Edwin (46) had his new house disconnected from the heat network: ‘I thought it was absurd’

How do you live?
“I live with my wife in a new-build home from April 2020. It is a semi-detached house with 166 square meters of living space. With a view to sustainability, I wanted a new-build home and it really is my dream home. The only drawback was that I was connected to district heating. This year I would have to pay 2000 euros for hot water and (floor) heating. An additional 600 euros per year is added for the heat set in the house, which ensures that the water is cooled from 60 degrees to a lower temperature, so that you do not burn yourself when taking a shower.

I thought the price was really absurd. There was also a huge discussion in the neighborhood’s WhatsApp group about the high costs of the heat network. But it is a private company with a monopoly. I was done with that, so I decided to buy an air-water heat pump myself and get rid of the district heating.

Yes, there were costs involved. The heat pump cost me 15,000 euros. Then I had to pay 1200 euros to have the heat set and the accompanying meter removed from my house. And to disconnect us from the main network, the street has to be broken open to close a pipe. That will probably cost well over 3000 euros. Quite a lot indeed, but I hope to have earned them back within seven years. Of course you should be able to afford it, but I would advise everyone to investigate the options for a heat pump. †

What kind of energy contract do you have?
†I have a flexible contract with PURE Energie. We currently pay 5 euros per month. This is purely administrative, because a lower amount is not possible. Over the past year, we got about 600 euros back, because we only used 1200 kWh of electricity and generated more than 3000 kWh with the twelve solar panels.

This year, consumption will be a bit higher due to the heat pump, so I suspect we will end up at about zero. So we never had gas, but our consumption on the heat network was 43 gigajoules.”

What do you do to lower your energy bill?
“I would like to replace my ventilation box, which only blows out warm air, with a heat recovery unit. As a result, I need even less energy. That will cost me about 3000 euros. Then I really hope to be ready. We now ventilate with the grilles closed, but with the windows and doors open when the weather is nice. We try to let as little heat escape as possible.

Although it is still all being settled, my wife washes as much as possible during the day when the sun is out. There are only two of us, so very often the washing machine is not on. We don’t have a dryer, because she’s used to the clothesline. Ideal, and it also saves a lot of power. My wife also likes to take a bath, but when we were still on the heat network, I kindly asked her not to take a bath too often. That was way too expensive. But now she can take a bath again.

When we moved here, of course, we immediately installed LED lamps everywhere and we also pay attention to the energy label with new equipment. The kitchen appliances, for example, all have the highest energy label.