New house and a heat loss issue

infer

Hi Everyone,

I recently moved to the UK , so not aware of all local rules and "procedures". I'll really appreciate any help or suggestions.

At the end of January we have moved in to our first, own house. After a first night I found a ground-floor to be really chilly , way colder than in the similar house that we were renting before.
I've advised builders about my concern and was waiting for any action to be taken. As there was no response I put an official claim. After that we have been assured by a Site Manager , that our house is absolutely fine. As I wasn't convinced I decided to order a Thermal Survey. As expected many places have been found with a temperature difference up to 8-10deg. I put a complaint again, and have been informed in writing that house is absolutely fine.

The pain is that we are having around 18 deg in a lounge while there is 20.5deg in the kitchen (the same floor). So effectively to have 20deg in a lounge we need to spend 180pounds for a Gas. Moreover our house is EPC rated as B.

Thermal survey found many cold air ingresses and stuff like this.

Could anybody suggest where could I seek for an advice?

Thanks a lot
Jakub

Norman_Castle

Is air ingress a draft?. These are normally cheap and easy to stop.

infer

It's not a draft. I rather found it to be an outside cold air between a brickwork and plasterboards. Unfortunately I cant add any images so it would be easier to visualise my issue

MX5huggy

Be interesting to see the images, put them on a photo sharing service then put the link on here without the www. Bit. We can add that. Unfortunately it will probably come down to build quality. On the EPC does it say produced using RdSAP or SAP? Is an air pressure test mentioned?

infer

Picutre 1: s32.postimg.org/6hh71qfp1/image.jpg
Picture 2: s32.postimg.org/vaz0r4flh/image.jpg

EPC was produced using SAP, whatever that means.

EPC: s32.postimg.org/jo51bei5x/image.jpg

MX5huggy

HappyMJ

Those pictures actually are misleading.

The heat losses are quite normal for a house of that type of construction.

My property has a energy requirement of 119kWh/m2 which is very close to yours and like yours heat losses are highest near the floor/ceilings and around doors and windows.

That looks quite normal to me. My guess is the heating isn't sized correctly.

keith969

Is that £180 a month or £180 a year?

Have you tried turning the radiators down in the kitchen?

PasturesNew

How big is the house?
How many hours/day do you have the heating on?

I checked my EPC against yours and there's little difference. I don't tend to have my heating on much. In mid-winter it'd be on 2 hours/day - if it's nippy you put a jumper on, or pull a blanket over your legs.

In deepest, deep, deep winter, with an exceptionally hard snap, I might go as far as 4 hours' heating on.

I also only heat the room I'm in. It's wasteful to heat rooms you're not in.

20 seems generous to me.

In the main, in the UK, only those with a generous income would swan around in their houses with the heating on all the time, in all rooms, wearing T shirts. We'd also have some nice warm/lined curtains up at those patio doors!

Last night there was a hard frost - it's thoroughly white, white, white out there this morning. The car would want scraping. My heating's not been on (for weeks). Got up and I was "a little bit nippy", so I had a bath and that warmed me up. Heating won't go on, I'll pull my blanket over my feet.

Growing up, a lot of us were used to having ice on the inside of single-glazed windows every morning throughout the winter.... we're very grateful these days for double glazing Maybe you've just not quite got the hang of how our weather is and how we live and our expectations of warmth/lifestyle.

Davesnave

But Pastures, you're a [STRIKE]well-known[/STRIKE] notorious frugalista......

And this is the problem, I fear. Different people have widely varying expectations of what a reasonable indoor temperature is, and how much they're prepared to pay to achieve it.

As an OAP, I might be expected to be tight, but in fact I don't care what it costs to stay warm, short-term. After 6 years living in a partially heated house, often with big renovation holes in it and no loft insulation due to same, I'm perfectly happy with the temperatures we've 'enjoyed.'

My wife, who's considerably younger, isn't!

We have just installed a boiler with plenty of oomph, if we need it, though in the feeble thing that passed for winter this year, it was just ticking-over most of the time.

Like Happy, I'd guess that radiator capacity might be your problem, because even with the limitations here at 500', I have been "swanning around" in a T shirt for months.

DRP

I'm not sure what should be interpreted from those pictures, or what should be expected in a modern house (I've always lived in draughty Victorian places).

+1 for radiators or boiler (probably radiators).


1. Check they are specd correctly for each room (with a bit extra if you lie it warm).

2. Check they are functioning - bleed them if necessary.

3. Track down drafts - especially at windows, doors.

4. Put a jumper on/use the heating more