Buying an all electric house- mistake?

We are old house people. our current house is 550 years old and built of a mix of brick, wattle and daub, breeze block and stone and while I think that a number of posts on this thread are unduly alarmist, what worries me most is that, while you have committed yourself to buying and old house, you do not say how old. You clearly have no knowledge of older houses, the materials they are built of and how to work with them.

For example you say ^ we can’t follow advice to add insulation everywhere as the house needs to breathe.^ That statement is inaccurate, you can insulate old houses everywhere, roof, walls windows, if you use appropriate organic materials, not modern materials. There are extensive ranges of wool and hemp insulation materials that can be used in old buildings and will not compromise their need to breathe.

Clay lump walls are some of the most energy efficient natural building materials out. Their U value is O.8, where every other building material (brick, stone etc) is around +/-2.0 - and the lower the figure the better.

You also do not mention what type of electric heating the house currently has. Is it old fashioned storage radiators or have the current ownes installed a heat pump? To replace storage radiators with a heat pump means installing radiators and piping and could cost around £20,000, but it will reduce your heating bills.

You need to get an energy surveyor who specialise in surveying old houses like the one you plan to buy to make a detailed appropriate survey of your planned purchase. the clay lump walls should not need extra insulation, although other walls will. The most important thing is to make sure the roof is fully insulated, including behind sloping ceilings in upstairs rooms. This could involve needing to strip the roof to get at them. This could be very expensive. Also making sure all windows are fully dounle glazed.

If the house is Listed, this will mean secondary glazing indoors and you will need Listed building consent for all the work you do.

I really do not think you should go ahead with the purchase of this house, not because the house is electric and costs are high, but because you really do not know or understand the kind of property you are buying and the amount of work that needs to be done to it to make it thermally efficient, which could bring your energy bills down substantially but will be expensive to do.

Another OP who has not bothered to respond.

Rude!