Worst house style for energy loss

Calamitykay

Hi there,
As a complete newbie on this site, I am hoping someone will be able to give me some advice.
My home is a former local authority house, it's known as either a Cornish style or Dutch style house - the roof comes down over the bedroom windows. Also referred to as a PRC house - steel reinforced concrete as the walls are made up of concrete slats.
We cannot insulate the walls at all. We have single glazed windows but we do have loft insulation (not sure of depth).
What I'd like to know is if there are any grants available to either brick up the outside of our home or maybe replace the windows? What else could we do?
Honestly, it is the coldest house we have ever lived in. We cannot think about moving because we bought the house some years ago and though we are mortgage free, we are both unemployed and I am on ESA.
If you were to point a heat monitor at our house it would be red, red, red - all the heat escaping through the walls.
Sorry to have rambled here, just wanted to give as much info as possible
I look forward to any replies!

molerat

It looks like help was available under the old green deal so you would be best giving the Energy Saving Advice Service a call on 0300 123 1234 to see if any help is available.

Found an advertising article here http://www.smarterhomesltd.co.uk/external-insulation-for-system-built-pre-fabs/ just for information.

lstar337

From age 4 to 16 I grew up in a Cornish Unit, it was my parents first house.

It started out with an AGA in the kitchen and open fire in the lounge, then was upgraded to a parkray burner in the lounge and radiators in all the rooms, and eventually to full GSH by my parents. Eventually my parents also had all the walls ripped out and replaced with brick, something which was necessary in order to sell the house.

I always remember it being toasty and warm, and I have very fond memories of that house. It seems I was blissfully unaware though, as during a conversation with my step dad recently, he told me that the house cost an absolute fortune to heat compared with the houses they had afterwards. It seems that the upper part of the house was simply tile on to a wood frame, then plasterboard.

I still love that house though, and it is striking just how huge it was by modern house standards. The house that my parents moved to from the Cornish Unit cost over double what they sold the CU for, yet it was much smaller. The CU had a kitchen, dining room, and lounge downstairs with a separate hallway. Upstairs there was one very large bedroom, one medium bedroom, a box room, and a decent sized bathroom. The house they moved into had a small kitchen, small lounge, and no separate hallway (you had to walk through other rooms to get anywhere). Upstairs, the largest room equal to the medium room of the old house and all other rooms smaller again.

Sorry I don't have better news about the energy efficiency, but I still think they are cracking little homes.

EDIT: I believe it is possible to get some help with the outer walls, but I cant recall what the scheme is called. Google "Cornish Unit" and you should find tons of info.

If you don't 'need' to see out of the windows, put some large bubble wrap on them (bubble to the glass), It will stick itself due to the moisture and help a great deal with heat loss through the windows. Also cheap moneysaving!

Cardew

It might be worth considering DIY insulated drylining at least initially for the main room.


http://www.kingspaninsulation.co.uk/Applications/Application/Walls/Insulated-Drylining.aspx

saveallmymoney

Could you do a project like the one I did to my house?
Insulating Under Hanging Tiles

lstar337

saveallmymoney wrote: »

Could you do a project like the one I did to my house?
Insulating Under Hanging Tiles

Needs a login.

weakpassword

Worst style? A gazebo perhaps

Is there a structure with four walls and no roof? A yard I s'pose. Yeah, those outdoor space heaters are not great.

Now I've looked at more than the subject perhaps hanging material on the inside of outside walls would help? Basically huge curtains. Get that spongy tape stuff into the window jams, sealer in any gaps, and draft-exclude doors (I screwed a flap of carpet to doors in my old place - don't forget any keyholes). If you do put up lagging masquerading as decoration then put a cheap moisture absorber behind it, the risk of damp and mould is a bit high with wall-size curtains.

Single glazed windows are a joke, in my old place I crammed large pieces of material into the windows once the sun went down. Carpet underlay, some carpet and even an old fridge door were plugging the windows. And it really helped, the first year in that flat I just froze my balls off. On a dry day go skip-diving at a carpet shop for these things. They probably will be happy to see stuff taken away, they likely have rubbish handling costs.

macman

Secondary double glazing?

Nada666

The chavvy ones where you are topless?

Blowing whistles can be hard work.

Contrary to initial thoughts styles with lots of bass use less energy than high frequency music.

And having someone on your shoulders is draining.

Smiley_Dan

Calamitykay wrote: »

We cannot insulate the walls at all.

Why?

Calamitykay wrote: »

What I'd like to know is if there are any grants available to either brick up the outside of our home or maybe replace the windows? What else could we do?

First of all, don't chase grants. Talk to someone who has expertise in energy assessment, understands the variety of solutions available and can then choose grants when it is appropriate. The keywords you need to use are "low energy retrofit". Those types of people are architects and building physicists, not salespeople for some fly by night external wall insulation company.

Unfortunately the grant structure is very unstable at the moment and is poorly focussed leading to many problems, particularly that measures are not considered holistically.

Calamitykay

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

Why?

Because the outside are concrete slats and we have been told we cannot put anything in because it could possible burst or weaken the slats.

Thank you for your comments
Ck