Energy billHow much money do you spend on energy at home? How do you try to bring costs down? We ask a Dutch person these questions every week. Today: Joris Kerkhof (37) from Hilversum, energy expert at Independer.
Until six months ago, the weekly column about energy bills from readers ran on this site. We had no idea about the energy crisis that has hit us in recent months. Due to a major shortage of gas, tariffs are flipped several times, energy suppliers collapse and households are presented with a higher bill. The cabinet has reduced the energy tax by billions to ease the pain.
Joris Kerkhof agrees that it is interesting to see what the impact of the crisis is on the household books of various Dutch people and what they do next to keep costs under control. He is an energy expert at the comparison site Independer and is the first to be the first to expose his own energy bill, which is extra interesting because he had a contract with a company that is now bankrupt.
How do you live?
,,It is an old house, from 1906, a semi-detached house with 110 square meters of living space in Hilversum, where I have lived for about eight years now. It is poorly insulated. With our family, my wife, a daughter and I, we consume 2300 cubic meters of gas per year. That is well above the average of 1,810 cubic meters of gas for similar homes, while we are quite economical. Usually we only heat up to 19.5 degrees. In terms of power consumption, we are at about the average of 3295 kilowatts per year.
I have always taken for granted the monthly amount we had to pay
It’s a drafty house. We only insulated the roof. The windows are made of double glazing, but no HR++. I have always taken for granted the monthly amount we had to pay. Until August, that was still 200 euros per month. Because the rates were rising, that went to 240 euros per month. That already hurt, but it is still nothing compared to the bill that we are now being presented with.”
What kind of energy contract do you have?
,,In my profession I am often involved in comparing contracts and I choose to switch every year and then take an annual contract. You often benefit from a welcome bonus and are guaranteed the lowest rate that applies. In the summer it was Welcome Energy. However, that supplier recently went bankrupt. The system is set up in such a way that the customers are then placed with another supplier and for us that means that we are now an Eneco customer. The monthly amount has been increased to 440 euros. That is 200 euros more.
In principle, this is a variable contract that can be canceled on a monthly basis, so I can probably switch to another supplier from 1 December. I think it can be cheaper and from 1 January there will be a reduction in the tax, which will hopefully make it 100 euros cheaper for us.”
What do you do to get your energy bill down?
,,Well, I have scratched my head, I have to admit. The fact that the energy crisis has hit me so hard in the wallet has meant that we are now making plans to make the house more sustainable. We have let go of the will to move thanks to the tight housing market and we want to renovate the bathroom and install a new kitchen next summer. We have increased the budget to be able to insulate better.
There is a crawl space, so we can insulate the floor from below. For other steps we hire a technical architect. If there is space left, we can also take solar panels. Or we should investigate which loans are suitable to do that already. If the energy bill can be reduced by the same amount as the repayment, that is a logical extra step.
It’s not that the climate and environmental aspect doesn’t interest me. I think it is very important that we all do our part and also consciously choose green energy. I don’t use the car very often, we do most of the cycling and we don’t do crazy things. But the wallet is slightly more important when it comes to making my house more sustainable. I think it’s recognizable to a lot of people. We are now startled awake, have to bite through the sour apple to get the bill down permanently, so that we can continue to live comfortably.”
Would you like to participate in this section yourself? Mail to wonen@dpgmedia.nl. This episode of ‘Energy Account’ has been assessed by energy performance consultant and real estate agent Fabian Grotenhuis from Dieren. Watch all videos about living below.
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