One room is always cold

CreditCardJunkie

Does anyone have any tips or advice? We live in an end terrace house. Our main bedroom has 3 outside walls the way the house is shaped. The bedroom is cold all year round but already it is unbearably cold. The gas heating is set at 19.5 on constant. All the other rooms are a decent temperature but the main bedroom is so cold and the bedsheets are cold to touch. To be honest we can't really afford to run the heating much higher than this as the gas costs are crazy at the moment. The windows are soaking wet on the inside some morning so we bought a really decent dehumidifier last year and I run it for 2 hours in the morning.

Loft insulation was checked a couple of years ago and was fine, cavity wall insulation can't be topped up apparently because there was some sort of wire wool type insulation installed years ago. I was told this would all first need to be removed and it would cost thousands.

Brie

under the sheet heating pad so at least the bed is warm at night for sleeping??

x_raphael_xx

Those little oil filled radiators work wonders. We have a big open plan office that is freezing in the winter. 3 of these dotted around the office really helps.

https://www.diy.com/departments/electric-11-fin-2-5kw-oil-filled-radiator-portable-heater-with-3-heat-settings-adjustable-thermostat-overheat-safety-cut-out/5053335917661_BQ.prd

I have one in my computer room at home for the winter, and it keeps a nice steady warmth, without having to heat the whole house

CreditCardJunkie

Brie said:

under the sheet heating pad so at least the bed is warm at night for sleeping??

An electric blanket or something else?

CreditCardJunkie

x_raphael_xx said:

Those little oil filled radiators work wonders. We have a big open plan office that is freezing in the winter. 3 of these dotted around the office really helps.

https://www.diy.com/departments/electric-11-fin-2-5kw-oil-filled-radiator-portable-heater-with-3-heat-settings-adjustable-thermostat-overheat-safety-cut-out/5053335917661_BQ.prd

I have one in my computer room at home for the winter, and it keeps a nice steady warmth, without having to heat the whole house

Thank you! I actually thought these were really expensive to run but Google doesn't seem to think so!

FreeBear

If the bedroom is not getting up to temperature, it suggests that the radiator is too small for the room or poorly balanced. One of three fixes

1. Bleed and balance all the radiators (time consuming & fiddly) [afterthought - You might have a stuck TRV if the radiator is not getting hot]
   
2. Install a larger radiator (after doing a proper heat loss calculation*).
3. Insulate the walls (50-75mm of Celotex type boards).

Depending on the age of the windows, it may pay to fit low-E sealed units (cheaper than replacing the whole window), and replace the mastic around the frame.

I had a cold north facing room that never warmed up properly despite having a large radiator. Replaced the window which killed off some nasty draughts coming in around the frame. then went on to fix 75mm of Celotex to the walls. Now have a tiny little radiator in there, and the room stays nice & warm even with ice on the outside of the window.

*) https://www.stelrad.com/basic-heat-loss-calculator/ - This will give you a good idea of what size radiator to use. It tends to over estimate, which isn't a bad thing.

x_raphael_xx

CreditCardJunkie said:

x_raphael_xx said:

Those little oil filled radiators work wonders. We have a big open plan office that is freezing in the winter. 3 of these dotted around the office really helps.

https://www.diy.com/departments/electric-11-fin-2-5kw-oil-filled-radiator-portable-heater-with-3-heat-settings-adjustable-thermostat-overheat-safety-cut-out/5053335917661_BQ.prd

I have one in my computer room at home for the winter, and it keeps a nice steady warmth, without having to heat the whole house

Thank you! I actually thought these were really expensive to run but Google doesn't seem to think so!

I think because the oil holds the heat for a while, they don't need that much power through them. They emit a low steady warmth, rather than a blast from an electric fan.
In a closed room they soon take the chill out of the air, without making the room to hot, dry and stuffy.

ThisIsWeird

Hi CCJ.
From what you describe, it would suggest there's an inherent issue with that room, most likely due to a lack of effective insulation, possibly an element of house direction, and also possible that it's naturally more draughty, say by air percolating through the floor. You say it's colder all year round, so it's not down to a lack of heating.
Ideally, then, you'd tackle the problem by adding insulation. The most effective way is to line the insides of the external walls. Is there any reason why this cannot be done? Also worth sheeting the floor and sealing it around its perimeter, in case draughts are making it worse.
Ok, the above is probably the 'solution', but it won't be cheap, and it will be disruptive.
So, the advice by others is good - heat only what needs heating, and when. But a couple of digital plug-in timers, and put on on yer leccy blanket, and one supplying an oil-filled rad.
Bear in mind that a 2kW oil-filled will consume as much leccy as a 2kW fan, bar or convect, but they do tend to be more even in how they heat a room.
So I'd set the o-f and blanket to both come on between a half and one hour before bedtime, and the o-f ditto before getting up. Keep your bedroom window on trickle overnight, and crack it even further during the day when the room isn't being used, and close the door to it - let it vent fully to keep it dry. It'll be cold in there, but dry.
I'd close the window when the o-f comes on in the eve, but crack it open again overnight - you'll be snuggled under a duvet by this stage.

CreditCardJunkie

FreeBear said:

If the bedroom is not getting up to temperature, it suggests that the radiator is too small for the room or poorly balanced. One of three fixes

1. Bleed and balance all the radiators (time consuming & fiddly) [afterthought - You might have a stuck TRV if the radiator is not getting hot]
   
2. Install a larger radiator (after doing a proper heat loss calculation*).
3. Insulate the walls (50-75mm of Celotex type boards).

Depending on the age of the windows, it may pay to fit low-E sealed units (cheaper than replacing the whole window), and replace the mastic around the frame.

I had a cold north facing room that never warmed up properly despite having a large radiator. Replaced the window which killed off some nasty draughts coming in around the frame. then went on to fix 75mm of Celotex to the walls. Now have a tiny little radiator in there, and the room stays nice & warm even with ice on the outside of the window.

*) https://www.stelrad.com/basic-heat-loss-calculator/ - This will give you a good idea of what size radiator to use. It tends to over estimate, which isn't a bad thing.

Brilliant thank you so much this is really helpful! The room is also north facing and the houses in front block a lot of the light so the sun doesn't shine into this room for very long!

CreditCardJunkie

ThisIsWeird said:

Hi CCJ.
From what you describe, it would suggest there's an inherent issue with that room, most likely due to a lack of effective insulation, possibly an element of house direction, and also possible that it's naturally more draughty, say by air percolating through the floor. You say it's colder all year round, so it's not down to a lack of heating.
Ideally, then, you'd tackle the problem by adding insulation. The most effective way is to line the insides of the external walls. Is there any reason why this cannot be done? Also worth sheeting the floor and sealing it around its perimeter, in case draughts are making it worse.
Ok, the above is probably the 'solution', but it won't be cheap, and it will be disruptive.
So, the advice by others is good - heat only what needs heating, and when. But a couple of digital plug-in timers, and put on on yer leccy blanket, and one supplying an oil-filled rad.
Bear in mind that a 2kW oil-filled will consume as much leccy as a 2kW fan, bar or convect, but they do tend to be more even in how they heat a room.
So I'd set the o-f and blanket to both come on between a half and one hour before bedtime, and the o-f ditto before getting up. Keep your bedroom window on trickle overnight, and crack it even further during the day when the room isn't being used, and close the door to it - let it vent fully to keep it dry. It'll be cold in there, but dry.
I'd close the window when the o-f comes on in the eve, but crack it open again overnight - you'll be snuggled under a duvet by this stage.

Thank you so much! Yes this room is north facing and doesn't get much sunlight due to the position of the houses in front.

Insulation wise to be honest we don't want to put much more money into this house. It's 2 bedroom and we've recently had another child (we have a boy and a girl) so we will need to move as soon as we can afford to.

So are you saying keep the window open until bedtime? We have vents in the windows but we keep them closed permanently as the draught is shocking?

ThisIsWeird

CreditCardJunkie said:

Thank you so much! Yes this room is north facing and doesn't get much sunlight due to the position of the houses in front.

Insulation wise to be honest we don't want to put much more money into this house. It's 2 bedroom and we've recently had another child (we have a boy and a girl) so we will need to move as soon as we can afford to.

So are you saying keep the window open until bedtime? We have vents in the windows but we keep them closed permanently as the draught is shocking?

There are two basic ways in which a room can be too cold - one is inadequate insulation, and the other is ditto heating. Based on the above - and assuming the radiator in that room does heat up as well as the others in your house - it's pretty clearly the former - a room that's very hard to heat up.

So, my recommendations were all about managing it as best as possible - making it liveable-in, preventing any damage or deterioration, and doing this as cheaply as possible.

And the essence of doing it as cheaply as possible comes down to only heating it when it is actually needed, and letting it look after itself the rest of the time.

A room can be left unheated without any issues, provided it is well ventilated - that's the secret. Yes, that will make it feel colder than ever, but at least it'll be dry. If you, instead, close the windows and leave the door open, it'll become a magnet for all the warm moist air in the rest of the house, where it'll condense out as it's the coldest room.

Apart from the moist air from the rest of the house - washing, cooking, showering, clothes drying, hot bodies, etc - the other main cause of running windows is the moisture given out by breathing, overnight. You can prove this to yourself easily by keeping your bedroom windows fully closed overnight, and repeating with the windows on 'vent'. The latter will wake you up to a colder room, but I bet the windows won't be 'running'.

So, work out when you need heat - I'd suggest only as before. Make life easy by using a plug-in timer for this.

All-night blankets leave no excuse for being cold overnight, and cost pennies to run. A wee blast of heating in the morning will make it a pleasant place to wake up in. Ok, it might not actually be 'warm', but it should take the chill off.

Yes, you could use the existing radiator to do this job, but that will mean turning it on and off every day - a pitb.

When you move, check the insulation levels of your new place closely! Or, factor in having it improved at an early stage. It is disruptive, yes, but actually quite easy, to insulate a room well.