Saving heat with carpets?

michael079

Hi, I posted last year about how our dial is up all the time on full, but the living room still doesn't warm up enough at times, esp winter. 

It's my mum's house, she has Parkinson's and we have a live in carer, so I'm trying to make it warmer. Other rooms in the house have carpets and seem to get very warm with radiator on. 

The living room doesn't, and we have natural wooden floorboards.

Is it possible a carpet could improve it a lot? It is bigger than the other rooms that stay warm, but I've read it's a good insulator? 

Largs

Hi.  I have wooden flooring in my main living area and yes, the floor is cold, especially this week.  I have have had to put my slippers on as my feet were cold with the heating on and socks.  I personally would not swap though for spillages and stuff.  I spend most time in here so the carpet would be rubbish by now.  So a carpet would help, not sure if "a lot" but it sounds like you want to make your mum as comfortable as possible so in you situation, I think carpeting would be better.  One last thing I remember being told.  Underlay is as important as the carpet.  Don't scrimp on the underlay.  Best of luck.

Spoonie_Turtle

A carpet and good underlay can truly make a huge difference.  Especially if by wooden floorboards you mean just the bare floor.

michael079

Spoonie_Turtle said:

A carpet and good underlay can truly make a huge difference.  Especially if by wooden floorboards you mean just the bare floor.

Yeah, the bare floor. My mum's always had it like that, and recently I got them sanded and varnished again. But I think we can do without them for a bit of warmth 😂 it's always been a challenge in this room, would be great to solve it, I just never thought of carpet before, but maybe the answer was beneath my feet all along and so obvious. 

michael079

Largs said:

Hi.  I have wooden flooring in my main living area and yes, the floor is cold, especially this week.  I have have had to put my slippers on as my feet were cold with the heating on and socks.  I personally would not swap though for spillages and stuff.  I spend most time in here so the carpet would be rubbish by now.  So a carpet would help, not sure if "a lot" but it sounds like you want to make your mum as comfortable as possible so in you situation, I think carpeting would be better.  One last thing I remember being told.  Underlay is as important as the carpet.  Don't scrimp on the underlay.  Best of luck.

Yeah I worried about spillages, and also the Sara steady machine they use to transfer her sometimes, I don't know what that will be like on carpet, but I guess it must work for others, as long as get the right carpet

Hoenir

Have you considered using a rug (or two even) strategically placed.  Get a reasonable quality though. 

FreeBear

Spoonie_Turtle said:

A carpet and good underlay can truly make a huge difference.  Especially if by wooden floorboards you mean just the bare floor.

I covered the (suspended) timber floor in my lounge with aluminium foil - The extra wide stuff used for cooking your Christmas turkey. On top of that went 5mm woodfibre boards (the stuff used as laminate underlay), followed by 11m foam carpet underlay. The gripper rods around the perimeter of the room had to be screwed down rather than nailed, but this wasn't a difficult task (used 25mm screws). Once the carpet went down, it felt real nice under foot, and the room is so much easier to keep warm. Much of the reason for that is the multiple layers killing any draughts coming up through the gaps in the floorboards.

michael079

FreeBear said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

A carpet and good underlay can truly make a huge difference.  Especially if by wooden floorboards you mean just the bare floor.

I covered the (suspended) timber floor in my lounge with aluminium foil - The extra wide stuff used for cooking your Christmas turkey. On top of that went 5mm woodfibre boards (the stuff used as laminate underlay), followed by 11m foam carpet underlay. The gripper rods around the perimeter of the room had to be screwed down rather than nailed, but this wasn't a difficult task (used 25mm screws). Once the carpet went down, it felt real nice under foot, and the room is so much easier to keep warm. Much of the reason for that is the multiple layers killing any draughts coming up through the gaps in the floorboards.

That sounds great, what a plan. Will the screwing be a lot of extra work for the carpet fitter? 

Largs

michael079 said:

FreeBear said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

A carpet and good underlay can truly make a huge difference.  Especially if by wooden floorboards you mean just the bare floor.

I covered the (suspended) timber floor in my lounge with aluminium foil - The extra wide stuff used for cooking your Christmas turkey. On top of that went 5mm woodfibre boards (the stuff used as laminate underlay), followed by 11m foam carpet underlay. The gripper rods around the perimeter of the room had to be screwed down rather than nailed, but this wasn't a difficult task (used 25mm screws). Once the carpet went down, it felt real nice under foot, and the room is so much easier to keep warm. Much of the reason for that is the multiple layers killing any draughts coming up through the gaps in the floorboards.

That sounds great, what a plan. Will the screwing be a lot of extra work for the carpet fitter? 

It would depend on the carpet fitter I suppose.  That example is a bit extreme in my opinion.  A good quality underlay will be fine for covering any "gaps in the floorboards"

Veteransaver

If it's suspended floors then carpet will make a huge difference. If concrete then it will certainly feel warmer with carpet
Carpet and decent underlay in upstairs rooms will also keep the heat downstairs for longer, it's quite good insulation. We noticed a big difference when we put new thick underlay and carpet in the room directly above the lounge. Stopped a lot of heat leaving straight upstair and out of the roof.

markin

Did you get off E7, Did they agree to combine readings or fit a smart meter?

Did you get TRV's fitted so you can control the rads in other rooms, Radiator Fan, Or up-size the rad? 

Is the a door to the kitchen with the single glazed window? I think doing the remaining windows would be better.


EDIT: Reading the November thread it seems your still using the Electric heater!

As i said in the March thread, put it in fan mode and point it at the rad to boost its output, Set the heating to a steady 26c and leave it on 24/7, Gas is cheaper.

*Note to others, the room actual temp was around 20c with it set at 30c out in the corridor.