Is your heating ON or OFF?

f0xh0les

Still firmly OFF in Le'Shire. Wet and horrid but still not cold.

pattypan4

old houses had chimneys and good ventilation, do you still have an open chimney or is it blocked up?

phoebe1989seb

Still off here (rural Carmarthenshire), but we did light one of the wood burners last night - more for the cosy ambiance in the snug during the stormy weather than anything else. After an hour it was sweltering so we refrained from adding any more logs, just snuggled up with my huge and bargainicious Parkes scented candle and loads of lamps

Boiling hot in bed with a mid-weight duvet (and two dogs!) still.....

Novice_investor101

pattypan4 wrote: »

old houses had chimneys and good ventilation, do you still have an open chimney or is it blocked up?

The chimney is still there and has an inset gas fire in it. It was serviced a couple of weeks ago and the gas engineer set a smoke pellet off in it and observed the smoke drawing out of the chimney pot - so it is vented. The bit of damp wall is also not on the chimney breast and both houses have had new roofs on the last 6 years. I think it is a bit of rising damp. The cellar used to be very damp and had water rising up in it. I had mine treated, a barrier put down and a concrete floor over that and it's been dry since. I don't expect next door will have done that, though.
There is a vent on the lounge wall (due to the fire) but I don't think it does much, and a draught comes in under the skirting boards on the outside wall where the airbricks for the cellar are - I haven't blocked this up for the winter yet, like I normally would.

Hygrometer dropped from 74% to 71% in the bedroom on the last 30 minutes or so.....
The kitchen is ventilated by the draughty backdoor! There's never any condensation in there and I open the window when i'm cooking on the hob.

pattypan4

NI, keep a note of your temperature and humidity in your lounge. The sun came out here, temperature rose to 23.3 and humidity has gone down to 56. Maybe do a test, put some heat in and see what happens. We do have to bite the bullet sometimes, too cool is bad for house

Novice_investor101

pattypan4 - i'm thinking a good blast of the heating is now due. This is an old, solid brick house and it can take an age to get warmth back into the fabric of the building, especially when it is cold and wet.
I'll keep a record and see if it drops when the heating comes on at 4pm and the temp gets up to 21c in the downstairs rooms.

Novice_investor101

Update - Had the heating on for a couple of hours. The humidity has dropped to 63% & the temp is up to 23c in the lounge - which feels stuffily warm! I'm expecting it'll be back up to 70% come the morning, though.

I've ordered a mini dehumidifier from Amzn for £40. Last winter, on the coldest evenings, my glasses would steam up when I'd come in & there'd be condensation on the window & door lock. Hopefully, this will dry up the damp patch on the wall too & I can use it in the spare room when I've done some washing & the heating isn't on.

Also, I put reflective panels behind the radiators in the summer & they seem to be working - the walls behind the panels are cool so they must be doing the job.

quintwins

Still off here, it's actually been pretty warm despite the fact it's been stormy.

Mee

f0xh0les wrote: »

Still firmly OFF in Le'Shire. Wet and horrid but still not cold.

Same here in the East.

VfM4meplse

Had it on for precisely 30 minutes this evening, whilst I had guests over as the house felt a bit damp. It had the desired effect and got the house dry and toasty even though the thermostat remains firmly at 15°C. Barometer told me it was 21°C; maybe my thermostat's on the blink?!