workmanship/level of insulation.

Also a quick idea would be to get one of those weather stations, (they are fairly cheap) and put the external thermometer on the roof. Check the temprature against the normal outside temprature. This should give you an indication if you are loosing heat out of the roof.

The best observation I've heard is that you only need to heat a house by the amount of heat it loses. Therefore, if you have to use a lot of heat, it has to be going somewhere, and the most likely place is outside through lack of insulation/draughts. Your job now, should you choose to accept it, is to find out where that is occuring. The above ideas are quick ways to get some idea of the causes, the next step is to get an expert to get a definitive cause, and suggested remedy. I think that this would most lilely be an engineer, but am not certain if there are other "insulation experts".

Hope this helps.

Hi Fiona. Just wondering if you solved your CH problem. If not, who is your gas supplier? I have noticed some irregularities with our gas CH, and have come to the conclusion that there may have been some "fiddling" with the delivery figures. I can't prove anything, but would be interested to see if anyone else has noticed anything irregular.