Why is my house cold or is it just me?

never_enough

It sounds as if you have several problems, but I wonder if the rads could just need bleeding?
The draughts in the kitchen could be from gaps around water waste pipes not being properly filled. I had to use some of that expanding foam to fill gaps when I had a dishwasher fitted, I'm not sure it was the right thing to use but it did the trick.

BB78

Ok this is getting silly now, I'm FREEZING!!! :eek:
1) Does anyone know any good deals on electric blankets at the moment?
I have a 10% & free delivery code for Debenhams, they have the Morphy Richards heated underblanket would work out £13.50 for the single or £18 for the double.

2) The flat above mine has no central heating, the owner privately rents it out and has taken all of the storage heaters out leaving only a 3kw electric heater for the entire place. If I'm freezing with gas fired central heating it must be bloody cold up there but the girl has ALWAYS got all the windows open! Am I losing all my heat to them? & is their lack of heating causing my property problems?

3) My Kitchen/living room is open plan & only measures 6ft x 3ft so I can't afford to lose any space by erecting a false wall and insulating; is there anything I can do to warm this place up? Stick cork tiles to the walls and plaster over? Anything? I'm DESPERATE!!!!

If all else fails; does anyone suffering hot flushes want to buy an ice cold 1 bed maisonette??

latecomer

2. Have you tried speaking to the person upstairs as if they are warm without any heating then it sound like all yours is going up there. If you have a decent ceiling height you could try lowering them and getting some/extra insulation but thats something thats going to cost money.

3. Do you mean 6m x 3m as 6ft by 3ft is too small to be anything, nevermind an open plan kitchen/living room?

BB78

latecomer wrote: »

2. Have you tried speaking to the person upstairs as if they are warm without any heating then it sound like all yours is going up there. If you have a decent ceiling height you could try lowering them and getting some/extra insulation but thats something thats going to cost money.

Upstairs are freaks! They complain about having no heating yet leave all the windows open all day & all night!! Don't get me wrong I open my windows to let some fresh air in but I don't have the windows open all night when its in the minus figures outside!!
Have a normal 2.4mtr ceiling height but I'm insulating and overboarding the floor which is going to raise it so can't afford to lose ceiling height too!

latecomer wrote: »

3. Do you mean 6m x 3m as 6ft by 3ft is too small to be anything, nevermind an open plan kitchen/living room?

Sorry! Yeah I mean 6mtr x 3mtr! Upstairs Freaks have kept me awake all weekend, not quite with it today!

latecomer

You will lose more heat through an uninsulated ceiling that through an uninsulated floor I would think.

Are there any more houses like yours in your street? If so then try asking the owners whether they have or have had similar issues.

I know when we lived in our flat, the folk downstairs used to keep the heating on full blast most of the time and we only had ours on for about 3 months of the year due to the heat we got from them.

Basil1234

right sounds to me like you got several problems there
1. rising damp i had this in my 1890 house which i had a builder come around and un brick the wall to clear out the cavity he did it below floorboard level on the inside he cleared out 5 bags of rubble a dustbin full of rubble. all cavities need air flowing thru them this is to stops damp in its tracks.

2. also sounds like in the kitchen not every thing is sealed up properly e.g. pipes coming thru walls possibly as well as floor also have just removed my kitchen at the mo and when removed bit of scurting board that was buried in wall found nice hole going directly into cavity let cold air in from outside filled that with mortar concrete kitchen starting to warm up a bit now also found a few other holes like that did same its all warming up also have you got/thought space depenendant of fitting a radiator off the end of a cupboard wall at all in your kitchen?

3.Final thing you can do which its not too expensive to do, when carpet fitters have very bad floorboards like in a house i used to be in they screw down plywood over the whole floor which would in your case also seal up the floor quite well also at the same time also if you do this i would at putting down some thick new underlay.
when i lifted up my carpet in dining room which i believe to be about this underlay to be about 10-15yrs old its disintergrating underneath the carpet in places when i was going underneath the floor boards to put heating pipes thru to the kitchen for a radiator.

one other thing you could do to track where wind is coming in from and i suggest you be very careful when doing this is to use a tealight candle on a small plate and carefully put it down in rooms nearest to say cold spots or possiable drafts and watch the flame you will soon work out where its coming from.
last final final point in my bedroom this year we got rid of foamback carpet that was alreday there for underlay and a proper hessing backed carpet that room got warmer by about 3-4 degrees but is now quite comfortable as before was quite quick at getting cold.

hope this gives you some ideas

basil :A

BB78

I think you are right Basil1234 & I need to check & seal up everything in the kitchen. I can't add a radiator anywhere as there isn't room, I would like a wet system plinth heater but this is gonna have to wait till I can afford to rip out the kitchen. I had the rad moved from off the coldest wall in the living room & have mounted it to the back of the breakfast bar so its now more in the middle of the room, its a massive double rad & does warm everything nicely when its on... but I can't afford to run the heating constantly!!

I'm going to be laying 6mm sheets of insulation board over the floor (Depron or equiv.) & then over lay with 6 or 9mm ply. Hoping this will cut down the draughts from the floor!

I've tried the thing with the tealight and sppokily the flame didn't flicker! I reckon the cold spots are ghosts! Lol! I'm going to try it again once I've got hold of a jos stick or something that smokes more than a candle.

Chris2008

Hi there,

I have been reading all the helpful comments on this forum regarding heating etc. However, I need further assistance. I live in a top floor flat overlooking a canal.Its always cold in the flat despite running the Dimplex 'box' like enconmy 7 heater on boost as it just not possible to stay in the flat by opening the vents. I have checked the loft and notice that it does have some insulation but not entirely sure its up to the recommended level.
My questions are:
1.Has anyone experienced something similar and if so, how was it resolved.
2. I have had a look on the Dimplex website and noticed that they no longer has my type of heating(probably over 15years old) on their site. Should I change to a modern electric heater and if so, any suggestions will be most helpful.

I am really desperate here and any meaningful advice will be appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

latecomer

What do you mean by:

Its always cold in the flat despite running the Dimplex 'box' like enconmy 7 heater on boost as it just not possible to stay in the flat by opening the vents.

I presume you are talking about storage heaters. Do they get charged up properly overnight? i.e. are they hot in the morning?

Recommended depth of insulation is about 270mm these days and you can easily add to the existing stuff yourself provided you are happy working in the loft. If the insulation is already up to the top of the beams then the next lot should go across them.

27col

As I have said on another recent post. The rate of loss of heat is proportional to the difference of temperature of the two sides of the surface. If the flat above is unheated then there will be a higher temperature difference between you and the flat above and thus a bigger heat loss from you to the flat above. If the flat above was heated to the same temperature as yours there would be very little heat loss through the ceiling.
If the floor between you and the flat above is concrete then insulation will be difficult to apply. It will reduce the ceiling height if applied to your ceiling and it will reduce ceiling height if applied to the floor of the flat above. If you have sufficient ceiling height then a false ceiling and insulation in your flat is probably the only solution.
The symptoms you describe sound very much as if the problem is low levels of insulation generally.
You have my sympathy.