Cold bathroom making rest of house cold

sharloid

I've recently moved into a rented house and I'm struggling with the heating. We have all the radiators on in the house (3 bed terrace with bathroom downstairs) and can get it to 18 after a couple of hours of the heating being on. As soon as it's switched off it drops to 16.

The radiator in the bathroom is the one that has to stay on (no thermostatic valve) and this room stays around 10 degrees with the heating off, 12 with it on.

We already wear jumpers etc. We have no curtain poles/curtains and can't afford to dress all the windows.

Is there anything I can do except leaving the heating on 24/7? The bathroom is the main concern as I presume that is making the rest of the house colder. We're on a meter but are due to get a smart meter in the middle of January.

Thanks

JJ_Egan

Bathroom radiator cold at the top ??
Need bleeding ???
http://www.shadlock.co.uk/energy/heat/radbal.htm


Need Valves opening ???

http://www.shadlock.co.uk/energy/heat/chbal.htm


Boiler set to low ???

Farway

Radiators need balancing?

Not a quick job, but easy to to do

As it is rented house I doubt the landlord has bothered to do this

Just search on line for method

Consumerist

sharloid wrote: »

. . . The radiator in the bathroom is the one that has to stay on (no thermostatic valve) and this room stays around 10 degrees with the heating off, 12 with it on. . .

Is the radiator getting hot and staying hot while you have the heating on?

If not, then try bleeding the radiator, as suggested earlier. If that doesn't help then make sure the valves at each end of the radiator are on. If none of this changes anything then another possibility is that you've got an air bubble in the piping to the radiator which will probably mean you will need to drain the entire system and refill it. If the piping is badly designed, you may need professional help to refill under pressure.

McKneff

have a look round charity shops for curtains.


In summer, think ahead and trawl the car boot sales of curtains, poles etc.


Wilkinsons sell window kits that cover your windows with cling film, effectively double/or tripling glazing them, makes a big big difference and is easily removed in spring.


Draught excluders at all doors.

Swipe

Keep the bathroom door closed, job done. I have no heating at all in my bathroom and it works fine for me.

Transformers

For the bathroom, get some extra thick vinyl flooring - with the sales starting you can get a bargain offcut.

You won't need to lay it permanently, just place it on the top as an extra insulating layer against the ground.

Also, thicker curtains will help and draft excluders.

Rugs in rooms will also help the heat loss at ground level.

Have you tried tin foil being the radiators to reflect the heat back?

http://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2013/jan/26/does-tin-foil-radiator-beat-cold

dandelionclock30

I've never had any heating in my bathroom/loo and I just keep the door shut also.
I cant see it making the rest of the house cold.
Try wearing thermals under your clothes.

Robwiz

Your problem could be caused by many different things. There are two things to look at: heat input and heat losses.

First, it could be that the flow temperature from the boiler is too low for the current weather conditions/heat losses, so turn the control on the boiler up. (It looks like a volume control on a radio). Also check the pump speed setting and try it on a higher setting if available.

If that doesn't make a difference, it could be that your boiler is undersized for the house, so try turning down the thermostatic radiator valves (if fitted) on the upstairs rads, otherwise just close the valves so that there is less heat going into the upstairs rooms.

If the bathroom rad is warm from top to bottom and the room still isn't getting warm, it points to the rad being too small for the space. Any cold patches point to air in the rad (at the top) or sludge (if cold at the bottom).

You can do a few things to make the most of what you've got in the bathroom. Check for draughts around the door and windows and seal them up. There are possibly big gaps around the pipes passing out through the floor/walls, so check and seal up (ideally with foam filler but old rags would make some difference). Remove the bath panel and look for gaps in the floor/walls (many a bodge hidden behind a bath trim!)

Keep your bathroom door shut and only open the window to let steamy condensation out after bathing/showering.

savemoney

Our bathroom use to be cold until we replaced radiator for a modern one which also kicks out more heat as its double width compared too single width. We also we had a towel rail fitted now is quite warm in there when heating is on but cold when not on. I know we regularly had problems with old radiator too having to bleed it. I sorted that out as i got some sort of value that fits radiator that allows air to escape.

sharloid

Consumerist wrote: »

Is the radiator getting hot and staying hot while you have the heating on?

The radiator is getting hot, it seems that the room is just losing heat so quickly that it's not warming up. It's silly to keep the heating on when it's not really making any difference to the house. It's the only single storey bit of the house so I'm guessing it's just really badly insulated. There's also damp/mould so it's not ventilated either.

Swipe wrote: »

Keep the bathroom door closed, job done. I have no heating at all in my bathroom and it works fine for me.

Ah, that's another thing about this house, none of the doors actually close properly as they don't fit in the frames. It's shut the best we can though, with a blanket or towel on the floor as a draught excluder. Doesn't change the bathroom being 10 degrees though sadly.