Help Keeping My House Warm

mremnant

Dear All,

I am hoping you may be able to help. Me and my wife brought our first house in May 2014. During the summer months it was amazing but the house seems to have turned into a freezer for the winter months

A Few facts: the house is a end terrace house built in 1903. I have draft excluded both the front and back doors, chaulked/expanding foamed around windows and pretty much anywhere I can find a hole but it is still chilly.

The radiators are red hot but for some reason the house is still not benefiting from this.

I have contacted the British Gas to fit free loft and wall insulation (although I doubt they can do wall insulation) but they aren't coming until March.

I was just wondering if any of you seasoned homeowners would give me any other tips to try and warm the house up.

Currently our heating is set to come on for 2 hours in the morning and then from 3pm to 10pm at night. I'm tempted to try leaving it on low allday and crank it up when I get home but if all the heat is going out the top of the house this could be a pointless and expensive task.

Many Thanks
Michael

maninthestreet

So you have no loft insulation at all?
A property built in 1903 is unlikely to have cavity walls, so CWI isn't going to be an option.
Do you have DG installed or not??

mremnant

From what I can see in the loft we have very minimal loft insulation. Hence my quick phone call to British Gas to sort it

Excuse my naivety but what is DG?

maninthestreet

DG = Double Glazing
Have you contacted any companies other than BG about installing loft insulation?

mremnant

Ah right! Yes with have double glazing throughout the house. Only the front and back door are not.

I have only contacted British Gas as I thought they were the only company offering the free service? If not I will look around.

Ken68

H Remnant.....You could try heavy curtains, including doors, double if you have room.
Cheap enough from charity shops.
Also check for draught coming thru the floorboards. Maybe a cavity below though insulating will be a big job.
First priority is the loft.

springdreams

There are lots of tips in this thread on how to keep your home warm in winter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4202003

brooklyn07

i don't know if this is feasible for you at all but I recently purchased a property and the walls in the bedrooms are really bad and ideally need replastering but I can't afford that.


I purchased some polystyrene insulated lining paper for 5 quid a roll, and although I didn't buy it for insulating purposes, just to hide all the cracks and uneven walls, the entire room feels a lot warmer now that its up

TrixA

We're in an almost identical situation, just moved into our first house, which is also end terrace, also Victorian. It gets plenty warm upstairs but the downstairs is freezing, even with the central heating going full blast. Our plumber recommended that we set the central heating so it doesn't fall below 12 degrees during the day, but that doesn't seem to have made much difference.

mremnant

Thanks for all the tips so far! I have to say we recently reskimmed one of the rooms in the house (along with recarpetted) and its the warmest room in the house.

We were holding off doing the other rooms in the house due to money but that lining paper may be an option!!

Halle71

We're in the same boat - 1907 end of terrace with an empty house next door - ours warms quickly but cools down faster.

We have an open grate style gas fire in the lounge which means the (large) chimney is open and draughty and the fire not particularly efficient so we have someone coming tomorrow to quote for a glass fronted fire which will block the chimney and push heat into the room so at least one room will be cosy. I think we'll get a heavy curtain for the front door because we're removing a horrid 80s porch and trying to revert to the original front.

I would be careful about putting any insulated paper on the walls - this will make them susceptible to condensation/damp.

To be honest, it's not often this cold so we're wearing layers, using a fan heater if we need a quick blast of hot air (the timer is broken on the boiler but replacing it as part of a spring build) and praying for spring :rotfl: