Advice needed for very old house

J30

Hi all
Desperately need some advice. Recently started a thread on boiler flow temperature so this is a similar subject. 

 I am really really struggling with the house at the moment. Bought a new (old) house in the summer and it was built around 1910 ish - so very old. Solid brick walls.

the house is majorly struggling to stay warm - in fact, it isn’t!! 

It loses heat as soon as any heat comes in. 

Taking over an hour to go up by 1 degrees on the thermostat - and I have also tried moving the thermostat around the house. I also have a little therma pro thermostat as well and the temperatures match - so it’s not the thermostat. 

It’s actually making me miserable because I feel like I can’t heat it up and stay warm. 

Only been having it on and off because I can’t afford to leave it on - and it’s using over 90kwh in gas a day!!! 

Applied for the great British insulation scheme - but I expect to be kept waiting as I haven’t heard anything yet. 

Spoke to the council to ask if there are any grants and schemes I could use - but don’t qualify as I work. 

My doors and windows all in good condition - double glazed windows. 

I’ve got loft insulation too. 

Just don’t know what to do. How can I stay warm without throwing money at the gas - as it wouldn’t be so bad if it was actually doing something! 

The thermostat never reaches temperature - so the boiler is constantly on trying to get up to temperature. It’s like throwing money down the drain as it isn’t doing anything. 

All of the radiators are now blazing hot - after turning up the flow. 

As soon as I turn the heating off you see the thermostat drop rapidly. 

I’ve been setting it as low as 14 overnight - and it comes on at that!!! 

I think it’s the solid walls where the heat is being lost. But I don’t have the kind of cash to fork out for external wall insulation - hence applying for the great British insulation scheme. 

Really really needing some advice here so any would be appreciated. Is anybody else in a similar situation and what do you do? 

Thanks 

EssexHebridean

In fairness ours has come on overnight a couple of times in the past week too - also set down at 14, and ours is a decently insulated 1950’s build. 

J30

I don’t seem to be able to get the thermostat above 17 - and even that’s when it’s been on for hours 😔

Netexporter

Only been having it on and off because I can’t afford to leave it on - and it’s using over 90kwh in gas a day!!! 

Solid masonry walls will absorb a great deal of heat until things reach equilibrium. Once they have warmed up your gas consumption will go down. Ideally you need to externally insulate the walls then you will get the benefit of the thermal mass of the walls, to stabilise temperatures, keeping you warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

FreeBear

Have you used a heat loss calculator to see if the radiators are appropriately sized for each room ?

https://www.stelrad.com/basic-heat-loss-calculator/ - Do that now, before doing anything else.

Plug any unused chimneys either with an old pillow or a Chimney Sheep. Go round every door & window and plug those draughts. Do the same with the floors & skirting boards. If you are struggling to find the draughts, pay someone to come in with a thermal camera to do a thermographic survey - That will help to identify just where the heat is being lost and enable you to target those areas.

*This house used to be difficult to heat, but I've been plugging draughts, replacing doors & windows, and insulating the walls. Killing the draughts was the one thing that had the biggest impact. Have only insulated the walls in a couple of rooms so far, so a long way to go on that front. Even so, it takes about an hour for each 1°C temperature increase, and 2-3 hours to lose it again.

born_again

J30 said:

Hi all
Desperately need some advice. Recently started a thread on boiler flow temperature so this is a similar subject. 

 I am really really struggling with the house at the moment. Bought a new (old) house in the summer and it was built around 1910 ish - so very old. Solid brick walls.

the house is majorly struggling to stay warm - in fact, it isn’t!! 

It loses heat as soon as any heat comes in. 

Taking over an hour to go up by 1 degrees on the thermostat - and I have also tried moving the thermostat around the house. I also have a little therma pro thermostat as well and the temperatures match - so it’s not the thermostat. 

It’s actually making me miserable because I feel like I can’t heat it up and stay warm. 

Only been having it on and off because I can’t afford to leave it on - and it’s using over 90kwh in gas a day!!! 

Applied for the great British insulation scheme - but I expect to be kept waiting as I haven’t heard anything yet. 

Spoke to the council to ask if there are any grants and schemes I could use - but don’t qualify as I work. 

My doors and windows all in good condition - double glazed windows. 

I’ve got loft insulation too. 

Just don’t know what to do. How can I stay warm without throwing money at the gas - as it wouldn’t be so bad if it was actually doing something! 

The thermostat never reaches temperature - so the boiler is constantly on trying to get up to temperature. It’s like throwing money down the drain as it isn’t doing anything. 

All of the radiators are now blazing hot - after turning up the flow. 

As soon as I turn the heating off you see the thermostat drop rapidly. 

I’ve been setting it as low as 14 overnight - and it comes on at that!!! 

I think it’s the solid walls where the heat is being lost. But I don’t have the kind of cash to fork out for external wall insulation - hence applying for the great British insulation scheme. 

Really really needing some advice here so any would be appreciated. Is anybody else in a similar situation and what do you do? 

Thanks 

By turning it off you are losing all that heat gained from it being on, so when you turn heating on again, it has to work harder to get back to the temp it was when you turned it off.
Leave it on & once it gets to temp, it will self regulate.

J30

born_again said:

J30 said:

Hi all
Desperately need some advice. Recently started a thread on boiler flow temperature so this is a similar subject. 

 I am really really struggling with the house at the moment. Bought a new (old) house in the summer and it was built around 1910 ish - so very old. Solid brick walls.

the house is majorly struggling to stay warm - in fact, it isn’t!! 

It loses heat as soon as any heat comes in. 

Taking over an hour to go up by 1 degrees on the thermostat - and I have also tried moving the thermostat around the house. I also have a little therma pro thermostat as well and the temperatures match - so it’s not the thermostat. 

It’s actually making me miserable because I feel like I can’t heat it up and stay warm. 

Only been having it on and off because I can’t afford to leave it on - and it’s using over 90kwh in gas a day!!! 

Applied for the great British insulation scheme - but I expect to be kept waiting as I haven’t heard anything yet. 

Spoke to the council to ask if there are any grants and schemes I could use - but don’t qualify as I work. 

My doors and windows all in good condition - double glazed windows. 

I’ve got loft insulation too. 

Just don’t know what to do. How can I stay warm without throwing money at the gas - as it wouldn’t be so bad if it was actually doing something! 

The thermostat never reaches temperature - so the boiler is constantly on trying to get up to temperature. It’s like throwing money down the drain as it isn’t doing anything. 

All of the radiators are now blazing hot - after turning up the flow. 

As soon as I turn the heating off you see the thermostat drop rapidly. 

I’ve been setting it as low as 14 overnight - and it comes on at that!!! 

I think it’s the solid walls where the heat is being lost. But I don’t have the kind of cash to fork out for external wall insulation - hence applying for the great British insulation scheme. 

Really really needing some advice here so any would be appreciated. Is anybody else in a similar situation and what do you do? 

Thanks 

By turning it off you are losing all that heat gained from it being on, so when you turn heating on again, it has to work harder to get back to the temp it was when you turned it off.
Leave it on & once it gets to temp, it will self regulate.

The problem here is, it doesn’t actually reach the temperature - so the boiler is constantly on and working hard to reach temperature 

Netexporter

J30 said:

born_again said:

J30 said:

Hi all
Desperately need some advice. Recently started a thread on boiler flow temperature so this is a similar subject. 

 I am really really struggling with the house at the moment. Bought a new (old) house in the summer and it was built around 1910 ish - so very old. Solid brick walls.

the house is majorly struggling to stay warm - in fact, it isn’t!! 

It loses heat as soon as any heat comes in. 

Taking over an hour to go up by 1 degrees on the thermostat - and I have also tried moving the thermostat around the house. I also have a little therma pro thermostat as well and the temperatures match - so it’s not the thermostat. 

It’s actually making me miserable because I feel like I can’t heat it up and stay warm. 

Only been having it on and off because I can’t afford to leave it on - and it’s using over 90kwh in gas a day!!! 

Applied for the great British insulation scheme - but I expect to be kept waiting as I haven’t heard anything yet. 

Spoke to the council to ask if there are any grants and schemes I could use - but don’t qualify as I work. 

My doors and windows all in good condition - double glazed windows. 

I’ve got loft insulation too. 

Just don’t know what to do. How can I stay warm without throwing money at the gas - as it wouldn’t be so bad if it was actually doing something! 

The thermostat never reaches temperature - so the boiler is constantly on trying to get up to temperature. It’s like throwing money down the drain as it isn’t doing anything. 

All of the radiators are now blazing hot - after turning up the flow. 

As soon as I turn the heating off you see the thermostat drop rapidly. 

I’ve been setting it as low as 14 overnight - and it comes on at that!!! 

I think it’s the solid walls where the heat is being lost. But I don’t have the kind of cash to fork out for external wall insulation - hence applying for the great British insulation scheme. 

Really really needing some advice here so any would be appreciated. Is anybody else in a similar situation and what do you do? 

Thanks 

By turning it off you are losing all that heat gained from it being on, so when you turn heating on again, it has to work harder to get back to the temp it was when you turned it off.
Leave it on & once it gets to temp, it will self regulate.

The problem here is, it doesn’t actually reach the temperature - so the boiler is constantly on and working hard to reach temperature 

It will, until the walls are "full".

J30

Netexporter said:

J30 said:

born_again said:

J30 said:

Hi all
Desperately need some advice. Recently started a thread on boiler flow temperature so this is a similar subject. 

 I am really really struggling with the house at the moment. Bought a new (old) house in the summer and it was built around 1910 ish - so very old. Solid brick walls.

the house is majorly struggling to stay warm - in fact, it isn’t!! 

It loses heat as soon as any heat comes in. 

Taking over an hour to go up by 1 degrees on the thermostat - and I have also tried moving the thermostat around the house. I also have a little therma pro thermostat as well and the temperatures match - so it’s not the thermostat. 

It’s actually making me miserable because I feel like I can’t heat it up and stay warm. 

Only been having it on and off because I can’t afford to leave it on - and it’s using over 90kwh in gas a day!!! 

Applied for the great British insulation scheme - but I expect to be kept waiting as I haven’t heard anything yet. 

Spoke to the council to ask if there are any grants and schemes I could use - but don’t qualify as I work. 

My doors and windows all in good condition - double glazed windows. 

I’ve got loft insulation too. 

Just don’t know what to do. How can I stay warm without throwing money at the gas - as it wouldn’t be so bad if it was actually doing something! 

The thermostat never reaches temperature - so the boiler is constantly on trying to get up to temperature. It’s like throwing money down the drain as it isn’t doing anything. 

All of the radiators are now blazing hot - after turning up the flow. 

As soon as I turn the heating off you see the thermostat drop rapidly. 

I’ve been setting it as low as 14 overnight - and it comes on at that!!! 

I think it’s the solid walls where the heat is being lost. But I don’t have the kind of cash to fork out for external wall insulation - hence applying for the great British insulation scheme. 

Really really needing some advice here so any would be appreciated. Is anybody else in a similar situation and what do you do? 

Thanks 

By turning it off you are losing all that heat gained from it being on, so when you turn heating on again, it has to work harder to get back to the temp it was when you turned it off.
Leave it on & once it gets to temp, it will self regulate.

The problem here is, it doesn’t actually reach the temperature - so the boiler is constantly on and working hard to reach temperature 

It will, until the walls are "full".

Is this a thing? Not that  I doubt you, I’m just genuinely wondering if this is likely the cause? Because at the moment I feel like every time I put the heating on I am putting money down the drain as it isn’t doing anything. 

Netexporter

Is this a thing?

Yes, it is called physics.

Thermal mass was illustrated to me, very clearly, when I had a large stone-built house. I had a load of trees blown over in a big storm so decided to fit a wood-burning boiler in parallel with the existing oil boiler. For the first couple of weeks of each heating season I would be bringing in 4 or 5 heaped builder's barrows of logs to feed the beast. The, when the walls were heated up, I only need to bring in around one barrow of logs per day.

EnPointe

J30 said:

Netexporter said:

J30 said:

born_again said:

J30 said:

Hi all
Desperately need some advice. Recently started a thread on boiler flow temperature so this is a similar subject. 

 I am really really struggling with the house at the moment. Bought a new (old) house in the summer and it was built around 1910 ish - so very old. Solid brick walls.

the house is majorly struggling to stay warm - in fact, it isn’t!! 

It loses heat as soon as any heat comes in. 

Taking over an hour to go up by 1 degrees on the thermostat - and I have also tried moving the thermostat around the house. I also have a little therma pro thermostat as well and the temperatures match - so it’s not the thermostat. 

It’s actually making me miserable because I feel like I can’t heat it up and stay warm. 

Only been having it on and off because I can’t afford to leave it on - and it’s using over 90kwh in gas a day!!! 

Applied for the great British insulation scheme - but I expect to be kept waiting as I haven’t heard anything yet. 

Spoke to the council to ask if there are any grants and schemes I could use - but don’t qualify as I work. 

My doors and windows all in good condition - double glazed windows. 

I’ve got loft insulation too. 

Just don’t know what to do. How can I stay warm without throwing money at the gas - as it wouldn’t be so bad if it was actually doing something! 

The thermostat never reaches temperature - so the boiler is constantly on trying to get up to temperature. It’s like throwing money down the drain as it isn’t doing anything. 

All of the radiators are now blazing hot - after turning up the flow. 

As soon as I turn the heating off you see the thermostat drop rapidly. 

I’ve been setting it as low as 14 overnight - and it comes on at that!!! 

I think it’s the solid walls where the heat is being lost. But I don’t have the kind of cash to fork out for external wall insulation - hence applying for the great British insulation scheme. 

Really really needing some advice here so any would be appreciated. Is anybody else in a similar situation and what do you do? 

Thanks 

By turning it off you are losing all that heat gained from it being on, so when you turn heating on again, it has to work harder to get back to the temp it was when you turned it off.
Leave it on & once it gets to temp, it will self regulate.

The problem here is, it doesn’t actually reach the temperature - so the boiler is constantly on and working hard to reach temperature 

It will, until the walls are "full".

Is this a thing? Not that  I doubt you, I’m just genuinely wondering if this is likely the cause? Because at the moment I feel like every time I put the heating on I am putting money down the drain as it isn’t doing anything. 

tghe solid walls  represent as  lot of  mass ,   consequently to heat them you need to put more  energy into them  than if you wrere  heating ticky-tacky  pasterboard and  stud  walls , however once  up to temeperature  .... 

(this is how storage heaters work  - you 'fill up' on the  economy 7  and it radiates the heat  through the rest of the day )