How to keep house warm

bretts

Hi all

I have a solid wall house and really struggling to keep it warm. I do always have two layers or sometimes three layers of clothes on me to make sure I dont keep heating on for too long but this past week, I switched on the heating for 2 hours and it did get warm, but in matter for an hour or may be less it was back to freezing. I set the temp up to 19, the thermostat is in the staircase area, the temperature never really reaches to 19 there as my doors are single glazed but I have put a quilt on the top to cover every bit of draught. I cant afford to replace them just yet as i just dont have any money at all and redundancy looming too. The living room which is downstairs does get cozy as we are all sitting there, but as soon as I go up to the first floor, its back freezing, its a standard house stairs on one side and kitchen and living on ground with bedroom upstairs. I could afford to top up the insulation so i have about 200mm upstairs, but I want to lay some boards so i need raise the level of joists and put more insulation on. and once some more stuff will go up it will all add to stopping the heat to escape. I have all the windows sealed with p strips to make sure no heat escapes, I have thermal curtains everywhere to keep cold out, but i still feel no matter what I do the house will heat up but within an hour i need to have the heating on again, is there anything I can do to make it better, I know change doors are one but I cant and I have a feeling my windows are very old too as when you see on the white panel that are covered by the windows itself the dates there are like 1996, the space between the widows is quite a lot but I do feel they are also not doing work properly. Any other place i can see you guys can suggest me please. Even on the staircase I feel there is like wind coming from outside, It only has one window with the p strip draught tape on it.

ST1991

I'm having a similar problem with my stone-built house. Our boiler is old and only have thermostats on each radiator (which don't seem to work...) so it's either heat the full house or nothing.
We have a little oil filled radiator that plugs in to use in the living room if we don't want to heat the whole house, as well as an electric blanket in the bedroom.
I also have one of those poles that you twist to fit a door frame, where i hang a thin curtain from on an evening to keep in more heat.
We have no doors downstairs... so these come in handy!

bretts

well luckily my boiler is brand new got last year but I have a feeling my rads are letting me down and not working up to the mark as i am sure they are quite old too, house just needs to much things replacing and i am not a bad diyer but with rads i dont know if i will be able to do and seal them water tight like they should be so would need help i guess which definitely isnt cheap, at an average the cost is 0 pounds to replace a rad.

FreeBear

In a similar position - Cold, draughty house that is difficult to heat and a budget of zero to do any improvements. Been slowly renovating the lounge and sealing all the gaps is making a difference.

Took the skirting boards off (will be replacing them), and there is quite a few gaps between the floorboards & walls. These will be sealed with expanding foam as the skiting boards are reattached. At the same time, a layer of woodwool boards (5mm think laminate underlay) will be going down under the carpet to kill the draughts coming up through the floorboards.

One of the biggest shocks I've had is the amount of wind howling through the space between the ceiling and the upstairs floorboards - Have identified where some of the wind is getting in and will be lifting boards upstairs to seal the walls. Probably with a lime render pressed hard in to the gaps where the joists go in to the walls.

Why lime render ?
A bucket of lime putty is relatively cheap from a local builder's merchant (although quite a bit more than a bag of cement). But once mixed with sand, it will keep in a sealed bucket for years. Also, lime mortars/renders/plasters are vapour permeable which is necessary to prevent moisture being trapped in solid brick walls & timbers.

[Deleted User]

The problem that you can't easily escape is that to a large extent it is the temperature of the walls and not the air that determines how comfortable you are, and the walls take several hours to warm up. When you cut the heating to just a couple of hours it's not long enough for the walls to get warm, and so you feel little benefit even when the heating is on. If you heat one room at a time a party wall between a heated room and a cold room the wall will be colder than if both rooms are heated.

bretts

Hi

Yes i did not think about the skirting board but i know that under my wooden flooring i have a very thin layer of underlay which i am sure is not enough to keep the draughts out but to get to that I would have to lift the whole flooring then the floor boards and then insulate, when the flooring was done i did not think about it then but I can definitely take out some skirting boards and see is there is a lot of space there, I can feel the chill of the wind but I dont know where that chill is coming from, normally if outside is 4 degrees like today my house will be 8 or 9 if i dont have the heating on and hence the reason to wear clothes inside the house, that day when we had guests over, they were feeling cold even with the heating on and we had started feeling hot as we are not so used to heated house at all and yes the walls definitely are something to live with till i have enough money to insulate them either from outside or inside but I dont think with two small kids i can do a lot at this point, loft was still easy as they cant get there.

konark

ST1991 wrote: »

We have no doors downstairs... so these come in handy!

How do you get in and out?

adom_thomas

M gonna share some tips that will assist you to keep your house warm

Install a programmable thermostat

This will keep your bill low, and your efficiency high. Instead of having to manually fiddle with your thermostat every time you leave the house or every time you come back home, This Old House recommends programming your thermostat for the following temps/times during the week if your house is empty during the day (they also recommend setting the thermostat to 55 degrees when you go on vacation for a few days or more):

• 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. = 68 degrees
• 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. = 60 degrees
• 5:30 to 11 p.m. = 68 degrees
• 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. = 60 degrees

Their nighttime recommendation seems a little chilly, so adjust accordingly as to what’s comfortable for you. Keep in mind, though, that research has recently shown that cooler temps — say in the mid-60s vs upper-60s/low-70s — promote better sleep, and may even increase your metabolism.

Let sunlight in during the day

Once the sun is up, you want to capture as much of that free heat as possible. Even on cold days, the sun is still warm. So before you leave the house for the day, open up those curtains and let the light shine in. If there are certain parts of the house that don’t get sunlight, no need to open those curtains. Just do so where it streams in for a good part of the day.

Keep curtains closed at night


Once the sun goes down, keep all that heat from leaving through the windows by closing the drapes. If you’re in a particularly cold home or geographic area, consider getting insulated curtains for winter use. They’ll prevent some of the warmth in your home from escaping. You can even put up temporary curtains (or even sheets, rugs, etc.) over doors to the outside, even if just at night while you’re sleeping.


Mind your wood-burning fireplaces


While they’re romantic on a chilly evening, lighting a fire is terribly inefficient for the rest of your home. It’s warm and toasty right by the roaring flames, but for all that heat being exhausted up through the fireplace, cold air is being pulled into the house elsewhere (this is due to a physics principle called the stack effect – more on that below).

You don’t want to put the damper on idyllic evenings spent in front of crackling logs altogether, so when you do have a fire, just be sure to buy/use a glass front for your fireplace, which keeps some of that heated air in your home from escaping up the chimney once the flames have gone out.

Beyond that, remember to keep the flue closed when the fireplace isn’t in use. Failing to do so means basically having an open window in your room, letting warm air out and cold air in.





Take a look at your ceiling fans


If you have ceiling fans in your home, they may be sitting needlessly dormant during the winter months. Many fans have a “winter” setting, which reverses the fan so that it moves clockwise vs. counterclockwise. Since heat rises, the clockwise-spinning fan will push the heat back down into your rooms versus being trapped up at the ceilings. This is especially recommended if you have high or sloped ceilings. Some experts don’t trust the efficacy of doing this, as the fan may just cool the air too much, but try it out on a low speed, and see if it warms the room. In my experience from harsh Iowa winters, it definitely works.


Move furniture away from vents


You may have unknowingly placed furniture in front of heating vents when you moved in or rearranged. Go around the house and double check that vents aren’t blocked, and if they are, find a way to move your furniture, at least for the winter. This will make sure every room is getting its max heat potential. Blocking return vents in a forced-air central heating system could also cause air pressure issues, which further disrupts the flow of heat.


Mitigate the “stack effect”

The stack effect is the movement of air in and out of homes and other buildings, essentially creating large-scale chimneys. The rising warm air in a home will pull in cool air from the outside through any gap it can find. This creates negative pressure in lower levels, which acts like a suction cup because that warm escaping air needs to be replaced. This pulls cool air in and obviously chills the home. The effect is magnified in taller homes (more air rising to greater heights, so more cool air is being pulled in), so be extra aware of the stack effect if you live in a multiple-story home.

To combat this, you obviously want to seal those gaps. The most common offenders are doors and windows. To test this out, you can light a candle and carry it with you throughout the house, holding it close to the doors and windows. When you hold it still and it flickers, you have a possible gap. Hold your hand out to test it and you’ll often feel cold air. It may seem like a small and unimportant leak, but it can definitely make a big difference, especially when they’re multiplied around the house.

For doors, you can try making a “door snake.” That can be inconvenient, though, if the door is frequently used. You can also buy door sweeps that seal those gaps on the bottom. For gaps on the sides and top of the door, as well as window gaps, use weather stripping to negate the stack effect.


Seal other leaks, too


There can be air leaks in your home beyond windows and doors. Think attics, basements (where cements meets the wood frame), even kitchen hood vents. Take a look at this handy guide from energystar.gov to find those leaks and seal them. Hint: caulking can be your best friend.


Keep certain rooms toasty warm by closing doors


If you spend a lot of time in certain rooms, you can close doors and create a little sauna. I do this with my office, and it works like a charm. I simply leave the door closed at night, let the heat run like normal, and since there aren’t as many gaps for heat to escape, it’s nice and warm in the morning. At times, it even gets too warm. If you have big, open spaces, you can use room dividers; it may not seem like much, but any blockage that keeps air from escaping just a little less quickly will help keep things warmer.

You can also close doors to rooms that aren’t frequently used in your home — just make sure you also close the vents in those rooms. This sort of acts to lower the heated square footage, and the warm air will spread quicker and easier through the house. As a bonus, this will save a little bit on your heating bill, too. (Just make sure you aren’t sticking your in-laws in the guest bedroom without first letting it heat back up for a day or two.)



Utilize space heaters, but with caution


Space heaters are excellent tools for keeping individual rooms warm. The danger is that they are a high-risk fire hazard, especially compared to other tips listed here. In fact, they account for one-third of all heating-related house fires.

To ensure the safety of your household, keep any flammable material at least three feet away, and make sure the heater is on an even and stable surface. Never leave space heaters on overnight or when you leave the home (there are timed space heaters that turn off after 1-4 hours that are a better option than entirely manually-operated ones). Additionally, it’s a good idea to only use space heaters that shut off automatically when tipped over.


Use the oven

Baking, convecting, and broiling things will keep your house warmer, especially in rooms nearest the kitchen. Don’t be afraid to roast a chicken or bake a ton of casseroles when the temperatures dip! (This is also why, in our household, we don’t use the oven much in the summer.)


Add layers to your wood floors

According to the National Energy Foundation, uninsulated wood floors can account for up to 10% of a home’s heat loss. Carpets and rugs were created for a reason — to keep rooms warmer. They’re far better at trapping heat than your creaky wood floors. Add a rug or roll of carpet to your floor in the winter, and you’ll notice a difference in coziness.


If you have radiators

The first thing you can do is put tinfoil on the back of the radiator. This will reflect heat back into the room(s) versus it just floating up to the ceiling. There is special reflective radiator foil, but the kitchen variety will work as well. The second thing you can do is put up a shelf or table over the radiator (not on the radiator — don’t put anything directly on it). Again, this acts to trap the heat and let it spread more evenly through the room.



:money:

Rain_Shadow

Any chance of resizing that picture?

Slinky

Rain_Shadow wrote: »

Any chance of resizing that picture?

It's nothing fancy, just a switch on the side of the fan housing.

George_Michael

adom_thomas wrote: »

M gonna share some tips that will assist you to keep your house warm

It would have been far easier to simply post a link to one of the many websites that the tips are already posted on rather than cutting and pasting the entire webpage:
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/11/14/how-to-keep-your-house-warm-in-the-winter/