Cold rooms in house

rdone

Hello,

We can have the heating on in our house and the downstairs is lovely and warm. It's an old terrace house so the lounge/dining room is the only door off the hall way and the stairs go straight up. We keep this door closed. As you walk up the stairs you can feel the temperature decreasing, we've recently started keeping the upstairs doors open and it's not quite so freezing cold as it was, the radiators are just as warm as those downstairs.

Any tips or ideas for us?!

Grenage

It's pretty common for the upstairs to be cooler; what's your loft insulation like?

LUHG1878

Insulating and locating & fixing drafts would be my advice, if you haven't already done so.

We have started this process, but simply doing one thing might not solve the problem entirely, it depends on your house, and it's not always straightforward, as i've learned!

Have you had your loft space insulated?

Are your walls solid brick, or is there a cavity?

If there's a cavity, do you have cavity wall insulation? If solid walls, they can be insulated too, not quite as easy or cheaply, but still do-able.

Perhaps not relevant to yourself as much, as downstairs seem ok, but for those with suspended timber floors, insulating the underside will make a difference.

Check around doors and windows for drafts, and seal as required.

Have your windows been fitted long? We moved into our house about 4 years ago, and it had double glazing installed 3-4 years prior to that. However, as it turned out, they were cheap windows that were poorly fitted. We had the whole lot ripped out and replaced, and that made a huge difference.

Do you have a radiator in your hallway, if not, could one be fitted easily, even if it was just an electric one with thermostat?

Lots to consider, and some solutions don't have to be expensive, especially if you are prepared to tackle them yourself. There are also grants and 0% loans available to tackle some of these solutions too.

rdone

Thanks for all the advice. I bought the house 3 years ago and it was derelict, so I've put in brand new windows and they insulated the loft at the same time. I will admit I have no idea what the walls are though so maybe that's worth looking into.
We've started keeping the doors upstairs open and downstairs closed and this seems to be helping, it's not quite so bitterly cold anyway!

TheCyclingProgrammer

This might seem like a silly question, but are your radiators working efficiently and suitably sized for their rooms? Are any of them sludged up (cold at the bottom) or do they need bleeding (cold at the top)?

SuzieSue

Grenage wrote: »

It's pretty common for the upstairs to be cooler; what's your loft insulation like?

I have always found the opposite but then I have only lived in houses built after 1970.

Wassa123

Grenage wrote: »

It's pretty common for the upstairs to be cooler; what's your loft insulation like?

Heat rises and cold air sinks, so upstairs should always be warmer.

We have a 3 floor townhouse, you can feel each floor get a lot warmer!

You could rebalance the radiators or simply adjust the valves if you have them

rdone

The radiators are all efficient sizes and seem to be the same temperature all over. I'll give the valve adjusting a go though thanks!

Smiley_Dan

A lot of folksy nonsense in this thread...

Heat does not rise. Heated air rises in what is called convection which happens to transfer some energy. This can give the impression of transfer of heat, but because the heat capacity of air is low, this only works well when the heat loss of your upstairs rooms are low. This probably isn't the case in an old terrace.

It comes down to physics; if your heat loss is high, it will cost you more to heat your house. If you adjust your rads, you're probably just turning them up.

LUHG1878

I agree with Smiley Dan, upstairs is cold because you're losing heat, so consider where else you can insulate.

This might help you identify what type of walls you have: https://www.cse.org.uk/pdf/wpdcc_how_to_recognise_cavity_walls.pdf

Does your home report not tell you what type of construction your walls are?

Another alternative would be to drill a couple of test holes in your brickwork.

manda1205

When you did the house up did you put a new roof on, does the roof have felt?
Our 1890 cottage had original slate roof with no felt, we had put in loft insulation but it wasn't until last spring when we put a complete new roof on that we have now noticed a huge difference in temperature upstairs. Our rads are now on 1/2 rather than 4/5. It's been colder outside this year so we can only put the difference down to the new roof.