If I get a replacement iPhone 5.will it be refurbished?

Right… So I got a 32GB iPhone 5 for an Early Christmas present (On SIM Only) in November from my grandma and grandad. It was early because my mobile contract at the time was approaching the end.

It was ordered from the Apple Store online and arrived in good condition. The only issue I'm having, is the battery draining. I took it into the Apple Store yesterday (Saturday 9th Februay 2013) and the guy assisting me did a health check on it, said my battery was fine so it was clearly the software. I thought to myself anyway it was a software issue because it sometimes crashes when I pull down the notifications centre.
And so the guy did a deeper system reset and said that should be fine. Problem being that it hasn't corrected my issue. I'm going to try it these next few days see if it is better but it hasn't been so far, and if there's an issue, then we will take another visit next Saturday where they will probably offer an exchange.
I'm just wondering if it would be a refurbished model or would it be brand new?

If they replace it at all, chances are refurb. But I'm unsure if they have refurbs in stores.

I assume you make a habit of shutting down your apps, right? They supposedly don't use power when they aren't up, but it has been my experience that if you make a habit of shutting things down all the time, it greatly increases the life of the battery. I have a dock, so I just stick mine on there every night, but it wouldn't last two days if I didn't.

No its not refurbed. They won't give you a new plug or anything

When they do an exchange they will give you a handset that will work the same as a new handset would. They try to say that they are new but they are phones that have been used previously but they have been recycled and put through a long process of replacing certain parts so basically its new/recycled. What they do is they recycle parts of the phone, so the phone is taken apart, the aluminum casing is recycled and its all cleaned and re-polished. They would probably put new insides (processor, memory, etc) in the device so that it will be working at full speed. I have had a few replacements over the years and I have never had any issues with them. I buy a new iPhone every year and they always go through a lot as I travel a lot and I use the phone all the time. So when I find a problem I take it in and they normally replace it and the replacements work faster than the phone I bought and used for 6 months.

Apple on give refurbished ones for replacements