Any ways of improving my heating?

icevaner

Hi,

I was wondering if there is any way I can make the heating in my house better. I am with Scottish Gas on the WebSaver 4 or 5 tariff (don't remember the exact number). Paying approx. £50/month now in winter.

I have a two bedroom terraced house built in the 60s. I put the heating for about 4 or 5 hours a day. There is roof insulation I believe. The boiler was put in by the council on 2004.

The current heating system takes already 2 hours to make the house warm however when turned off it cools quite quickly. The obvious answer would be to turn it on more time but financially...I can't really cope with more or invest big money in improvements.

I was wondering if there is something I can do that can be cheap and make the efficiency better overall.

Regards,

Jamie

jay1976

hi, Jamie, have you tried to get cavity wall insulation, if your of pention age or on certain benifits you may qualify for a grant for full or partial costs. have you tried contacting the council regarding an upgrade of boiler / system.
have you got double glazing if you have any wooden exterior doors you could put draft excluders on these. and on internal doors and keep these shut.

there are reflective plastic pannels that you can buy where you place these behind the radiator and its surpose to reflect the heat into the room. im not sure of these as ive never used them.

hope this helps
jason

dogshome

Hi icevaner - If the house heats up OK, but then cools quickly it is down to inadequate insulation and /or poor glazing, draught exclusion

Go up to the loft & check the level of insulation you have - the latest standard is 14"
It would have been nice to have been told that a few years ago when we were all crawling round our lofts to put in the 6" then recommended.

You mention 'Council' in your post, but don't define if it's an ex-council property or that you are a council tenant, it it's the latter get on to the council to see if they will beef up the loft insulation - If you own the house there are grants available thro' your energy suppliers,

Cavity wall insulation is worthwhile, and again there are grants to help with this and if you are a tenant, get onto your local council

Smoking is now the anti-social evil of the day, but a cigarette is a great tool for checking for drafts. With all the doors and windows closed on a windy day, hold a lit cigerette upright, move slowly through house and you will literally be able to see where the wind is coming from
Good Luck

richardc1983

Or you can use an incense stick that does the same thing.

Serioulsy though your house is prob the same as mine, it drops very quickly when the heating goes off, its an old victorian house.

We have the heating on for longer but have turned the boiler temperature down so that it warms a bit slower but we can leave it turned on for longer for comfort.