Heat in the home

[al_yrpal]

Carpets...yes, we have just had our kitchen/ dining room recarpeted and vinyl in the kitchen area. We have a lot of nice old rugs too.

Al

[horizon]

Now its nearly December, the leaves are well and truly off the trees and Storm What-ever-its-called-this-time is with us, what sort of temperature do forum readers aim for at home?

I have just checked my thermometer and it reads 14 deg C. I would certainly aim for that but cannot see it on the poll chart. Any reason why the poll starts at 18 deg C?

However in any case that's for sitting at my desk so once I get moving around the house, that 14 deg will be allowed to fall. Not that it will with this mild weather. The central heating is permanently off now (has been all winter so far) and the boiler just used for hot water.

[simonineaston]

Any reason why the poll starts at 18 deg C?

Yes. When I checked online for guidence with respect to household heating, 18 degrees seemed to come up often as a reasonable minimum. This from an NHS web page

Heat your home to a temperature that's comfortable for you. If you can, this should be at least 18°C in the rooms that you regularly use, such as your living room and bedroom.

Personally, I use my nose. If it gets cold, the rest of me follows... It's very reliable and I've always got it with me.

[horizon]

Any reason why the poll starts at 18 deg C?

Yes. When I checked online for guidence with respect to household heating, 18 degrees seemed to come up often as a reasonable minimum. This from an NHS web page

Heat your home to a temperature that's comfortable for you. If you can, this should be at least 18°C in the rooms that you regularly use, such as your living room and bedroom.

I get the impression that they are obsessed with room temperature when in fact it's more to do with what you are doing and what you are wearing as well as your own levels of resilience. I've never heated the bedroom and have never understood why anyone should do so.

No wonder people are struggling with heating bills if they rely on the NHS for advice.

[pwa]

Any reason why the poll starts at 18 deg C?

Yes. When I checked online for guidence with respect to household heating, 18 degrees seemed to come up often as a reasonable minimum. This from an NHS web page

Heat your home to a temperature that's comfortable for you. If you can, this should be at least 18°C in the rooms that you regularly use, such as your living room and bedroom.

I get the impression that they are obsessed with room temperature when in fact it's more to do with what you are doing and what you are wearing as well as your own levels of resilience. I've never heated the bedroom and have never understood why anyone should do so.

No wonder people are struggling with heating bills if they rely on the NHS for advice.

Once I'm under a nice thick duvet, an ambient temperature of 18c would have me uncomfortably warm. 15c would be just about right.

[853]

My house is a 1947 3 bed semi, uninsulated except for 4" of loft insulation. It's cavity wall downstairs, and solid wall upstairs, with single glazing.
Ins.png
The cheapest and quickest payback option is another 4" of loft insulation, but it's also the smallest saving, and for that I'll lose my floor unless I pay extra for another one, and also lose headroom. Not worth it.

The next cheapest and quickest paying is cavity insulation, which saves about 3 times as much as more loft insulation, but that won't be happening under any circumstances as long as CIGA hang on to their well-earned repuataion for being a load of shysters who don't honour the guarantee.

The biggest saving is the solid wall, but external insulation is also by far the most expensive, with a long payback. It also looks terrible, and has to be chipped away any time the windows need renewing.

Windows have an even worse payback period for less saving, and worst of all is the floor, with worst level of upheaval as well.

There is another alternative, that might work for you; internal insulation

You can buy insulated plasterboards with a range of thicknesses, or you could build a stud wall on the inside of you walls and use insulation batts of whatever thickness you wanted.

The big drawback of this is that you will lose some of your internal room area, although as the house was built in 1947 I would expect your room sizes to be generous compared to modern houses.

Back in 1997, when I was planning to ditch gas, I crunched the figures at length. I calculated that using electric storage heaters for all of my heating would only work if the house was really well insulated (otherwise it would be cold by 21:00). I took the plunge and, singlehandedly, built a stud wall and insulated it on the inside of the longest external wall of the lounge (the only room I heat). I then fastened plasterboard onto the outside and plastered it. My plastering was ****, but otherwise it has been a great success. I did lose 150mm off the width of the lounge, but it hasn't impaired its use as it was 4.22M wide to start with.

I can't remember the cost, but I know it wasn't a lot back then

[Biospace]

Why do occasional wood burner exhausts out the chimney get all the abuse, while routine gas exhausts into the living space for heating and cooking go uncommented?

Because the hard facts are that a domestic wood burning stove is many orders worse than heating by gas, especially (but not only) with respect to particulate matter.

But it's not, especially with respect to NOx, if the gas is used in a fire, hob or oven, because of the chimney, but anyway, why not condemn both and use electric heating and cooking? Why is it always only wood getting slated?

I was highlighting the pollution of our planet's atmosphere and human factors for climate change, not the quality of air indoors. I heated and cooked over wood for years when living beyond the gas grid and love doing so, the intention is to do so again at some point.

Indoor air quality is a subject for a thread all of its own and is increasingly a concern, especially with the more airtight nature of more modern homes. It's not just the gases from combustion, but carcinogens gassing off from plastics (including synthetic insulation), cleaning materials, mould spores and more. This study highlights what many parents may never have considered.

Warming our homes more than ever using air, air tightness has become more and more important. Builders rarely fit MVHR systems unless the house is upmarket or a specialist eco-build, ventilation levels are usually minimal unless it's very windy and vents are not closed off or windows are cracked open.

[hemo]

I can't vote in the poll as it is set too high, 15/16c is the min temp mine comes on which isn't often.

[simonineaston]

By popular demand, I've added 'below 18' to the choices and have selected the option which allows re-votes... enjoy!

[francovendee]

My house is a 1947 3 bed semi, uninsulated except for 4" of loft insulation. It's cavity wall downstairs, and solid wall upstairs, with single glazing.
Ins.png
The cheapest and quickest payback option is another 4" of loft insulation, but it's also the smallest saving, and for that I'll lose my floor unless I pay extra for another one, and also lose headroom. Not worth it.

The next cheapest and quickest paying is cavity insulation, which saves about 3 times as much as more loft insulation, but that won't be happening under any circumstances as long as CIGA hang on to their well-earned repuataion for being a load of shysters who don't honour the guarantee.

The biggest saving is the solid wall, but external insulation is also by far the most expensive, with a long payback. It also looks terrible, and has to be chipped away any time the windows need renewing.

Windows have an even worse payback period for less saving, and worst of all is the floor, with worst level of upheaval as well.

There is another alternative, that might work for you; internal insulation

You can buy insulated plasterboards with a range of thicknesses, or you could build a stud wall on the inside of you walls and use insulation batts of whatever thickness you wanted.

The big drawback of this is that you will lose some of your internal room area, although as the house was built in 1947 I would expect your room sizes to be generous compared to modern houses.

Back in 1997, when I was planning to ditch gas, I crunched the figures at length. I calculated that using electric storage heaters for all of my heating would only work if the house was really well insulated (otherwise it would be cold by 21:00). I took the plunge and, singlehandedly, built a stud wall and insulated it on the inside of the longest external wall of the lounge (the only room I heat). I then fastened plasterboard onto the outside and plastered it. My plastering was ****, but otherwise it has been a great success. I did lose 150mm off the width of the lounge, but it hasn't impaired its use as it was 4.22M wide to start with.

I can't remember the cost, but I know it wasn't a lot back then

This is what I did here. Not as simple as all power sockets have to be reinstalled, okay if the wires are long enough. As I was rewiring anyway it wasn't a problem.
Of course if I had radiators it would have been a bigger job. It made a big difference to the heat losses.

[Biospace]

Internal insulation for solid walls can affect the dew point and create condensation problems, below are a couple of discussions considering this.

http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/new ... e=1#Item_0
https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and ... ation.html

[ANTONISH]

Internal insulation for solid walls can affect the dew point and create condensation problems, below are a couple of discussions considering this.

http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/new ... e=1#Item_0
https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and ... ation.html

My younger son who is a carpenter has recently been working on old timber framed house in a coservation area - he was installing a breathable insulation to deal with this problem.

[853]

Internal insulation for solid walls can affect the dew point and create condensation problems, below are a couple of discussions considering this.

http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/new ... e=1#Item_0
https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and ... ation.html

My younger son who is a carpenter has recently been working on old timber framed house in a coservation area - he was installing a breathable insulation to deal with this problem.

That is interesting, as Biospace is right about the possibility of condensation problems when insulating solid walls.

Can you get us any info on what products your son was using, and how he was installing them, as the people who need additional wall insulation the most are likely to be those without cavity walls.

Thanks

[pwa]

I must admit that I haven't got my head around why cavity insualtion sometimes results in dampness. Our house has cavity walls filled with Rockwool (mineral wool) that must have been put in as the walls were built. And we have never had any dampness. Is the problem confined to expanding foam introduced after construction?

[al_yrpal]

Condensation occurs when warm moist air touches a cold surface whose temperature is below the air's dew point. Poor ventilation or still moist air trapped in a corner can cause it and...mould can grow. If you have rockwool inside a plasterboard skin you probably wont have a problem. This type of wall insulation is almost standard in new builds.

Al