How does anyone retain heat in an Edwardian House?

thedrumdoctor

Magnitio said:

Do you have sufficiently large rooms for internal wall insulation? Or would that affect the "character" of the rooms? You might find this of interest:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1019707/iwi-guidance.pdf

Thanks, that's really interesting and making me wonder about it as a solution. I'm not that bothered about retaining the 'character' as all the so-called 'character' has long been ripped out of it internally. But a project like that would have to be done by a proper company and not some fly-by-night cowboys.

thedrumdoctor

Novice_investor101 said:

...the boiler (on its current settings) struggles to get the house warmed up quickly. It’ll go from 13c overnight to 16c pretty quickly then takes an age to get to 18.5c before the thermostat clicks it off. In December I turned the flow temp up to max instead of 70c just to get the building heated up again quickly. The insulation was to code in 2013 when a new roof went on. The frost on the roof doesn’t melt any quicker than other house though.

I'll be honest with you, I'm absolutely dumb when it comes to understanding anything about how to make my boiler work for me! I have its heat dial set to a point where it makes the hot water a decent temp and then leave it at that. I associate turning the dial any further to the right with burning lots of gas!

BUFF

what make/model of boiler do you have?
do you have a programmer & room stat(s) in addition to your TRVs?

How much gas do you use annually?

thedrumdoctor

macman said:

I'm wondering why you spent out  on replacing 14 rads, but haven't changed the boiler?

The rads are the same age as the boiler! 

The system has one of those ferrous collectors as well - for what it may be worth.

The boiler definitely needs replacing but the gas scenario seems so uncertain. Whilst gas maybe cheaper than electricity right now, if there's going to be no more investment in the gas industry then renewable electricity will drive the market.

Internal wall insulation or exterior cladding appeals to me for better heat retention. At least that would delay having to make a rushed choice about changing the heat source before I’ve taken steps to improve the efficiency of the building.

thedrumdoctor

BUFF said:

Out of interest what temperature are you heating to & is that the same in all rooms?
Do you keep internal doors shut so that different spaces are at different temps.?

The thermostat for the boiler is in the hallway on the ground-floor and is set to 19c. The thermostats on the radiators don't have temp gauges on them, only simple 1-6 dial settings. Not all of the internal doors are shut because we have cats and dogs, so you can never tell if you've shut a cat in a room. The cats also need 24/7 access to the cat-flap. Yes, keeping all the doors shut would be best during this weather, but it's simply not practical with animals. We do tend to keep doors shut in rooms we are using for extended periods, like the lounge in the evening. These houses were only designed for heating one room at a time anyway!

Unless you can get some form of grant it's unlikely to be cost effective to go with EWI unless you can put up with a likely ROI of 20+ years.

I didn't realise I was looking at a solar-panel type level of investment on cladding or IWI...That ROI time-scale makes it a better idea to ditch the house with its 'desirable' postcode and find a property built for modern living.

BUFF

So what do you have the TRVs set to? As a very rough guide (it does vary by manufacturer), 1 is usually in the region of 10-12C, 3 is usually in the region of 18-20C & the top (can be 5 or 6 depending upon manufacturer) is usually in the region of 28-30C.

I live in an Edwardian (1905) stone/brick/slate house albeit a 3 bed mid-terrace, I do understand.
At least you got to fit modern DG, I live in a Conservation Area & can't on the main elevation.

thedrumdoctor

mumf said:

We are in a1904 terrace. Like others ,we have neighbours,and on one side one can feel the heat from their radiator (s) on the wall. That’s good! 

Another thing about ALL houses too : folks need to wear clothes!  The neighbour who heats that wall of ours is a fitness / bodybuilder. Only wears shorts and t shirt,then moans about bills! My wife has colleagues like that too. 

I grew up in a Victorian terraced house and being sandwiched definitely retained the heat.

The lack of clothes observation on some blokes means it's not just me thinking the same thing. During the cold-snap in December I remember nipping out to the local Sainsbury mini-mart and seeing a man get out of his Range Rover bling wagon wearing shorts, a T-shirt and a pair of those ugly 'sliders'. It just didn't make sense. I'm not sure if was a "look how much money I have to be able to walk from my house to my car dressed like this" statement. I don't really dig this 21st century shorts-in-the-winter scene....

thedrumdoctor

justwhat said:

You pull it apart and insulate. Even doing just floor insulation helps.

I have lived in a few period houses. In my opinion they are not built for the way we live today. So you need to either alter them or change your lifestyle.

Most in the past were heated with dry heat and the house was allowed too breath. These 2 things don't sit well with many peoples life styles.
High percentage of the heat is wasted by todays standards. 

What you have done with the attic conversion needs done in whole house and you may have condensation problems, unless addressed.

In an ideal world, yes, I'd rip it apart and insulate. You're spot on about the period house thing as well. I mean, it's not so bad when there's an actively competitive energy market but this 2022 situation has proved that we have come to the end of an era. Northern hemisphere living is going to get colder and more expensive.

thedrumdoctor

Raxiel said:

We got internal insulation fitted this last summer. They added 62mm board (50mm insulation) to all the external faces.

Its made quite a difference to the temperature in these cold snaps.

This is something I'm going to be exploring - even though we had the lounge redecorated in November!

macman

thedrumdoctor said:

macman said:

I'm wondering why you spent out  on replacing 14 rads, but haven't changed the boiler?

The rads are the same age as the boiler! 

The system has one of those ferrous collectors as well - for what it may be worth.

The boiler definitely needs replacing but the gas scenario seems so uncertain. Whilst gas maybe cheaper than electricity right now, if there's going to be no more investment in the gas industry then renewable electricity will drive the market.

Internal wall insulation or exterior cladding appeals to me for better heat retention. At least that would delay having to make a rushed choice about changing the heat source before I’ve taken steps to improve the efficiency of the building.

There will be gas boilers still being installed for decades to come, just not in new builds post-2030. There may be some hydrogen added to the methane mix, if enough green hydrogen can be manufactured. Clean electricity will become a larger part of the mix, but gas will still be needed: the majority of UK houses are heated and hot watered with it. Electricity is still 250% more expensive than mains gas: do you really think that gulf is going to be closed any time soon? 
Installing a more efficient condensing boiler and controls has never been so cost-effective, as at current unit prices you will earn the capital expenditure back very quickly.