My House is taking ages to heat up

PasturesNew

Ms01ma wrote: »

... with a 3 year old 16 is too cold....

Please don't make me type up stories about the ice on the inside of bedroom windows every winter for older generations

Nor mention the Winter of 1962 when the "lucky ones" had 1930s built council houses with a small open fire in one room and single glazing

I believe past generations managed to live, else we'd not be here.

Ms01ma

RelievedSheff wrote: »

What thickness do you have in the loft? You can always add extra for not a lot of money. The recommended thickness for loft insulation has increased over the years.

I'm surprised you say you have cavity insulation because our old large villa was solid 210mm brick wall with no cavity (well there is a tiny cavity between the two skins of brick but it certainly could not have been insulated!

Do you have double glazing? If not could you fit some temporary secondary glazing to the rooms that you use?

As others have said sealing off draughts will also help keep the heat where you want it.

We had TRV's fitted to all of the rads in the villa and turned them right down in the rooms that we did not use so we were not wasting heat to heat rooms we would not use. This did help a little bit.

Like you though we were using circa 35000kwh of gas to heat that villa. When we moved to the 1930's semi that dropped drastically to 12000kwh. We don't know how much we will use in the new build yet over the winter but since May we have used 780kwh which is considerably less than we would have used for the same period in the 1930's house.

Hi yes it definitely has a cavity which I agree is odd but apparently some of the houses did (the little white balls are everywhere lol)

I have full double glazing apart from 2 portholes on the side of the house which seems pretty decent

Just need to plug the gaps and probably move the thermostat like someone has said what’s the point in heating the hall (it’s the size of about 2 living rooms in itself)

phoebe1989seb

When we owned our 350 sq m detached Victorian house we fitted large cast iron radiators in the ground floor rooms. These held the heat much better than modern rads, imho.

We did occasionally light open fires in the large reception rooms but mainly on special occasions and it didn't make a massive difference. We later fitted chimney sheep/balloons which helped with drafts.

The massive hallway was never really warm despite several radiators but thick interlined curtains helped, as did keeping doors shut. We only had double glazing at the back (conservation area) but again had thick curtains and lots of thick woollen carpets/rugs. We topped up insulation in the attic too.

We also turned off the rads in the rooms we weren't using - there were just the three of us in a six bedroom house most of the time - to save on the heating bills. Despite that they were very high.

Later we bought a smaller (250 sq m) Georgian stone thatched house with a huge 16 kw wood burner. That house got warm far quicker and always felt very toasty despite a fairly open plan layout downstairs. In fact the over insulated extension we built was often unbearably hot even in winter.

Some houses are just inherently cold, imho.......as our current tiny by comparison (140 sq m) detached 400 year old cottage proves. Only when both wood burners are lit does it get truly toasty, yet we have masses of insulation (double the recommended thickness) and thick interlined curtains everywhere. We're hoping that the timber double glazed windows we've ordered will help, lol!

dunroving

Have you calculated whether your radiators are big enough in each room, and whether your boiler is big enough to generate sufficient heat? There are BTU calculators available online. You enter details of each room, and it tells you what size radiator you need. I believe if you add up the BTUs needed in each house, this tells you the (minimum?) size boiler you need.

BTUs can be converted to kw by dividing by 3,412.

If you discount other performance issues (settings, bleeding rads, etc.) it may simply be your CH heating isn't sufficiently "powered". I have a 28kw boiler in my 3BR semi, and your house is at least 50% larger.

RelievedSheff

dunroving wrote: »

Have you calculated whether your radiators are big enough in each room, and whether your boiler is big enough to generate sufficient heat? There are BTU calculators available online. You enter details of each room, and it tells you what size radiator you need. I believe if you add up the BTUs needed in each house, this tells you the (minimum?) size boiler you need.

BTUs can be converted to kw by dividing by 3,412.

If you discount other performance issues (settings, bleeding rads, etc.) it may simply be your CH heating isn't sufficiently "powered". I have a 28kw boiler in my 3BR semi, and your house is at least 50% larger.

That is a very valid point. We have a 35kw boiler in our 900sq ft (83sq m) detached house!

28kw seems mighty small for a large old house.

FreeBear

Ms01ma wrote: »

In the kitchen we only have room for 1 it’s quite large but it’s got 3 exterior walls and a massive vaulted ceiling with lots of windows

Have a look at a plinth (or kickstrip) heater - They fit in to the space under the kitchen units and can be plumbed in to your central heating system as long as the pipes are conveniently located. A good one is not particularly cheap, but having warm air blowing across the floor makes up for it. Fitted one in my kitchen quite a few years back. When I remodeled the kitchen two years ago (was it really that long), the plinth heater was the only thing I retained. Got rid of the wall hung radiator and reworked the plumbing to suit.

coffeehound

A ceiling fan to 'de-stratify' (blow the warm air downward) in the kitchen or living room would help with high ceilings, too.

fred_jackson

As it's getting colder, try setting a timer for the heating to come on periodically throughout the day whilst you're at work. That way it won't take as long to heat up and secondly, you won't use that much energy. Because heating your home from stone cold requires more effort therefore will use more energy because it has to work harder. I hope that helps!

coffeehound

Given that convected warm air is unhelpful with high ceilings, one further thing that might help is to close off the back of the radiator to inhibit convection, and aim to take most heat as radiated only.

Ms01ma

dunroving wrote: »

Have you calculated whether your radiators are big enough in each room, and whether your boiler is big enough to generate sufficient heat? There are BTU calculators available online. You enter details of each room, and it tells you what size radiator you need. I believe if you add up the BTUs needed in each house, this tells you the (minimum?) size boiler you need.

BTUs can be converted to kw by dividing by 3,412.

If you discount other performance issues (settings, bleeding rads, etc.) it may simply be your CH heating isn't sufficiently "powered". I have a 28kw boiler in my 3BR semi, and your house is at least 50% larger.

I’ll check my boiler and make sure I’m saying the right thing lol