How do I make house feel warm?

Steel_2

We live in an ex-council house with stone quarry tile floors and it can get bloody freezing. At one point it got so cold in the back of the house that the water in the pipes of the washing machine froze one night last winter - and it wasn't against a external wall either!

However, we found and cured many of issues :

1) I'd agree with mrssplinter about having your heating on for longer. Have you tried putting it on all the time and just adjusting the thermostat? We moved from having our heating on for set periods of time to having it on all the time. During the day it's at 18-19oC and at nightime it goes down 16oC. Any lower than those two and the house is uncomfortable. Give it a try for a week and see how it feels and whether it helps to start drying the house out. . If necessary take readings of your current gas usage and then compare it to the new week's readings to see by how much it differs. It might not be as much as you think.

2) We found wicked drafts from keyholes, ill-fitting letterboxes and doors. You could hear the wind whistling through our back door. We added draft excluding strips to external doors, covered up keyholes and changed the letterbox.

3) We put down rugs everywhere the house and made draft excluders for the really bad drafty internal doors.

4) Made sure our curtains were all sill level. Long curtains are notorious for encouraging damp under windowsills because the air can't circulate.

5) Before we got our new double glazing, we stretched that plastic secondary glazing stuff across the windows. We had to fashion a small flap in the top to allow us to open the top skylights for air, but even so it made a difference.

6) In the bathroom we opened the window before we have a shower to allow the steam out. Then we streak like lighting out of the shower and into a warm room to dry off.:rotfl: Only completely redoing that room will cure that so we live with it.

7) Any windows or walls which are running with water wipe down. Don't leave the room to sit in puddles. If there's water on the sills every day, wipe it off every day.

Hope this helps.

sparklegirl_3

hi, try your local energy advice centre 0800 512012, they often keep a database of organisations that may be able to assist with schemes in your are, some that you do not need to be in receipt of benefits like the warm front scheme
hope this helps