Draughty Bungalow

AllNancy

I live in a very drafty bungalow and despite new doors, renewed wall insulation, draft excluders, air bricks removed etc etc. it is still with me. I have oil central heating and it's battling to keep the place warm against the odds.

I have noticed that when I switch the heating off the draft stops, which doesn't make sense.

Is there a heating engineer out there for whom it does make sense?


Nancy

Alter_ego

I'm not a heating eng, but combustion needs a flow of air.


Removing air bricks is very unwise.

grumbler

AllNancy wrote: »

I have noticed that when I switch the heating off the draft stops, which doesn't make sense.

Can it be that hot air goes to the loft?

tonyh66

Second removing airbricks causes damp problems. Is the loft well insulated? Do you close all the doors? Are all the rads working correctly? If yes to the questions you might need to consider other heaters like oil filled rads .

shortcrust

Alter_ego wrote: »

I'm not a heating eng, but combustion needs a flow of air.


Removing air bricks is very unwise.

Presumably there’s a flue just like gas heating?

Three years ago I removed a couple of poorly placed and/or obsolete air bricks without any problems. My bathroom might have needed the wind whistling through before central heating but it doesn’t need it today.

I think grumbler might be on to something.

Aylesbury_Duck

I think grumbler is on the right lines. When the heating is on, convection currents are moving air around and what you're feeling is that air movement manifesting as draughts.

I'm another who thinks removing air bricks is a bad idea.

Alter_ego

shortcrust wrote: »

Presumably there’s a flue just like gas heating?

Of course there's a flue That's where the gases go out. The draughts are the air coming in to feed the boiler. Combustion needs Oxygen (air) Fuel and Heat.
I am not a heating engineer but was a firefighter.

grumbler

Alter_ego wrote: »

Of course there's a flue That's where the gases go out.

Modern ones are double - letting both the air in and the gases out.

sevenhills

AllNancy wrote: »

I have noticed that when I switch the heating off the draft stops, which doesn't make sense.

That must be a big draft, if you lit a ciggarette can you see the smoke flowing in a certain direction?
My house is cold, the seals on the double glazed windows are poor, but I cannot feel a draft.