What's the most economical way to heat here... ?

dander

Hi all, hoping this is the most appropriate forum for this question. I have a bedroom that rarely gets used, so obviously the advice is always to turn the radiator off, shut the door and not heat it. However, the room directly below this is where I work from home, so obviously I'm in there a lot and I want to be comfortable.

I'm wondering if having an unheated room above is actually meaning the heat produced downstairs is rising up through the ceiling to the unheated space, so it's taking a lot more energy to keep the downstairs warm. Would I be better heating the upstairs room to at least a low level of warmth? Is either way likely to be significantly more efficient than the other?

martinsurrey

it’s not more efficient to deliberately heat an unused space.

All you would be doing is by passing the heat being in the room you are using and turning it straight to waste.

The best method would be to lift the bedroom floor and insulate the ceiling void (£20 and a few hours).

dander

Well, let's assume I'm not planning on destroying the house for the sake of a few pennies saving here! Ha!

macman

How does lifting the floorboards 'destroy the house'? It was a perfectly practical suggestion.
If you want to reduce the heat loss into the upstairs room then you need to improve the insulation. Most traditionally built houses have minimal insulation between ground and first floors, because it is assumed that heat is required upstairs.
The other option is to move your office upstairs.

dander

Jeez, I won't bother asking questions here again. I asked a simple question for thoughts about where to move a central heating knob and get told that actually I should strip a fully furnished, fully decorated bedroom with professionally laid carpet, wrench the entire 100-year-old floor up, presumably skirtings as well in order to be able to shift the floor - do this without damaging the walls or the floorboards despite the 4" iron nails that will be nailing the boards down, yeah, that sounds like destroying my house to me! That's before I spend a few minutes, just popping it all back in place like lego before I refit the carpet because, after all, I am presumably a professional carpet layer here. Practical! :rotfl:

MrTyo

The others have given practical info and you have chosen to rant about it. You didn't describe the room above so why whine?

Personally speaking I couldn't understand how if hot air rises you think it would be more econical to turn the heating in the room upstairs up. The heat from downstairs isn't going to say "I'm not going to bother rising upstairs its warm there already".

The only way to prevent heat loss would be do as people suggested which you took offence to. I guess other alternatives are wearing more jumpers and turning the heat down. Perhaps insulate somehow from downstairs I.e false ceiling but as you don't go into detail I would hate to suggest anything like that in case your antique £200000 chandelier was in the way.

GwylimT

Heating one room is a bit like putting hot food on a cold plate, the food goes cold quicker and so to keep it warm you have to keep heating it.

If you heat a whole house the air is warm, yes some air is cooler, but it is still warm. If you heat a single room that heat will leave and be replaced by cold air. If all air is either hot or warm, your rooms will not be cold, some will simply be a little cooler.

martinsurrey

dander wrote: »

Jeez, I won't bother asking questions here again.

I think that would be for the best.

Insulation is the only way to go, any other tricks with heating are not going to work, and infact will cost you money (something called thermo dynamics).

options are

1) insulate the ceiling void
2) insulate the ground floor ceiling
3) insulate yourself (ie Jumper)

martinsurrey

GwylimT wrote: »

Heating one room is a bit like putting hot food on a cold plate, the food goes cold quicker and so to keep it warm you have to keep heating it.

If you heat a whole house the air is warm, yes some air is cooler, but it is still warm. If you heat a single room that heat will leave and be replaced by cold air. If all air is either hot or warm, your rooms will not be cold, some will simply be a little cooler.

So instead of heating the small amount of cold air that comes into the target room you suggest heating an entire house worth, just in case...

it’s a simple fact that by heating more rooms, you increase the surface areas of the house with a temperature differential to the outside world, and as such increase the heat that escapes to that outside world, and increased heat lost = more cost to replace = more cost through your boiler.

dander

Well, I didn't describe anything about the room because it was irrelevant to my question. I described the system and I was looking for the most economical way of running THAT system. Not how to create a whole new system.

If the air above is warmer is has a lower density than cold air. Given that it's the difference in densities that means the hot air rises, then balancing the air densities theoretically would reduce the movement of air. But my question is about whether it costs more to heat the room above when the heating is on anyway, or leaving it cold and therefore having to pump more heat into the lower room, possibly over longer periods.

maisie1234

I have a question...

My two children are away at school during the week. I like to use one of the bedrooms to dry clothes (as opposed to using a tumble dryer)

Is it best to keep this room on a low temp bearing in mind the damp clothes. Last winter by partner turned off the heating and it smelt damp and uncomfortable....