What's the latest knowledge on how not heating a brick terraced house will affect it.

ElaniArtin

Once an older council repair guy told me about how the houses were built with the fireplaces heating the air in the double walls and how this kept it 'healthy' sort of. Now with the chimneys removed and central heating installed they will be susceptable to mould and other ills. So my question is: if I do not heat it this winter, how will that affect my house, and should I heat it up once a week or something?

Netexporter

Not heating your house will damage your health. Unless you've had the house insulated and drought-proofed to EnerPHit standards you will still have more than enough ventilation (draughts). Get a dehumidifier to keep relative humidity down and you won't get condensation problems.

matelodave

Are you living in the house or is it empty.

Not heating a place will just encourage damp and mould unless its very well ventilated.

FreeBear

ElaniArtin said: So my question is: if I do not heat it this winter, how will that affect my house, and should I heat it up once a week or something?

I had a small room here that had been used as a dumping ground for tat'n'stuff whilst working on other parts of the house. The radiator had been turned off and the windows & door kept shut. Helped by a cold draught coming in around the window frame, it got flippin' cold in there during the winter. In all, a recipe of condensation.

Finally got round to clearing the stuff out of there with the intention of decorating and making use of the space. Window was replaced with a well fitted DG unit (that killed the draughts). Went to strip the wallpaper off the walls, and had big chunks of plaster falling away. Also found rot in some of the wood trim around the window reveal (some of it was probably historical). Ended up gutting the room completely, insulating the walls, and replastering before decorating - Could have saved myself a lot of trouble, effort, and expense if the room had been heated properly and ventilated.

If you are living in the house, keep the whole place heated to a reasonable temperature (16-18°C works for me). Just heating up once a week still leaves six days for condensation to settle and start causing damage (mould is just one problem). Some will suggest opening all the windows and keep the heating off, and you'll avoid damp. But if one wanted to live like that, you may as well live in a shed at the bottom of the garden.

ElaniArtin

FreeBear said:

ElaniArtin said: So my question is: if I do not heat it this winter, how will that affect my house, and should I heat it up once a week or something?

I had a small room here that had been used as a dumping ground for tat'n'stuff whilst working on other parts of the house. The radiator had been turned off and the windows & door kept shut. Helped by a cold draught coming in around the window frame, it got flippin' cold in there during the winter. In all, a recipe of condensation.

Finally got round to clearing the stuff out of there with the intention of decorating and making use of the space. Window was replaced with a well fitted DG unit (that killed the draughts). Went to strip the wallpaper off the walls, and had big chunks of plaster falling away. Also found rot in some of the wood trim around the window reveal (some of it was probably historical). Ended up gutting the room completely, insulating the walls, and replastering before decorating - Could have saved myself a lot of trouble, effort, and expense if the room had been heated properly and ventilated.

If you are living in the house, keep the whole place heated to a reasonable temperature (16-18°C works for me). Just heating up once a week still leaves six days for condensation to settle and start causing damage (mould is just one problem). Some will suggest opening all the windows and keep the heating off, and you'll avoid damp. But if one wanted to live like that, you may as well live in a shed at the bottom of the garden.

That's a complete answer I was asking for! Thanks!

Ectophile

That may have been true in Roman times, where the hypocaust heating system had flues running up through hollow walls.

But a conventional cavily wall house should never have any connection between the fireplace chimney and the cavity wall.