Georgian flat has quadrupled heat costs

Q We moved into a new apartment a few months back. It's a small two-bed in an old Georgian house. The last electricity bill we received was €400 for a two-month period. The one before that was €320.

We are only at home from 8pm at night to 8am on weekdays and are mostly out over the weekends. We are blown away by the size of these bills. In the last apartment we rented the electricity bill averaged €80 for a two-month period.

We have had an electrician in to have a look and the only thing he says it could be is the storage heater. Are storage heaters really that bad? We have kept it on low for the entire duration of our stay but have now relented and turned it off. Any tips on how to keep warm without having to be a billionaire?

A The bills that you are experiencing are extremely high for a two-bed apartment and are at least two to three times the average amount. Electric storage heating is a relatively expensive way of heating a property, however, it is a very commonplace method in apartment complexes. With storage heating, it is particularly important to ensure that you have a night-time meter that allows you to use the power in off-peak times and to store and give off the heat at other times.

Furthermore, electric storage heating has improved significantly over the last few years and the modern heating appliances are much more economical and efficient to run than the older versions. It would be useful to check the age and type of the storage heaters and to have these replaced with more modern heaters as necessary.

I note that the apartment is in an old Georgian house that was not a purpose-built building and no doubt this would have been converted at some stage in the past.

For the avoidance of doubt, you would need to ensure that your apartment is separately metered and that you are not picking up the usage for, say, the common area or some other apartment. This could be easily checked by an electrician, or by simply turning off the power within your own apartment and checking to see if this affects any other parts of the building.

The only other important issue is the amount of usage and I note from your question that you seem to have this down to a minimum.

Insulation issues

Whereas the above issues all address the usage, the other area to consider is the degree of insulation in the apartment. It would be quite typical with old Georgian houses that they would have a poor standard of thermal insulation, particularly through windows and through the roof if you are located at the top floor.

You could also find yourself heating other apartments through poorly insulated floors and walls. It is very often difficult to upgrade thermal insulation standards to apartments because typically the main common elements, including the roof and walls, are actually retained by the owners management company and thus you may not have the same ability to upgrade the thermal insulation standards to these elements without seeking the necessary consent. However if these elements have a poor insulation standard, then the option of upgrading the thermal insulation standard to these should be considered to include issues such as incorporating insulation in the roof, dry lining walls and upgrading windows. It may even be possible to get the Owners’ Management Company to take on some of these works through the service charge as part of a planned maintenance and upgrading programme of work, as it will be for the overall benefit of the building.

On a more basic level, with older buildings, a lot of heat is lost as a result of draughts at poorly sealed windows and doors and it would be relatively economical to draught-proof the windows and external doors thus cutting down on potential heat loss. Val O’Brien is a Chartered Building Surveyor and a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) Building Surveying Professional Group

Quantity surveying and direct labour

Q I am considering building a house in the coming months and my architect has advised me to hire a Quantity Surveyor to review the plans and advise me on the overall cost of the project.

How detailed should this information be and will I be able to see the individual costs associated with the specification? I am planning to build the house via direct labour, so will this information assist when receiving quotations from trades people?

A In almost every new build-house project, professional cost advice should be sought from a chartered quantity surveyor in advance of commencing on site.

If you watch the very popular RTÉ TV programme Room to Improve you'll notice that architect Dermot Bannon consults regularly with Patricia Power who is a chartered quantity surveyor.

Regrettably many people begin by formulating their budget based on rates per sq m or sq ft. However on the basis that no two sites and therefore no two houses are identical – plus the fact that individuals have such a range of taste when it comes to selecting the style, functionality and finish of their house – the risks of using such a generic cost measure become clear.

A cost plan exercise, properly prepared, should go beyond what is detailed on the architects drawings and specifications to address and factor in issues such as; engineering appraisal and solutions, renewable energy options, site exposure, house orientation, options to review and consider capital costs versus running costs (Life Cycle Costing), value engineering appraisals, all aspects derived from a provisional BER (Building Energy Rating) assessment and all peripheral items, such as the New Building Control Amendment Regulations (BCAR), etc.

Other issues very often overlooked at the outset, which can have significant impact on the budget at a later stage, would include electrical installations, heating, plumbing and drainage, style and specification of windows and external doors/ screens, standard of joinery, floor wall and ceiling finishes, decorations and to what extent the budget is expected to cover external works, hard and soft landscaping, etc. In any event, a cost plan should be presented in a recognised elemental format affording the client an opportunity to see where and how the budget is being allocated, and to seek additional advice on certain aspects and fundamentally see how their choices on specific items impact the overall budget.

Issues such as deciding to spend extra money on cavity wall static insulation, compared with projected savings on running costs, should be core issues of the cost plan exercise. The cost plan should be used to help derive, as far as possible, overall client certainty and sign off before construction works commence; because it is all too often proven that the cost of change after construction commences can become extremely prohibitive.

In situations where it is intended to use direct labour, it can be more difficult to define overall budgets; the market can offer a wide range of rates and prices. However the cost plan for budget purposes at the outset, while prepared in elemental format should not be required to split each element into separate labour, materials, plant, supervision and preliminary items. This should be the subject of a next stage exercise and should only be prepared in conjunction with the prospective Assigned Certifier as it is most probable that the inspection plan will identify a number of extra site inspections required through the direct labour route, that would not otherwise be required if the project was being carried out by a CIRE-registered contractor.

Clients should keep an open mind on direct labour versus contractor option until after the budget is established and all variables are taken into account.

Many who have previously embarked on the direct labour route will reluctantly admit afterwards that overall little or no savings were realised and even a recognition that a better quality product would have been realised had they used a competent registered contractor, this admission being made even before the BCAR regulations became an essential part of any new project since March 2014.

Padraig Arthur is a chartered project management surveyor and a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) project management surveying professional group.

Send your queries to propertyquestions@irishtimes.com or to Property Clinic, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2. This column is a readers’ service. Advice given is general and individual advice should always be sought