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When you decide to rent a house, you have to pay more than just the monthly rent. You also want to heat up the home, use energy for lighting and to watch TV and use water to shower. Not every home is equally energy-efficient. Below you will find information that allows you to make a good estimate of how energy-efficient a home is.
The year of construction of a house gives a lot of information. Based on this, you can already make a number of assumptions. As a rule, the younger the home is, the more energy efficient the home is.
Houses that were built before 1920 do not have a cavity wall as a rule. Thirties houses usually have a cavity wall. Houses that were built before 1976 are not or hardly insulated during construction. Then, until around 1982, homes were provided with moderate cavity wall insulation. Between 1982 and 1992 the insulation was already a lot better. Homes built after 1992 are generally well insulated. The quality of the insulation is getting better over the years.
The older the house, the smaller the chance that the house has been completed with roof insulation and double glazing during construction.
No that is not necessary the case. It may be that cavity wall insulation, roof insulation and double glazing are installed at a later stage. It is very likely that the landlord has taken steps to make the quality of life in the house as optimal as possible and the monthly costs as low as possible.
Pay attention to whether a house has double glass. This is almost always the case for homes that have been built after 1992. You can easily see this yourself. The rental agent can also inform you about this. Do not hesitate to ask about this.
You cannot observe cavity wall insulation yourself. The owner or rental agent can tell you whether cavity wall insulation is applied in the house. The same applies to roof insulation
Every home in the Netherlands is provided with a provisional energy label. This is based on the year of construction of the house, its size and type. If insulation work has been done on the house, this is not included in the provisional energy label.
If a property has recently been sold, it is provided with a definitive energy label. The owner then had the opportunity to indicate which work was done on the house to make the house more energy-efficient. The owner must be able to prove this to use this on the final energy label.
With very modern houses built after 2010, the insulation value is very high. Good cavity wall insulation, good roof insulation and in many cases even 3-double glazing has been applied. As a result, the monthly energy costs are lower.
More and more home owners are choosing to have solar panels installed on a home. This keeps the electricity costs low. When you rent a home that is equipped with solar panels, the monthly costs can be significantly lower.
Do you want to reduce your monthly fixed costs? Be sure to pay attention to gas consumption. Most homes in the Netherlands are still heated by an installation that works on natural gas. Gas is pricey, and your home consumes a lot of natural gas, especially in the winter.
You can also keep the costs for electricity under control.
We hope you have done a clear expulsion of what you can do to find out for yourself whether the rental apartment which you are interested in is a good option. The rental agent can give an indication of the monthly costs of gas, water and electricity. The websites of energy suppliers also give an expected energy consumption of the house to be rented. The energy consumption is also highly dependent on the way in which the resident deals with the heating of the house, hot water and electricity.
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