How to warm my house up naturally

Fat_Debtor

My house is freezing, as is my neighbours. It's weird though because I've lived in 2 identical houses on the same street, which were both as warm as toast. My house is better insulated all round than the other two, has upgraded CH and has the sun shining into the living room from 9am-9pm (when it actually shines).

I can't understand why it's cold.

gmgmgm

Fat_Debtor wrote: »

My house is freezing, as is my neighbours. It's weird though because I've lived in 2 identical houses on the same street, which were both as warm as toast. My house is better insulated all round than the other two, has upgraded CH and has the sun shining into the living room from 9am-9pm (when it actually shines).

I can't understand why it's cold.

Maybe they have the heating on much more?

We use the CH as little as possible- much prefer to just put on a jumper.

27col

louisaL wrote: »

I would say I live in a naturally cold house. Theres always a chill where as when i go to friends houses their's are at a steady 21oc and they have admitted they don't have the heating on or had it on all summer (naturally).

We have double glazing and underlay under the carpet. i'm starting to think about loft insulation but do not know much about it.
Would this improve the heat of the whole house i.e downstairs too?

What else can I check?

I don't want to have another winter like last year where I had to have the heating on 30oc most of the time.

The title of this thread is a bit misleading. If it were possible to warm up a house naturally then presumably it would be because of the lack of insulation. Therefore it would cool again just as soon as the source of heat (the sun) had disappeared.
No amount of insulation will make the house warmer. It is the application of heat that makes the house warmer. All that insulation does is to retain the heat in the fabric for a longer period. Obviously it is necessary to eliminate the source of draughts. But the source of draughts is usually self evident, and once located they can easily be stopped. I personally have always made sure that there was as little ventilation as possible, every change of air costs heating money. I have never found that restricting the flow of air through the house has had absolutely any adverse effect. I certainly have never had any condensation.

louisaL

sorry for the lack of response to you.

It is a 1950's ex council house, 4 bedrooms. The living room is 21ft with a 'lean to' conservatory and patio doors inbetween with no curtains (one of my own tips to help), in the living room is a serving hatch which goes into the kitchen which has a door way with no door and that goes into the dining room which has no door and leads into the hall way so i guess yes this would be opened planned.

I've read all your feedback to my husband and we're going to look into the funding/cavity walls and insulation. he is pretty sure we have enough insulation i dont think it will harm to get someone in to take a look though.

zarazara

put lots of straw on the floor and install a herd of cows [downstairs]whilst you live upstairs. Will be really snug,the Saxons did this.

aboard_epsilon

louisaL wrote: »

sorry for the lack of response to you.

It is a 1950's ex council house, 4 bedrooms. The living room is 21ft with a 'lean to' conservatory and patio doors inbetween with no curtains (one of my own tips to help), in the living room is a serving hatch which goes into the kitchen which has a door way with no door and that goes into the dining room which has no door and leads into the hall way so i guess yes this would be opened planned.

I've read all your feedback to my husband and we're going to look into the funding/cavity walls and insulation. he is pretty sure we have enough insulation i dont think it will harm to get someone in to take a look though.

Right you must be out all day then ..as far as i know the people with the grants to give away for cavity wall insulation have knocked on every door in the land several times over the last couple of years...same with loft insultion..might be exaggerating ..but i get that impression mostly.

costing £60 a week ..im now guessing that your house is made of concrete panels ..would that be a Good guess ..as some council houses of that period were done that way .

EDIT sorry the £60 a week weas in someone elses post on another thread i think

all the best.markj

fluffycheeseball

Hi

Advice on keeping warm for less based on my experience. Hope it helps

People
Get fitter. Your base metabolic rate will increase so you will feel warmer as your body produces more energy in colder weather.
Insulate yourselves. Kit everyone out with thermal vests and fleece type jumpers.
Use flannelette or fleece sheets and buy some blankets from your local charity shop.
Look out for hot water bottles without covers – I just paid £1.29 each - and wrap in old pillowcase.
On really cold days go out - libraries, museums etc are warm and free.


BEFORE doing any insulation check if you are eligible for a grant

Drafts
Next windy day arm yourself with a sealant gun and check windows, door frames and letterboxes. Seal drafts on non-opening areas. Replace open external keyholes with covered ones. Check bottom of doors and fit draught excluders as needed. Consider fitting curtains behind older external doors.


Roof
Loft insulation should be 8 inches thick. If you have attic rooms then try and get some polystyrene sheets pushed down the gap under the roof.

Floor
Walk round barefoot – how cold does the floor feel?
You could rip up cold floors, insulate underneath and put new floor back down.
An alternative is to fit 25mm floor grade insulation with layer of hard flooring (cheap laminate is fine) on top providing all affected doors can be shortened to suit.


Walls
Get cavity wall insulation if possible.
Walk around the house on a cold day when the heating is on. Do any walls feel colder? Does the room temperature drop as you walk towards a wall? Check these walls – do they need re-pointing? Are they single brick thickness – if so, consider getting then dry lined or rebuilt


Windows
Curtains. The most cost effective insulation for windows. Find a cheap fabric stockist (I’m talking £1 a metre) Borrow a sewing machine and off you go. They really are easy to make. Make separate curtain linings to give a good air gap. Length should be long enough to tuck behind any radiator or down to the floor. If you’ve never sewn before then check out evening classes or get someone to show you how.
Large single panes or older double glazing should be replaced with new double glazing. If you use a national company DON’T buy on their first quote, keep fobbing them off while you ‘think about it’ – their price will drop.
Better to use a local supplier and do one or two windows as you can afford it. If you are handy then ask them to show you how to fit them on the first window and then fit the rest yourself.

Central heating.
NEVER get radiators fitted under windows. The best place is on an internal wall. Fit that foil stuff behind them.
If your boiler is over 10 years old then consider replacing it – our gas consumption almost halved with a new combi boiler.

Multifuel stove.
If you have a free source of wood (woodlands, skips, off cuts from place of work etc.) then consider replacing your lounge fire with a wood burning stove. Will give you ‘free’ heating in the cooler autumn/spring nights and still works during a power cut.

shaven-monkey

About curtains and radiators...
Put an overhanging windowsil on any windows with a radiator beneath and sew steel washers to the bottom of curtains (if the rails can take the weight) so that the curtain will form a sort of seal with the sil.
The foil / bubblewrap stuff that's sold at outragious markup in DIY stores can then be attatched close to the room side of sil and draped down behind the radiator to move the hot air clear of the window.

If you don't mind your house taking on a crazed hippy look make some of these as interior shutters for windows instead and fit in south facing windows.
http://www.reuk.co.uk/Make-a-Simple-Solar-Air-Heater.htm

dizziblonde

It's funny though - we've just moved, from a house three doors down the street where I was always always freezing cold to an identically built laid out house which keeps the heat so much better. I know it's not cavity walls because the houses don't have them, so that puts it down to possibly loft insulation as the only potential difference between them - and I'm not shivering after the heating goes off at about 8am.

The other difference we have here is really good quality thick curtains, including one over the front door - the vendor left them and they match our planned decor perfectly. Some differences in radiator placement as well I guess - but the difference is utterly massive.

Having said that - it's minus 8 today so yes I have wimped out and put the gas fire on - which is being hogged by the cat baking herself to a crisp -one day she'll set fire to her whiskers or something.

fenwick458

i'd check all the windows, look at the seals on both sides of the pane and check the condition of them.
some of the seals in my new house are completely shot and let draughts in, when i get round to it i'm gonna get a couple of tubes of silicone, remove the whole pane, run a bead of silicone around and then re-fit the pane.

also i see alot of people are reccomending cavity wall insulation, i'd thouroughly check (or have someone check) the condition of the outside wall (pointing/render, guttering, fascia board, damp course) and make sure it's all good before getting cavity wall insulation. you'd think that the firm doing this would check, but i've heard a few horror stories recently whereby a CWI firm turns up and blows a load of insulation into the cavity and then dissapears, then 6 months later the inside of the house is saoking wet from damp. cavity walls were designed to have a cavity to allow the outise wall to breathe, and when it's filled with insulation the cavity is removed and any moisture from the outside wall can soak right through to the inside wall, and theres no breathing space anymore for it to dry out so it stays damp. i'm not saying cavity wall insulation is bad, just pointing out you have to be aware that the cavitys are being modified to be something they were never supposed to be, and as a result you have to keep on top of the outside wall to ensure it's watertight or else it can lead to a big expense.

also, you don't really need a grant for loft insulation, it's very cheap and an easy diy and they practically give away rolls of insulation at £3 a roll