Why is my house cold?

anto164

I've read some of the comments, but not all, so i apologise if this is saying something that someone else has said!

You may find that trying to keep the house at a steady 18 degrees costs the same as if you're running the boiler flat out for 3/4 hours a day. this will also allow the fabric of the house to heat up, and then keeps its residual heat. Having hot air around the house won't keep it warm, and it will soon escape.

Partner that with some more efficient radiators, you should get a toasty house.

One other point, last year, we had large single panel radiators with no convectors and it took an age for the house to warm up when it was cold. I replaced all the radiators in the house over the summer with smaller double panel single convector modern radiators, and now the house heats up very quickly once the heating is on. A small change can make a massive difference.

Archergirl

Yes you defo need to put the heating on more than you do, we have ours come on half an hour before we get up and stay on for half an hour before we leave home, then on half an hour before we get home and go off at 10 pm. It is set at 21deg.

Zither

NineDeuce wrote: »

A C rating is decent enough rating. However the EPC does not take into account the way you are actually using the house nor any faults or cracks.

Therefore, you either have a faulty heating system, a lot of draught, gaps in insulation, or the weather is just cold.

Otherwise, it could be how you are using the building - not enough heating demand, allowing cold air to enter the building.....

Thanks! Are there any free services that can come in and do an energy audit on a house? E.g. power companies, energy charities/trusts etc?

Zither

anto164 wrote: »

I've read some of the comments, but not all, so i apologise if this is saying something that someone else has said!

You may find that trying to keep the house at a steady 18 degrees costs the same as if you're running the boiler flat out for 3/4 hours a day. this will also allow the fabric of the house to heat up, and then keeps its residual heat. Having hot air around the house won't keep it warm, and it will soon escape.

Partner that with some more efficient radiators, you should get a toasty house.

One other point, last year, we had large single panel radiators with no convectors and it took an age for the house to warm up when it was cold. I replaced all the radiators in the house over the summer with smaller double panel single convector modern radiators, and now the house heats up very quickly once the heating is on. A small change can make a massive difference.

Yes lots of people say keeping the house at a steady x degrees is cheaper than constantly re-warming the house up frpm scratch - and I can understand that. I suppose that means putting the heating on for a minimum of x hours a day tho whereas I’m trying to stick to about two. So I guess I need to either decide between more comfort or less expense. Tough.

Unrelated but it makes you feel for people in vulnerable situations as the nights get cooler.

Zither

Archergirl wrote: »

Yes you defo need to put the heating on more than you do, we have ours come on half an hour before we get up and stay on for half an hour before we leave home, then on half an hour before we get home and go off at 10 pm. It is set at 21deg.

I guess that means you have the heating on for about 6.5h per day? We should have an elec/gas spend thread where everyone posts how much it costs to heat their houses every day/per unit cost. Then we could all compare and see what makes houses more/less expensive to heat!

Robin9

Zither wrote: »

I guess that means you have the heating on for about 6.5h per day? We should have an elec/gas spend thread where everyone posts how much it costs to heat their houses every day/per unit cost. Then we could all compare and see what makes houses more/less expensive to heat!

There's a wide variety of houses, flats, bungalows, terraced, cottage with varying amounts of insulation coupled with life styles of home all day, working, lots of holidays etc

Mine will be on 16 hrs a day and my budget for the year of £400 for a 1970's detached

Zither

Robin9 wrote: »

There's a wide variety of houses, flats, bungalows, terraced, cottage with varying amounts of insulation coupled with life styles of home all day, working, lots of holidays etc

Mine will be on 16 hrs a day and my budget for the year of £400 for a 1970's detached

16h a day for £400 per year? That’s amazing and useful context. Have you spent much on insulating and so on? I’m estimating about £400 just for the winter months

shortcrust

For me keeping the heating on 24 hours a day is much more expensive than heating from cold twice a day. I’d suggest keeping a close eye on the meter if you try it.

Bare in mind that the initial heating phase when the radiators are brought up to temperature from cold uses a lot of energy compared to when everything’s warmed up. An hour on constant uses less energy than two 30 minute blasts.

Zither

shortcrust wrote: »

For me keeping the heating on 24 hours a day is much more expensive than heating from cold twice a day. I’d suggest keeping a close eye on the meter if you try it.

Bare in mind that the initial heating phase when the radiators are brought up to temperature from cold uses a lot of energy compared to when everything’s warmed up. An hour on constant uses less energy than two 30 minute blasts.

Thanks - yes that makes sense. I’ve been keeping an eye on the meter and it does look like the boiler uses more units on the meter at the start compared to when it’s cycling on/off after after an hour or so. Or am I just seeing things I want to believe??!

[Deleted User]

We've been through all this so many times, it is much more expensive to leave the heating on all the time than to just switch it on when you need it and then switch it off again when you're warm enough.