ᐅ Excessive Electricity Consumption in Single-Family Home Construction – Experiences

Hello everyone,

I built a single-family house with a general contractor, and according to the construction contract, I am responsible for the electricity costs during the building phase. After about 9 months of construction, a staggering 25,000 kWh were consumed. This corresponds to approximately €8,000 in electricity costs. In my opinion, the main drivers were the heating program for the screed as well as various heaters and drying devices that were used in the house for some time.

I wanted the general contractor to cover part of the electricity costs (€4,000), but unfortunately, they are unwilling to negotiate and refer to the contract. My logical argument would be that, as a layperson, I would expect a usual electricity consumption or costs for a single-family house to average between €2,500 and €3,500, depending on the season and other factors.

Has anyone had a similar experience or any suggestions on how to get the general contractor to share 50% of the costs?

Thanks in advance!

Why was the heating phase for the screed powered by electricity?
In our case, we also unexpectedly ended up with almost €3000 for temporary construction electricity and an additional €1000 for district heating costs due to the heating program.
That was the biggest negative surprise for us...
But for you, it’s double that amount, which is really unbelievable.

Unfortunately, I don’t see a way to involve the construction company in this.

In December, we heated approximately 90 m² (970 ft²) of cement screed in a KfW Efficiency House 55 (bungalow) using a mobile electric heating unit (up to 60°C (140°F)). The consumption during this period was just under 3000 kWh.

With your 25,000 kWh, there must have been other significant consumers. Did you personally check these meter readings in the temporary construction power box, or could there be a possible reading error?

We have geothermal heating, and our HVAC technician suggested it’s better not to run the heat pump at full capacity during the screed heating program, so everything was powered electrically up to 48°C (118°F).
I would be okay with €3000 construction electricity costs 🙂

Unfortunately, there is no metering error—I personally saw over 25,000 kWh on the meter.

Were the windows open or was the house not insulated?
Was only your construction site connected to the meter, and was it at zero before?

Miwi2009 schrieb:

We have geothermal heating, and our heating installer said it would be better not to run the heat pump at full capacity during the screed drying program, so everything was done electrically up to 48°C (118°F).
I would be satisfied with 3,000€ construction electricity costs 🙂

Unfortunately, there is no meter reading error—I personally saw over 25,000 kWh on the meter.

So, the heat pump was used with an electric heating element for drying/warming the screed? What kind of heating element does the heat pump have? Small heat pump = small heating element = 3 kW.
Let's just assume a typical heating program lasting 21 days. Even if the heating element ran at full power 24/7 (which it doesn’t need to, since only low temperatures are required), that would be 2,100 kWh. Or was a mobile electric heating unit with, for example, 36 kW used? Those would have their own integrated meters.
Construction dryers often only run at about 2 kW.

Something definitely went wrong here...

Have someone explain to you in detail which devices were used and for how long.