My heating has been on all day ...

[Bemyclementine]

And it's still on my 16.5 degrees. I have never had the heating on overnight but I'm wondering if I should?? It is an old house, draughty. Obviously uts bloody freezing outside, thick freezing fog here. I'm not sure what the temp was this morning when I got up, I didn't check, but I'm sure it must have been pretty low, for it to still only be 16.5, but also that the heatingvus fighting a losibg battke against the outside temp, cold wi dies, freezing tiled floor etc.

My house is 1930s and I've insulated as much as I can. 16.5c is still cold though. Is the boiler big enough and are the radiators the right size for the rooms?

Sorry to ask, but are the rads getting hot?

The radiators are all hot. It's a victoriana end terrace, solid walls and the roof isn't lined, not something I can afford to do. The loft us boarded put and insulated underfoot, but when you loo lk up you see tiles. The doors and windows are double glazed but rubbish. I feel like I'm.burning through oil for no benefit but I supposed it would be about 10 degrees without the heating.

Boiler was replaced 4 years ago. Most of the radiators are under the windows though which I'm sure doesn't help.

Without heating on, mine drops to around 10 degrees. I find an hour and a half with the heating on will raise it to about 16.5 and that feels comfortable to me. Similar type of house. I'd have to have it on for hours to get it much warmer but can't afford to do so.

Close curtains and rest them on the window ledge

Can you get a mini electric heater and concentrate on just having one warm room. I have a cold, poorly insulated flat and I would never get the whole thing warm but I concentrate on just getting the living room warm and accept that I’m going to be a bit cold when I go into other rooms and try to limit how long I spend in them.

Get some rugs for the floors -
close the curtains

@midgetastic I've just gone round and done that.

Ds1 isn't well hence having it on all day. I'm pretty well wrapped up and not actually cold but I was really surprised at how low the temp was. I've given my electric heater to someone whose boiler has broken 🥶

Do the radiators need turning up at the boiler? I had to do that with mine.

I had this problem so have been leaving my heating on overnight at 15 and now it goes up to 18 and 19.5 which is my ideal temperature.

I do feel your pain as my house isn't the most energy efficient either.

Some good suggestions about oil filled radiator for rooms you use, rather than heating the whole house.

Ours has been on overnight for the last few days. Set at 16, turned up in the morning to 20. When I work at home I just have an oil filled radiator in the study.

We increased boiler thermostat a few days ago. It has helped. We've been lighting the log burner at lunch time. Today we were out so didn't light it till 3pm. We're both sitting here under rugs frozen. We also bled the radiators which Also helped

I'm leaving my thermostat at 17c overnight so the system doesn't have to work so hard through the day to geto it's target temperature. I don't think there's anything in it in terms of gas consumption with the benefit of actually being warm through the day.

Same for me. End terrace and living room is 16 degrees. Got it up to 18 last night but that was with the heating on all day and night! Don't know what else to do

If it’s draughty, could you address that? Room by room. We live in a new ish build and it’s naturally very chilly. We had two draughty bits, front door (letterbox badly fitted and at the bottom) and fireplace which is now removed, and the difference is huge.

I’m in a fairly substantial double fronted Victorian end terrace with double glazing but old double glazing IYSWIM , and last night we had the heating on for three hours before bed, the door to the bedroom was about 2 inches ajar and it was still only 17 degrees in there ! The lounge gets warm and stays warm though
the kitchen has no radiators or heat source ! I use the oven as a heater lol

When the rads cool down, push a duster down inside the radiator fins to get all the fluff out, then give them a hoover.

Cold air should go in the bottom and come out hot at the top, but if it is all caked in fluff. it doesn't work very well.

It really makes a difference.

Have you bled the radiators lately ? I’m unwell and it was 15 when I woke up it is minus 4 where I am and took a while to get up to 18 and my house is 1920’s and much easier to heat than a Victorian house.

Blankets on each chair & bed. A length of fleece is better than nothing, and dries extremely quickly (not tumble dryable though).
Hot water bottles - old fashioned or the modern silicone type. If they're the old type, check they're still in good condition regularly, not perished etc.
Wear fluffy slippers over socks if you can find some cheap, or even just 2 pairs of socks. And I'll be honest, some evenings, I wear fingerless gloves while watching TV. I knit so I can't just keep them under the blanket.
Draught excluders at each door (potentially including internal doors - you can make a cheap one from old tights or leggings, stuffed with newspapers, holey clothes etc). And close all doors.
If you can afford it, line your curtains, or buy insulated curtains. You can insulate them relatively cheaply by sewing a thin layer of fleece fabric to the back of your existing curtains. Also, (again if you can afford it) door curtains help to reduce draughts. You can take them down in summer. Second hand shops often have lots of curtains, blankets etc.
Radiator reflectors - I bought a pack of these, I think they do different pack sizes.
Make sure you check your radiators are bled/checked regularly - some boilers seem to introduce loads of air bubbles into the system - in a previous house, our radiators needed to be done weekly & we couldn't figure out why the boiler kept losing pressure, so check that too.
Hot drinks regularly, soup etc. Hot breakfast also - porridge is fairly quick, especially if you soak the oats overnight.
I second the poster who recommended trying to keep one room warm if you're mostly in one place. It's a shame you've lent your own heater out, do you know when you're likely to get it back?

What temp is the water being pumped around the rads set at ?

I don't know about the boiler thermostat, it's an outside boiler. Never touched it!

The radiators ate all very warm, one is slightly less so. I'm actually really quite warm now as I've been outside for an hour, but it's still only 17.

I never really get on with heating one room, I'm rarely sitting still long enough for it to work apart from on the evenings, when ill light the fire. I potter, so going room to room, without closing the doors.

@Bemyclementine look it up in the manual for the boiler that will show you where the thermostat is and what it is set at.

Thank you, I'll do that tomorrow, I don't fancy spending time outside at this time!!

I suspect if you've boarded the lift it doesn't have enough insulation underneath - 30cm insulation is optimal and to board over that you need to build / use supports to avoid compressing it.
This is the cheapest and probably most effective improvement you can do besides general draught proofing.

Draughtproof doors / windows / gaps, any unused fireplaces, letterboxes & keyholes. Thick curtains in windows drawn as soon as it gets dark. Draught excluders in doors.

Radiators under windows is exactly how heating works especially in older leaky houses as it forces convection currents around the room due to the cold windows / hot radiators (it matters less in double glazed rooms) however at night it's best to tuck curtains behind the radiators to avoid just heating the space between the window and curtain.
(Explained here if if you want more detail www.vaillant.co.uk/homeowners/advice-and-knowledge/why-are-radiators-put-under-windows-2372759.html)