Freezing house | How to improve heat

Arsenal2019

Green_hopeful said:

We cut a big bit of normal loft insulation and placed it over the hatch hole. When you shut the hatch it gives a bit more insulation and draught proofing. You should have about 30 cm depth of insulation in your loft if it’s the fluffy pink or yellow stuff. 

Okay thanks. I didn’t know that. I’ll go up tomorrow and have a look what ive got in the attic 

ThisIsWeird

The ~2"-odd layer of rigid insulation inserted into the hatch door has a far greater insulation value than loose, plump, loft insulation, so it's already pretty decent.
I'm not saying to not bother adding more to it if you want, but just don't expect to notice any difference.
I take it your normal loft insulation up there is a good 300+ thick? That's obviously important.

moneysaver1978

When you are next up in the loft and the heating is on - do you feel the loft being colder? If not, it might be the lack of insulation.

Since we added rockwool insulation last year, the loft is now considerably colder, which to me is an indication that the insulation is working!

We have a solid wall with no cavity or insulation so our heating schedule is:

• We need heating, 20c, e.g. when we wake up
• Maintain temperature of 19c, to keep us comfortable during the day with an early afternoon of 20c to remove any chill
• "off" overnight but maintain at 16c or 17c.

We found that completely turning off, like overnight, doesn't work as it takes far too long for the house to heat up (before the schedule kicks in!) and it wasn't comfortable for us. Not sure how much of difference (due to unit prices changing) but we generally pay £75-£120 for gas.

Do you have a smart speaker like Echo or similar? I wonder if once you know what your shift work times are, you could issue a command for Hive to kick in for when you most need it?

QrizB

Albermarle said:

Apart from the technical hints, I think the most obvious thing is the heating is not on for long enough each day, especially during the recent cold spell. So the structure of the house is getting cold, as the heating can be off for up to 20 hours at a time.
As said £75 per month for gas is very low for the Winter months. Probably what you would expect in a studio flat maybe.

+1 to this.

OP, would you be happy to just turn your heating on and leave it on for 24 hours? To prove whether (or not) it's capable of heating your home? I'd guess it might cost you £7 in gas for the day.

Once you've proven to your own satisfaction that it can (or can't) heat your house to the temperature you desire, then you can look at what to do next.

jvjack

The QrizB thing is quite profound. Been messing with my heating for years and looking back should have done that at start. Still don't know what's best though as the weather changes too much. 
But if it helps . my end of terrace .. this winter so far. gas Nov £77  Dec £96 Jan £130. Heating on all day and night. Main living room with thermostat 16 degrees night and day then 20 degrees from 5pm till 10pm. Of course its what's affordable though. 

Arsenal2019

moneysaver1978 said:

When you are next up in the loft and the heating is on - do you feel the loft being colder? If not, it might be the lack of insulation.

Since we added rockwool insulation last year, the loft is now considerably colder, which to me is an indication that the insulation is working!

We have a solid wall with no cavity or insulation so our heating schedule is:

• We need heating, 20c, e.g. when we wake up
• Maintain temperature of 19c, to keep us comfortable during the day with an early afternoon of 20c to remove any chill
• "off" overnight but maintain at 16c or 17c.

We found that completely turning off, like overnight, doesn't work as it takes far too long for the house to heat up (before the schedule kicks in!) and it wasn't comfortable for us. Not sure how much of difference (due to unit prices changing) but we generally pay £75-£120 for gas.

Do you have a smart speaker like Echo or similar? I wonder if once you know what your shift work times are, you could issue a command for Hive to kick in for when you most need it?

I have never really put the heating on in the mornings as we wake as I thought that may just bump the heating cost up massively

The attic is noticeably colder when the heating is on and off 

I do have a smart device which I hadn’t really thought of connecting to the hive. I will set this up 

Arsenal2019

QrizB said:

Albermarle said:

Apart from the technical hints, I think the most obvious thing is the heating is not on for long enough each day, especially during the recent cold spell. So the structure of the house is getting cold, as the heating can be off for up to 20 hours at a time.
As said £75 per month for gas is very low for the Winter months. Probably what you would expect in a studio flat maybe.

+1 to this.

OP, would you be happy to just turn your heating on and leave it on for 24 hours? To prove whether (or not) it's capable of heating your home? I'd guess it might cost you £7 in gas for the day.

Once you've proven to your own satisfaction that it can (or can't) heat your house to the temperature you desire, then you can look at what to do next.

The house does read the temp that I set the heating too. It has no problem reaching the heat.

its just a very very cold house when the heating is not on

Albermarle

Arsenal2019 said:

QrizB said:

Albermarle said:

Apart from the technical hints, I think the most obvious thing is the heating is not on for long enough each day, especially during the recent cold spell. So the structure of the house is getting cold, as the heating can be off for up to 20 hours at a time.
As said £75 per month for gas is very low for the Winter months. Probably what you would expect in a studio flat maybe.

+1 to this.

OP, would you be happy to just turn your heating on and leave it on for 24 hours? To prove whether (or not) it's capable of heating your home? I'd guess it might cost you £7 in gas for the day.

Once you've proven to your own satisfaction that it can (or can't) heat your house to the temperature you desire, then you can look at what to do next.

The house does read the temp that I set the heating too. It has no problem reaching the heat.

its just a very very cold house when the heating is not on

Then put the heating on !!

gzoom

Arsenal2019 said:

Please see above 

If your Hive readings are right your house is losing up to 1 degrees a hour, maybe even 2 when the inside temperature is high. Not sure what the outside temperature was when you did the Hive screen shots but in our kitchen, which is double height and has loads of glazing when it's zero outside, heat loss is about 0.5 degree per hour, so almost half what your showing.



HOWEVER heat loss isn't everything, how much energy it takes to heat things up is what really drives costs. You mention you're heating bill was £80ish for a month?? This is our heating use for one of the cold days in December, we are paying 5.5p/kWh for gas.....So despite having a house that losses heat slower than your house, our heating bill is much much higher as energy needed to heat up the house is much more!!

FreeBear

gzoom said:

Arsenal2019 said:

Please see above 

If your Hive readings are right your house is losing up to 1 degrees a hour, maybe even 2 when the inside temperature is high. Not sure what the outside temperature was when you did the Hive screen shots but in our kitchen, which is double height and has loads of glazing when it's zero outside, heat loss is about 0.5 degree per hour, so almost half what your showing.

If we assume that this graph was from the 15th, and the outside temperature was similar to my locale, around 1°C overnight rising to a balmy 3°C around lunchtime. Early evening, it plummeted close to 0°C.

An estimated 4.5°C drop overnight could be improved upon, but once the heating kicks in, it doesn't appear to be struggling to get warm (2°C per hour ?) - Way better than my ~1°C per hour (although if I cranked up the flow temperature, I could probably do it).