Cold bedroom in new build house

IAN1978 · 7 March 2018 at 5:21AM

I've moved in to a new build home in the last 6 months, and we've noticed that the house takes a long time to heat up and, in the case of my daughter's bedroom, never gets up to the desired temperature.
The house is 3 storey with 2 thermostats, one of the ground floor controlling just that level, and one in the main bedroom on the 3rd floor controlling the 2nd and 3rd floors.
The landing just outside my daughter's bedroom gets up to temperature (usually about 21oC) within an hour, but her room is always 2-4oC colder, and can sometimes take several hours to get anywhere near the desired temperature. This we believe is because the thermostat that controls her floor is on the top floor, i.e the warmest room in the house. Why the housing developers put the thermostat there we don't know.
I have measured the radiator in her room and done the relevant calculations to see if it is adequate, and it is woefully under par. I have spoken to the developers and they say that they provide enough heating output to heat the house as a whole, not on a room by room basis. I have explained to them about the radiator and the fact that my daughter goes to bed looking like the Michelin man to keep warm at night, but they just keep repeating the same thing.
Not sure where to turn to next. Should we go to the NHBC to see if they can help?
Any advice would be appreciated.

Typhoon2000 · 7 March 2018 at 6:55AM

Assuming the radiator does not need bleeding or balancing, you could turn the TRV in the the bedroom up to maximum and turn down the one near the thermostat.

Furts · 7 March 2018 at 8:41AM

Speaking with the developers is the wrong way forward. Matters have to be in writing. Tthis writing can include the history to date. Heating is all a grey area, but the bedroom is required to reach 18C so your expectations are too high. However if it takes hours to reach this temperature you could argue matters are unsatisfactory. This is all related to a low outside temperature.

If you get nowhere with the official, written, audit trail, then NHBC is the next option.

Be aware there could be a multitude of issues from inadequate insulation, to draughts, to damaged pipework, to local exposure levels. All round do not expect matters to be straight forward. No developer wants to start dismantling a new home- it costs money!

IAN1978 · 7 March 2018 at 11:10PM

Hi, thanks for the responses. The radiator are working fine. They're getting hot and the trv is on max. It just doesnt heat the room up adequately.
We've been monitoring the temps inside and outside the bedroom and taking photos as evidence.
The radiator in the main bedroom with the thermostat in doesn't have a trv. Maybe fitting one would be a simple solution.
Have got a plumber round to have a look and they'll report back to the developer. See what they say, but I won't hold my breath

jaybeetoo · 7 March 2018 at 11:45PM

I assume you have checked the insulation in the roof above the bedroom? When I moved into my new house (many years ago), I went into the loft and found the builder hadn't installed any insulation!

Furts · 8 March 2018 at 9:07AM

IAN1978 wrote: »

Hi, thanks for the responses. The radiator are working fine. They're getting hot and the trv is on max. It just doesnt heat the room up adequately.
We've been monitoring the temps inside and outside the bedroom and taking photos as evidence.
The radiator in the main bedroom with the thermostat in doesn't have a trv. Maybe fitting one would be a simple solution.
Have got a plumber round to have a look and they'll report back to the developer. See what they say, but I won't hold my breath

Would you have a trv in the same room as a thermostat? Seems illogical - if the trv is closed down yet the thermostat is calling for heat what happens then?

Why is the thermostat in the main bedroom and not suitably located on the landing area? Here it would be trying to give you a temperature control related to the whole floor level.

You have not answered my observation on expectations - why do you believe you should be achieving 21C in the "problem" bedroom?

Typhoon2000 · 8 March 2018 at 9:33AM

Furts wrote: »

Would you have a trv in the same room as a thermostat? Seems illogical - if the trv is closed down yet the thermostat is calling for heat what happens then?

The room with the Termostat stays at a comfortable temperature whilst the cold room is the one that warms up.

I suspect the child is is one of the smaller rooms so even a small radiator should be suffienct as long the boiler is on long enough. But with the thermostat in a warmer room or maybe poorly positioned near a radiator, the boiler is switching off before the child rooms heats up.

The op could also fit a wireless thermostat fairly cheaply and move it to the colder room as needed. Easy enough to fit a TRV to the radiator in the main bedroom.

IAN1978 · 8 March 2018 at 11:02AM

Furts wrote: »

Would you have a trv in the same room as a thermostat? Seems illogical - if the trv is closed down yet the thermostat is calling for heat what happens then?

Why is the thermostat in the main bedroom and not suitably located on the landing area? Here it would be trying to give you a temperature control related to the whole floor level.

You have not answered my observation on expectations - why do you believe you should be achieving 21C in the "problem" bedroom?

My other half and daughter feel the cold a lot more than I do, so they're happier with a higher room temp. Also, by putting the higher temp in the thermostat, it should in theory make my daughter's room a bit warmer.
Unfortunately, we didn't have say in where the thermostat was located. I completely agree with you that it should be on the first floor, and we can't understand the builder's logic with where they situated it.

IAN1978 · 8 March 2018 at 11:04AM

jaybeetoo wrote: »

I assume you have checked the insulation in the roof above the bedroom? When I moved into my new house (many years ago), I went into the loft and found the builder hadn't installed any insulation!

We did think this, but when mentioned to the developer they said that the NHBC would not have passed the house if that was the case. We would like to check this out but have been told that if we drill any holes to check it out our warranty would be invalidated.

Trapdoor · 8 March 2018 at 12:35PM

Easiest solution would be to replace the stat upstairs with a Wireless type, such as a Drayton Digistat RF ... the receiver goes where the old wired wall mounted stat goes and the bit you set the temperature on goes wherever in the house you want to control the temperature.

Then, you would look at stopping down the TRVs or lockshields on the upstairs rads to stop them getting too hot and to stop you wasting heat from the boiler. Stick the wireless stat in the cold room and set to the temperature required. Let the room come up to temp and go see which other rads may need closing down (or opening up) a bit.

If you don’t feel comfortable about changing the stat out, get a heating engineer in, but it shouldn’t cost much (the stats are about £80) plus an hour labour.

With some of the other radiators closed down, more of the heat should be getting to the colder radiator, but bear in mind that you’ll never get more heat out of it than it’s rated Output.

LandyAndy · 8 March 2018 at 12:35PM

IAN1978 wrote: »

We did think this, but when mentioned to the developer they said that the NHBC would not have passed the house if that was the case. We would like to check this out but have been told that if we drill any holes to check it out our warranty would be invalidated.

I don't doubt you for a moment but I'm genuinely astonished that a property would be built with a loft space to which there was no access.

Cold bedroom in new build house

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free