Worst house style for energy loss

lstar337

Calamitykay wrote: »

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.

There is a lot of hysteria about these type houses. For what it's worth, when my parents had the walls replaced on theirs, the builders found that both the concrete and reinforcements were in excellent condition.

Calamitykay

lstar337 wrote: »

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!

You are SO right with your memories!! Right down to the parkray 'upgrade' and size of rooms etc. It IS a lovely home, we have often said that we would like to 'pick it up and move it somewhere else with us' lol. It is such a shame that they are money guzzlers as far as energy consumption goes!
I like the tip about the bubble wrap on the windows - this is very feasible for the back windows.
Thanks too for the other suggestions

Calamitykay

lstar337 wrote: »

There is a lot of hysteria about these type houses. For what it's worth, when my parents had the walls replaced on theirs, the builders found that both the concrete and reinforcements were in excellent condition.

Yes, it's a bit of a lottery with the conditions - though quite a few around us have been found to have rusted steel supports and some sort of cement canker.
We'll just keep searching and saving until we can afford to rebuild the outside walls - one consolation is that we will only have to brick downstairs I suppose seeing as the roof tiles come so far down from the roof.

Calamitykay

Nada666 wrote: »

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.

Think you might have replied to the wrong thread here by mistake ROTFL