Thermal imaging to detect heat loss in house

Ken68

Several years ago I was given some Polystyrene insulating sheets, 8'x4'x50mm. with no obvious use.
After a bit of research I fashioned them to slot into the exterior part of the windows. Held in by pressure and put up in the evening ad taken down in the morning. Or could be fixed as opening shutters.
The result was no condensation on the inside and a much reduced heating bill.
Not unlike exterior cladding and maybe not cost effective.

GwylimT

It sounds similar to our last house.

We also had single brick, as the plaster work was awful we replastered and used insulating plasterboard on all of the exterior walls. This actually made a big difference, so maybe you could just have the exterior walls done if the plaster is in good condition.

We has singled glazed sash windows, apart from the living room and main bedroom these were very small windows, so in most rooms not too much of a problem. So we did change the two large windows to double glazed panels and added draft strips around the top and bottom of the sash.

We also insulated the loft and floors. Eventually we replaced all of the single glazed panels for double, as we had wooden windows this was quite simply to do.

The most effective measure in our house was a close tie between the insulating plasterboard and the loft insulation.

[Deleted User]

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

Performing a thermal imaging survey is NOT just about looking at some images. As you perform the survey you have to understand the relative temperatures by framing or locking the image, plus you have to tune for emmisivity. Then of course you need to know the air temperature on either side of the wall. You also need to check for water ingress or other reasons for what is being shown.

A thermal image can only really be regarded with commentary - they often do not speak for themselves.

This is all very well and good, but you've left out the one factor that makes most difference of all: surface area. The amount of energy lost from a hot object is proportional to surface area, and you don't need an IR camera to tell you that the biggest area is the uninsulated wall.

dominoman

zax47 wrote: »

Single skin, single glazed? Well double glazing would help, a bit, but the single skin is just not efficient from a thermal perspective without a hell of a lot of work & cost. Move house??

We've only just bought the house and I love it. Neither of us have any interest in modern houses. Buying an old house means we accept that it will never be especially warm, but at the same time I want to do what I can to make a difference.

I think the place to start is with the obvious sources of drafts. Some windows and doors rattle and have quite large gaps, so fixing those will be much cheaper than double glazing.

The walls are harder. I don't want to do interior insulation as it takes up too much space. And exterior is so expensive.

For the windows currently we only have old venetian blinds. Fixing air gaps and putting curtains up should make a difference. We've put up curtains in the dining room and it really makes a noticeable difference.

Insulating under the floors is my next move. Currently we have exposed floorboards with large gaps, so all the cold air from under the house rushes up through those. I am planning to put in sheets of polystyrene, which should stop draughts as well as create some thermal insulation barrier. Do i need to leave a gap under the floorboards or can I push polystyrene boards right up against them from underneath?

For the windows I am looking at adding stick on Acrylic sheets that can be removed in Summer. Double glazing is too expensive to consider for now.

Thanks for all the advice. (apart from the one about knocking down my house )

MisterBaxter

When I've insulated suspended floors in the past I have stapled mesh (chicken wire) to the underside of the joists and then use normal fibre quilt insulation; if you have a decent void you can actually work from below so won't need to take out too much of the floor but it isn't a pleasant job.

If you like the look of an old house you probably won't be wanting external wall insulation even if it was within your budget because it will almost certainly detract from the look of the house. Internal insulation does take up space but in an old house that hasn't been replastered it can kill two birds so to speak as you get nice fresh plaster and insulation at the same time. Perhaps you could do one or two key rooms to keep those warm even if you don't do the whole house. The living room would be an obvious choice as it the space you are likely to heat the most. If you refurbish your bathroom at some point it is definitely worth doing insulation as it also helps to prevent mould growth.

Old houses can be brought up to a decent level without impacting too much on the appearance but it isn't cheap.

edgex

dominoman wrote: »

Thanks for all the good advice.

I think at this point I should do more insulating first before looking into a heat survey or even the Lidl infrared thermometer.

I'm going to set aside a weekend and blitz as much as I can:

- Insulate under floors using polystyrene boards
- Shave or sand doors that don’t close properly (back door, loft door, ensuite door etc)
- Insulate loft where is missing
- Insulate windows and doors that let in air (use candle to show draughts)
- Add window film or stick on magnetic windows.
- Block up the unused chimneys

Any other ideas of what I should look at?

???

that's not how you insulate the space under floors, unless you mean the thick blocks of PIR/PUR insulation (?)

edgex

HappyMJ wrote: »

Single brick? Are you sure? They aren't load bearing walls.

they mean 'single-skin', ie. no cavity
Pretty much everything built prior to 1930's is single-skin, & theyre still standing & in daily use (see all the terraced streets)

edgex

dominoman wrote: »

We've only just bought the house and I love it. Neither of us have any interest in modern houses. Buying an old house means we accept that it will never be especially warm, but at the same time I want to do what I can to make a difference.

I think the place to start is with the obvious sources of drafts. Some windows and doors rattle and have quite large gaps, so fixing those will be much cheaper than double glazing.

The walls are harder. I don't want to do interior insulation as it takes up too much space. And exterior is so expensive.

For the windows currently we only have old venetian blinds. Fixing air gaps and putting curtains up should make a difference. We've put up curtains in the dining room and it really makes a noticeable difference.

Insulating under the floors is my next move. Currently we have exposed floorboards with large gaps, so all the cold air from under the house rushes up through those. I am planning to put in sheets of polystyrene, which should stop draughts as well as create some thermal insulation barrier. Do i need to leave a gap under the floorboards or can I push polystyrene boards right up against them from underneath?

For the windows I am looking at adding stick on Acrylic sheets that can be removed in Summer. Double glazing is too expensive to consider for now.

Thanks for all the advice. (apart from the one about knocking down my house )

IWI (interior wall insulation) does not have to take up much space;

to start with, you only do the external walls of rooms, & a small return on adjoining walls

you remove the existing plaster down to bare brick

then, as it's a single-skin wall, you only aim for a U-value of 0.5 (currently you'll be at ~2.0, the lower the better) Celotex can do this with 28mm, including plasterboard



Double glazing
could you do a window/door at a time? If you did the smallest/cheapest first, would it be so expensive?

wrightk

dominoman wrote: »

We've only just bought the house and I love it. Neither of us have any interest in modern houses. Buying an old house means we accept that it will never be especially warm, but at the same time I want to do what I can to make a difference.

I think the place to start is with the obvious sources of drafts. Some windows and doors rattle and have quite large gaps, so fixing those will be much cheaper than double glazing.

The walls are harder. I don't want to do interior insulation as it takes up too much space. And exterior is so expensive.

For the windows currently we only have old venetian blinds. Fixing air gaps and putting curtains up should make a difference. We've put up curtains in the dining room and it really makes a noticeable difference.

Insulating under the floors is my next move. Currently we have exposed floorboards with large gaps, so all the cold air from under the house rushes up through those. I am planning to put in sheets of polystyrene, which should stop draughts as well as create some thermal insulation barrier. Do i need to leave a gap under the floorboards or can I push polystyrene boards right up against them from underneath?

For the windows I am looking at adding stick on Acrylic sheets that can be removed in Summer. Double glazing is too expensive to consider for now.

Thanks for all the advice. (apart from the one about knocking down my house )

To be fair you have come on and asked for advice,most of which you dont agree with.

Your talking about blocking up a few gaps in doors, which will have very little effect.

Leave the windows/think about some shutters?

I know from experience how bad single skin walls can be, even with double glazing throughout and all the other problems they can cause

Invest in a carpet and underlay that will sort your underfloor draft problem out. Look into insulating the external facing walls. As said before you will lose very little space. If you dont want to knock back to bare brick, construct a simple stud wall attached to the external facing wall- with the same depth timber as your insulation. Insulation slots in, plasterboard on top. If you cant afford to plaster it after think about wallpaper/ or drylining and painting the wall. Plenty of tutorials out there. A weekends work, and not ££££'s either.

phil24_7

How old is the house and how thick are the walls?