Watts new, Pussycat? Sir Tom Jones has one of the UK’s greenest celebrity homes – with his £10 million central London penthouse producing only a fifth of the average home’s CO2 emissions[1], reveals research into EPC certificates by Uswitch.com, the comparison service.
Delilah singer Sir Tom’s modern flat boasts high-performance glazing, well-insulated walls and roofs, and gets its heat and water from a community system that is partially powered by solar panels.
All the energy saving measures means his flat enjoys a B rating and an EPC score of 89 – a vast improvement on the UK average home’s D rating of 67[3]. This also means Sir Tom’s annual energy bill is estimated to be £895 – only a third of the current UK average costs under the Energy Price Guarantee.
Match Of The Day star Gary Lineker’s detached north London home also enjoys high-performance glazing, well-insulated walls and roofs, and low energy lighting in three-quarters of outlets. His yearly energy use is almost four times an average home’s, however, leaving him with a predicted bill of £4,759[1].
Sir Elton John remains the biggest celebrity energy guzzler, with his 1,527 sq metre Windsor mansion costing an estimated £45,039 a year in gas and electricity costs. Single-glazed windows, a lack of insulation on some roofs and walls, and low energy lightbulbs in only 10% of outlets are partly responsible for his C-rated EPC score of 31.
Bottom of the pile when it comes to energy efficiency is former Spice Girl Mel C – aka Melanie Chisholm. Her 381 sq metre home near Chepstow is rated G – the lowest of the EPC categories – and scores only nine for energy efficiency.
Uninsulated walls and roofs, and heating supplied by an oil boiler undo the hard work done by the singer’s solar panels and biomass secondary heating. Mel C’s estimated energy use is more than ten times that of an average household, running up a predicted bill of £15,962.
