PLEASE help me understand why my house is never warm?

[greaj]

It's a 4yr old new build. 2 bed semi.

It's NEVER warm, even with the heating on full there's still a chill in the air, and almost the minute I turn the heating off it goes cold again as if it was never on.

I keep all the doors closed.

If it weren't for our heated blankets I don't know how we'd cope during the winter!

Mine is like that. It’s truly depressing. Hope to sell this year. Sounds like poor insulation and maybe North facing?

What flooring do you have?

Do you have an indoor thermometer to see what the temperature is?

Also what does the insulation look like in your loft? It should be nice and deep.

It might be possible to borrow a thermal camera from your council to find out where the heat is going.

Either that or you could boil a load of water in the kitchen and run the shower a lot in the bathroom when it is freezing outside and watch to see where the water condenses. If it condences on the windows then your windows are poorly insulated. If it runs down the wall then the walls are poorly insulated. If it just disappears then it means you have gaps somewhere with draughts and the steam is just escaping out of the draughty holes.

A thermal camera would be the best thing though.

What aspect is the house? Is it overshadowed by a larger building or trees? Is the loft insulated? Is there decent double glazing? Are there obvious draughts coming in? What does your Energy Performance Certificate say?

Sounds like no insulation.
Can you get cavity wall and under floor insulation ?
Is the loft insulated ?
I thought new-builds had to be built to a certain standard to comply with energy targets.
Are you the first owner and what was the EPC rating in the home buyers report ?

Our friends have a shared ownership new build, and it turns out they never put the insulation in when it was being built (in their whole road). It has finally been retrofitted and some compensation paid to cover increased energy costs in the 5 years since they moved in. Apparently it's much nicer now.

We replaced our old boiler this winter. The change is dramatic. Our house used to be a bit cool and the living room cold as a fridge all the time as the radiator was the last in the system. It's now so toasty. I can't believe the difference. If your boiler is old, that could be preventing the CH from working efficiently, maybe.

Are there people living in the attached house next door? I live in a terrace and I can tell whether my neighbours have their heating on by the temperature in my own home.

Sounds like poor/no insulation or damp

Our house used to be like this. We’ve put in insulation throughout and better windows and the difference is amazing.

Our house is the same. I think there must be no insulation, coupled with a big hallway and galleried landing thing in the middle and velux windows, plus poorly fitting doors. Even with the heating on the lounge never gets warm-this time of year we cant even sit in it. It's actually very depressing. We are all in bed by 8 to stay warm.

What's the temperature inside? What do you mean heating on full? Is there not a thermostat where it clicks on and off to maintain the temperature you've set it to? Or is it never reaching temperature?

That doesn't sound right for a relatively new house. You can look up your EPC here
https://www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate

I don't know the rating, but think it should be A or B for a house only 4 years old. You may have a claim on the builder if it isn't.

Do you open windows to ventilate on dry days?

I see a lot of properties that have undersized radiators for the size of the room. I particularly see it on rightmove pics of newly renovated houses. Smaller and thinner radiators are cheaper.

You have to calculate the btus to make sure it can sufficiently heat the space. Always best to go in excess of your needs if you want a cozy home.

Watched the programme about botched new builds. They had done where there was hardly any insulation.

Buy a thermoneter - maybe one sold for greenhouses as they give maximum & minimum as well as current temp.
When the boiler is on, does it get the house to an appropriate temperature? IE if thermostat is set to 20C, does the room actually get to that?

If the heating gets the house to the right temperature, but the house doesnt stay warm then the issue is insulation (including windows and draghts).

If it cant get it up to temperature then the house looses heat faster than the radiators can provide it. So then either the boiler or radiators might be inadequate, or it could be heat loss, or a combination...