How fast does your house cool down ?

GingerTim

ajbrowc said:

I'm in a 2014 south facing second floor flat. Indoor temp is still 21C despite not using the heating at all so far this winter. On a sunny day it goes up to 23C, then back down to 21C overnight. Not sure if the neighbours keep their flats at sauna temperatures, or the building is still holding warmth from the summer heatwave. Usually it's cooler by now.

More or less the same, though a 2019 first floor flat and at a solid 21 degrees without the need for any heating so far. 

My neighbours on the ground floor are less fortunate as they are over the underground car-park.

jacko220

Depends upon two things, first of all the Construction and what is known as the U-value of the construction measured in Watts/,^2/Deg C, that is how many watts the construction will loose per square metre of area per Degree Centigrade of difference between inside and outside , the Deg K that is sometimes used is Degree Kelvin the difference in Deg K and Deg C is the same it starts from a difference place. The next is how leaky the house is due to air leaking from the house. I lectured in this for nearly 40 years, if anybody wants to ask questions please feel free. It also depends on the Admittance value of the structure, that is how much heat is stored by the insides of a building, If you wish to ask questions please feel free.

Max68

I'm in a 1969 mid terrace.  Batch of four of us all the same style house so will chat with neighbours on end terrace this weekend to see how they are faring.  22 year old Potterton gas boiler, new loft insulation put in 12 years ago but at the time the company said my walls were too thin for cavity wall insulation.  Recently had a survey done by Warmer Homes hoping to get one of their grants for improving my house efficiency.  The guy who did the survey said the brick walls first floor "can" take cavity insulation but the upstairs concrete walls can't.  Keeping my fingers crossed I can get the downstairs done and I might also qualify for solar panels.

Last couple of months I've managed with not much heating with the thermostat showing around 16c without heating at night.  Last night got in from work and a timed blast had got the house to about 17.5c.  It was probably 16.5 by the time I went to bed at midnight.  Awoke around 3pm and it was cold.  Checked the thermostat on the landing and it said 13.0c which is a big drop. Had it come on for an hour this morning on a timer for an hour, but after an hour it had only got up to around 15c so it may have dropped even colder at dawn.  Have again put the heating on and it's slowly come up to 16.5.  Surveyor reckoned my house is Energy Rating D.  Will be investing in an electric throw!

SensibleSarah

With central heating (not on all the time - I don't have a thermostat so it's either on or off), my house is currently only reaching about 15 degrees max (14.6 today after 3 hours of heating), and last night it took about 3 hours after the heating went off to drop to 11.5 degrees. Was just over 10 degrees in the lounge when I got up this morning before the heating came on (about -3 outside at that point). 1930s mid-terrace with very old upvc windows and doors and a big dog flap that can't be helping Internal doors always open for the pets to move around at will. My electric heated throw is keeping me sane while I work from home. Genuinely a gamechanger. 

MattMattMattUK

FreeBear said:

An interesting map from the BBC a couple of weeks back - The data is a little misleading as it doesn't take in to account the average outside temperature. Italy is always going to be warmer than Sweden or the UK on average... So a question - How fast does your home cool down overnight without the heating on ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-60289396

I suspect that there would be a wider differential in the UK between the top 10% of homes and the bottom 10% of homes. Whilst we do not have many of the high performance homes at the top that many have in Europe I would guess that that bottom of homes in the UK are huge underperformers. We have huge chunks of the housing stock which are completely sub-standard but there is little incentive to improve it, the owners do not live in it an so do not have to pay the energy bills and there is no energy efficiency requirement on rented properties which exists in other European countries.  

diystarter7

Hi
It depends on what room we are in. As we have wall of glass on the ground floor and big windows, as soon as sun is down in winter you can tell within a mo.

Thanks

Max68

SensibleSarah said:

With central heating (not on all the time - I don't have a thermostat so it's either on or off), my house is currently only reaching about 15 degrees max (14.6 today after 3 hours of heating), and last night it took about 3 hours after the heating went off to drop to 11.5 degrees. Was just over 10 degrees in the lounge when I got up this morning before the heating came on (about -3 outside at that point). 1930s mid-terrace with very old upvc windows and doors and a big dog flap that can't be helping Internal doors always open for the pets to move around at will. My electric heated throw is keeping me sane while I work from home. Genuinely a gamechanger. 

Sarah, would you mind letting me know what throw you purchased?  I've had a look and there are so many, inexpensive, expensive, good reviews, poor reviews - it's a bit of a minefield working out what to go for!  Thank you.

SensibleSarah

Max68 said:

Sarah, would you mind letting me know what throw you purchased?  I've had a look and there are so many, inexpensive, expensive, good reviews, poor reviews - it's a bit of a minefield working out what to go for!  Thank you.

I bought mine in August in preparation and sure enough, they have more or less doubled in price since then across the board. The exact same one as mine doesn't seem to be available anymore (I paid £35) but it's not a big brand one. Looks very similar to the large Mia & Coco one sold on Amazon which is about £60-70 depending on which day you look. Before buying, I checked the reviews and went for one that was kind of middle of the road in terms of price and reviews at the time. I know that Adsa do sell the Silentnight one for about £30 a pop and Aldi also sometimes sell it even cheaper, but it always goes out of stock quickly. 

Mine heats up fairly quickly and evenly - I use another normal throw on top of it so all the heat doesn't just escape on the side that's open to the air. I use it on the medium heat setting (3 out of 6) as anything higher is too warm for me and pretty much have it on for 12 hours a day while I'm working and then when sat watching TV in the evenings. It shuts off automatically every couple of hours as a safety feature, so I just switch back on as soon as I start feeling cooler but it retains a good amount of heat for half an hour or so after switching off with that other throw over the top. 

RelievedSheff

Deleted_User said:

jacko220 said:

Depends upon two things, first of all the Construction and what is known as the U-value of the construction measured in Watts/,^2/Deg C, that is how many watts the construction will loose per square metre of area per Degree Centigrade of difference between inside and outside , the Deg K that is sometimes used is Degree Kelvin the difference in Deg K and Deg C is the same it starts from a difference place. The next is how leaky the house is due to air leaking from the house. I lectured in this for nearly 40 years, if anybody wants to ask questions please feel free. It also depends on the Admittance value of the structure, that is how much heat is stored by the insides of a building, If you wish to ask questions please feel free.

And another question that is baffling me. My street has 14 x 20 year old bungalows with concrete tile roofs. Some people have added to the loft insulation to get it up to standard. Others haven't. ALL houses have thick frost on them when temps are below zero overnight and NONE thaw out faster than others. 

That's an easy one to answer.

They are constructed with a "cold roof space". I.E the insulation is laid over the ceiling joists so that the roof space is left unheated.

Doesn't matter how much insulation they put up there, it will still be a cold space.

FreeBear

MattMattMattUK said:

FreeBear said:

An interesting map from the BBC a couple of weeks back - The data is a little misleading as it doesn't take in to account the average outside temperature. Italy is always going to be warmer than Sweden or the UK on average... So a question - How fast does your home cool down overnight without the heating on ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-60289396

I suspect that there would be a wider differential in the UK between the top 10% of homes and the bottom 10% of homes. Whilst we do not have many of the high performance homes at the top that many have in Europe I would guess that that bottom of homes in the UK are huge underperformers. We have huge chunks of the housing stock which are completely sub-standard but there is little incentive to improve it, the owners do not live in it an so do not have to pay the energy bills and there is no energy efficiency requirement on rented properties which exists in other European countries.  

I would agree that we (as a nation) do have a lot of poor performing homes. But with energy costs increasing, there is a very real incentive to insulate. We also have a minimum EPC requirement for rented accommodation which is due to get a bit tougher in 2025 - Whether that will be incentive enough for landlords, only time will tell.

One thing I have learnt from this thread, is that my home is performing quite a bit better than some. I had inherited this place a few years back and have been slowly catching up on maintenance and making modest improvements when time & budget allowed. Didn't think that what I have done to date has made that much difference, but feedback says otherwise.