Freezing house | How to improve heat

Arsenal2019

Hello all

I live in an end terrace house which was built in 2004 and ii have a mortgage on it. I would say it’s a regular size terrace house with two bedrooms. However, the house is freezing!!!! The temperature today inside the house as 9.5 degrees both upstairs and downstairs and can see my breath. That’s been quite ‘normal’ as of recent. 

I am having a new front door fitted next month as the one currently is in a poor state and is wooden. so I hope that helps retain the heat. 

I THINK the windows are fine but I could be wrong. There doesn’t seem to be any condensation on the windows unless we sleep with the doors closed. Also, I have placed a candle to the windows and the flame doesn’t blow as though there’s a draught. However, there does seem to be quite a bit of noise coming from the windows even when they’re closed and I don’t live on a busy street - I hope that makes sense 

-I have thick blackout curtains on the windows (only drawn at night time)

-There does seem to be insulation in the loft.

-carpets around the house except the kitchen, bathroom, hallway and two bedrooms upstairs

I don’t know why the house is so cold and would like to see if people have similar experiences / any tips on how to improve the warmth

I really don’t want to and can’t have the heating on all the time as no one can afford that.

Thank you 

HampshireH

Do you have long thick curtains over your doors?

We had a very cold call/upstairs compared to downstairs (thermostat was in the lounge so with doors shut it thought it was lovely and warm) added some big thick curtains to our crafty door and it improved things.

Also check all your rads are on the best setting for each room.

We also found out loft hatch was letting out heat (loft was insulated but not around the hatch) so we added a layer to the hatch itself so it sits on top when it's closed. That was the most effective thing we did. We also topped up the insulation to 270 as whilst insulated it wasn't enough 

Flugelhorn

it is curious with a relatively new house - ours is 2010 and it really the warmest house I have lived in with very low bills compared with the previous ancient places I had

9.5 does sounds grim - what have you got the heating set on?

elsien

Haven’t said anything about the type of heating, but it’s set it, how long you are having it on for and how long the house will retain the the heat  once the heating goes off? 

Newbie_John

How long do you put heating on for then?
Condensation on the windows is a good sign , meaning they're well sealed. 
In your case at 9.5*C you won't see it as it's too cold.

Do you have gas? What type of heating you have?
What are/were your bills with heating on and off?

Arsenal2019

Sorry all-

the heating has been serviced every year a couple times I’ve seen the paperwork. It is a baxi  boiler and is only 6 years old.

when I have it on, usually it’s for around 5-6 hours and have it set to 18-20 degrees. 

I’ve only recently bought thermostats to stick in each room to monitor the temperature 

last month, £64 electricity, £75 gas. That was the most I’d ever spent on gas and I was nearly sick - the heating was on a lot.

the previous months usually my electric has been £45 ish and my gas £40

Arsenal2019

The house does seem to keep the heat in I would say as it does still feel warm for a while after re heatings been turned off

Now at 07:50 the following day the inside temperature is 12.9- but obviously it is considerably warmer outside than what it was yesterday

Arsenal2019

HampshireH said:

Do you have long thick curtains over your doors?

We had a very cold call/upstairs compared to downstairs (thermostat was in the lounge so with doors shut it thought it was lovely and warm) added some big thick curtains to our crafty door and it improved things.

Also check all your rads are on the best setting for each room.

We also found out loft hatch was letting out heat (loft was insulated but not around the hatch) so we added a layer to the hatch itself so it sits on top when it's closed. That was the most effective thing we did. We also topped up the insulation to 270 as whilst insulated it wasn't enough 

Thank you for the response and tips

at the rear, there are sliding doors in the living room. They have long thick blackout curtains which draped down to the floor when they closed the living room door is closed the temperature isn’t that bad.

I don’t yet have any curtains for the front door I think with that I may wait until the door is replaced to get some.

I have bled all the radiators when I moved into the house and have done it again last week. they are all set on number four. I don’t really know what number they should be set on. and they have also upgraded the TRV on each.

I may well look into having insulation for the loft hatch as likewise I could be in the same bolts with losing heat through the hatch. 

There is insulation in the attic already however I can’t comment on whether it is enough as I know zero about it.  I presume if I wanted to top it up, I could just stick it on top of the already existing?

ThisIsWeird

Setting 4 on a TRV is quite high - equates to around 24oC - so would very rarely be used unless you had folk that really needed such a high room temp.
In effect, your TRVs, at '4', are essentially fully 'on', and won't even start to shut the rads down untill the room temp is comfortably over 20oC - which yours patently ain't.
So, the Q is - how hot are your rads? How long can you keep your hands on them for?
No idea what the problem is, but I fear a new door and some loft hatch lagging ain't going to sort it.
Are you controlling each room properly - eg bedrooms only on for, say, an hour before get up, and an hour before bed - off at all other times?

Green_hopeful

You could get an electronic thermometer to look for cold areas in your house. Something like this. https://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d03308/infrared-thermometer/dp/IN08363?mckv=sshopping_dc%7Cpcrid%7C490691434490%7Ckword%7C%7Cmatch%7C%7Cplid%7C%7Cslid%7C%7Cproduct%7CIN08363%7Cpgrid%7C43783550101%7Cptaid%7Cpla-582658341829%7C&CMP=KNC-GUK-CPC-SHOPPING-945672631-43783550101-IN08363&s_kwcid=AL!5616!3!490691434490!!!network%7D!582658341829!&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_m6B1FYBa5F7MRZm7o8s36dxBO0&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwtu9BhC8ARIsAI9JHakZnZelomgRaA5f-LZwCNyT74vcop0JsBlcD2toYzaGxEf9juZli64aAkK-EALw_wcB   You can test where you have cold places and try to work out why. 

Arsenal2019

ThisIsWeird said:

Setting 4 on a TRV is quite high - equates to around 24oC - so would very rarely be used unless you had folk that really needed such a high room temp.
In effect, your TRVs, at '4', are essentially fully 'on', and won't even start to shut the rads down untill the room temp is comfortably over 20oC - which yours patently ain't.
So, the Q is - how hot are your rads? How long can you keep your hands on them for?
No idea what the problem is, but I fear a new door and some loft hatch lagging ain't going to sort it.
Are you controlling each room properly - eg bedrooms only on for, say, an hour before get up, and an hour before bed - off at all other times?

hi

I have just had a look around and I can  say each radiator in the house is set at 4 or 5 (max). I presume by what you said that this is wrong and should lower it to around three. I was of the mindset the higher you had it the quicker the temperature rose - obviously not?

I could control the temperature by having it on an hour before I got up and now before bed as I can control it via Hive, but I don’t have it on in the mornings to try and save money. we both work shifts so never really have any set times however when we do have it on we try limited to the evening. 

we do have the radiators only in each room even in the rooms that we use the least like the back room which is used as an office/games room/make up room. we have it on in those rooms even when they are not in use to keep the what room warm as we don’t want to suffer from condensation or mould. 

to answer  your question about the radiators… now that I bleed them all of them are extremely hot to touch and I cannot place my hand on them for long periods of time