New build house. Cannot heat above 18.5 degrees

ProDave

lookstraightahead said:

I've never lived in an airtight house. Reminds me of not being able to breath. Much happy with my old house with a gale running through it.

I stayed at a friends new house the other week and it really felt a bit claustrophobic.

is that how it's going to be with the new regulations? 

In an airtight house you fit a heat recovery ventilation system that silently and constantly refreshes the air inside with fresh air, but recovers most of the heat from the exhausted stale air.  So the air inside the house is always fresh and the heat recovery bit is a major part of keeping the heating bills low.

GixerKate

I have also recently bought a new build house that has two heating zones - upstairs and downstairs with two separate thermostats and its new to me too so feel your confusion.

What exactly do you need? 

We have ours set so that the heating comes on for a little bit upstairs early in the morning for when we get up and the downstairs also comes on but for less time.  In the evening we have the heating on for longer downstairs and just for a bit upstairs if it gets too cold. 

We've found the insulation excellent, it really doesn't take long at all to heat up our house to a comfortable level, can always open the windows a little for a bit of fresh air if needed (tbh we often have the windows open during the day even in winter)

GixerKate

lookstraightahead said:

I've never lived in an airtight house. Reminds me of not being able to breath. Much happy with my old house with a gale running through it.

I stayed at a friends new house the other week and it really felt a bit claustrophobic.

is that how it's going to be with the new regulations? 

Surely people can just open the windows if needed?  After living in several different homes where the drafts would move curtains, hair etc, I love the insulation in my new home where I can choose to open the windows if I need some fresh air.

ComicGeek

ProDave said:

ComicGeek said:

ProDave said:

Sigh.  A new build house, that today you really would expect it to be well insulated, and one little radiator in the hall cannot get that part of the house up to temperature.

Why am I not surprised.  Main stream builders still have not worked out how to make well insulated draught free houses that need little energy to keep them warm.

Probably a case of missing or just badly fitted insulation, there are plenty of examples.  All very sad really,

Given that the heating will be designed for the hallway to get to only 18 degrees (as per the current BS design requirements) actually this could be proof that the heating system is designed and installed correctly. 

That is an outdated idea for outdated building practices.

You have clearly never lived in a properly built modern, air tight, very well insulated, low energy house have you?

Well I live in one (self built) and the old fashioned concept of heat different rooms to different temperatures does not apply.  You simply don't get cold rooms or cold spots. The whole house stays at a comfortable temperature everywhere with not much heat input to keep it there.

What I keep pointing out is it is not expensive or difficult to build properly, and given the need to reduce energy use, it really is about time all houses were built like mine to a decent standard. But the mass market builders continue to build to the minimum standard they can get away with and we continue to see people complain about cold or expensive to heat houses.

Most people buying new would expect to get the best there is, but sadly that is not the case.

Still common practice for the main house builders. I don't disagree that homes should be built to a better standard (I'm a passivhaus consultant and do lots of low energy and zero carbon homes), but typical new build houses are nowhere near this - you can still get big temperature gradients throughout the house, and the rad for the hallway will be sized at 18 degrees to save a couple of quid per house. I know, I have to do heating calcs for some developers.

Building anything but the current methods requires good levels of site management and supervision. That part of the industry is experiencing a critical shortage, so don't expect any significant change in methods until better training is provided and younger people are encouraged to follow careers in construction. Offsite fabrication is probably the best option at the moment.

However, the main point is that the OP isn't heating upstairs, and somehow expecting the heat to stay nicely downstairs. 

tinytiddles

I’m in a new build with zoned heating and our upstairs landing radiator is part of the downstairs zone so that the whole hallway / landing space is heated at the same time (whilst the footprint of the area itself isn’t massive, ours is very open and we also have high ceilings so quite a lot of potential for the warmth to just dissipate if the space isn’t heated correctly). Maybe worth asking them to come back and check that it is connected up properly - it does happen, our flow and return were crossed over on the upstairs zone 🤦🏻‍♀️ but all easily sorted. 

getmore4less

No TRV here just a stat in the hall set to get it sort of OK temp in the other rooms , living dining with 3 rads and a kitchen off the hall downstairs 2 rooms up shut off(storage) and the two we use heated.

Programable stat to have multiple time periods with different temps.

What we do if the hall gets cold like when we unload a shop and the living room starts to get a bit warm open the door a bit to balance the heat.

If you really want to sort it out one option is to upgrade to programable TRV so any one off them can call for heat and stick one on the hall rad as well.

Then you can set the temp required at different times for each room.

[Deleted User]

Upstairs/downstairs zones... Someone doesn't understand that heat rises.

Catman5000

Put in a bigger rad for sure. r add another rad if there is space. Just be sure to check where the plumbing is going etc etc. We are having to do the same in our place as the downstairs has only two small radiators and it is bloody baltic in here! 

Underfloor heating is the dream option tbh but it means lots of work and cost! 

Hope you find your warmth soon! 

[Deleted User]

Catman5000 said:

Put in a bigger rad for sure. r add another rad if there is space. Just be sure to check where the plumbing is going etc etc. We are having to do the same in our place as the downstairs has only two small radiators and it is bloody baltic in here! 

Underfloor heating is the dream option tbh but it means lots of work and cost! 

Hope you find your warmth soon! 

Given that it's a brand new house I'd be asking the developer to fix it, and also wondering why they didn't just install underfloor heating during the build.

paddytt

ps2mint said:

Thanks for all of the comments. Has been an interesting read.

To confirm, there is no thermostatic valve on the hall radiator. It’s simply on when the heating is on.

could you borrow an electric / oil heater and set it up by the hall radiator, to test and see what happens?