Any suggestions to keep the house warm?

StanleyJ

Hi,

I moved to a new property recently and its turned out to be really cold inside inspite of turning the central heating to 30 degrees during the day (8 am - 8 pm) Occasionally i can feel drafts of cold air comming over but i could not identify the source.

The survey report does not say anything wrong with the property.

I have had someone come over and check the insulation of the property. He told me that the property is well insulated ie the loft and cavity.

Can anyone please suggest something which can be done to maintain the warmth?

Thanks,
SJ

Bonbon

Is it cold just downstairs? My house is always cold and draughty downstairs but ok upstairs. I have a lot air bricks at ground level which I know shouldn't be blocked and I have floorboards. There is a huge draught that blows up between the gaps and at the bottom of the skirting boards, so I've resorted to crawling round on hands and knees filling them with insulating foam strips.

macman

30C setting for 12 hours a day and still cold?! There is either something seriously wrong with your insulation or (more likely) something seriously wrong with your central heating. The average CH setting in the living area should be around 20C. 30C would be unbearable!
Assuming you have a room 'stat, what temp is the system actually getting up to? Is the pump working, are the rads getting hot all over?
You need to give more info about your system-make and model or boiler, combi, conventional, what controls you have, etc.

StanleyJ

macman wrote: »

30C setting for 12 hours a day and still cold?! There is either something seriously wrong with your insulation or (more likely) something seriously wrong with your central heating. The average CH setting in the living area should be around 20C. 30C would be unbearable!
Assuming you have a room 'stat, what temp is the system actually getting up to? Is the pump working, are the rads getting hot all over?
You need to give more info about your system-make and model or boiler, combi, conventional, what controls you have, etc.

Many thanks for ur reply..

The insulation guy came over and said that the insulation is perfectly fine...normally it shud be 270mm but it seems that we have 350mm on the loft.
Central heating thermostat is one for water and radiator; with the water set to 3 and radiator set to 6 (for marking 1-9). Is this the correct setting or do i need to increase it? what is the normal value i need to set the pointer to?

Its a Combi Boiler installed in 2009.(thats what the previous owners told me)

Radiators are not that hot but still manageable. Its more hot towards the bottom that the top. It was serviced on the 19th Nov 2010.

partan

do you know how to bleed your radiators? Give that a google then try that.
Fill gaps between floorboards to stop draughts coming up.
Draught excluders for doors. Keep doors closed.
Is it an old house? Mines 110 years old and when i first moved in i spent ages chasing draughts.

macman

StanleyJ wrote: »

Many thanks for ur reply..

The insulation guy came over and said that the insulation is perfectly fine...normally it shud be 270mm but it seems that we have 350mm on the loft.
Central heating thermostat is one for water and radiator; with the water set to 3 and radiator set to 6 (for marking 1-9). Is this the correct setting or do i need to increase it? what is the normal value i need to set the pointer to?

Its a Combi Boiler installed in 2009.(thats what the previous owners told me)

Radiators are not that hot but still manageable. Its more hot towards the bottom that the top. It was serviced on the 19th Nov 2010.

As already suggested bleed all your rads, they should not be much colder/cooler at the top.
Please give more info about the system-make and model of the combi? Do you have a room 'stat (I assume this is what you are setting at 30C)? Do you have TRV's on the rads-if so what setting are they on? Open them right up to start with.

27col

Are you sure that you don't have a medical problem. If not, then I suggest that you buy a couple of thermometers and check what the room temperatures actually are. It is not enough to say "The room feels cold", you need to know what the room temperature actually is. If you have TRV's they could be over-riding the main thermostat, so set them fairly high. Draughts should always be capable of being tracked down. Use a joss stick or something similar. Keep doors between rooms closed as much as possible, this certainly cuts down draughts in our house. It is unlikely that there is just one cause for your problem. Macman and others have given you some pointers to start you off on your search for the problem.

macman

IIUC, this is a 2 year old system in a modern house with cavity wall insulation and very heavy loft insulation.
My bet is that either the room stat is faulty, the TRV's set far too low, or possibly a pump problem ?
But on the very limited info given it's only possible to speculate.

StanleyJ

macman wrote: »

As already suggested bleed all your rads, they should not be much colder/cooler at the top.
Please give more info about the system-make and model of the combi? Do you have a room 'stat (I assume this is what you are setting at 30C)? Do you have TRV's on the rads-if so what setting are they on? Open them right up to start with.

Yes the room stat is the one set at 30C. TRV's on all the radiators are set to 3.
As i mentioned, there is another setting on the combi boiler for the water and radiator heat levels....i hope that setting is correct

StanleyJ

partan wrote: »

do you know how to bleed your radiators? Give that a google then try that.
Fill gaps between floorboards to stop draughts coming up.
Draught excluders for doors. Keep doors closed.
Is it an old house? Mines 110 years old and when i first moved in i spent ages chasing draughts.

I havent doent them but i dis a research on it..i need to try them over the weekend...all floors are carpeted....would that still cause draughts to come up? Its a 1930s house....and previous owners ....it seems...liked to nail the entire place for no reason.....there are lots of nails all around the house.....i have a feeling that this could be the reason..but before that need to try the tips suggested....hope it works...

puddy

StanleyJ wrote: »

Yes the room stat is the one set at 30C. TRV's on all the radiators are set to 3.
As i mentioned, there is another setting on the combi boiler for the water and radiator heat levels....i hope that setting is correct

but what is the actual temperature?