To ask for advice on daughter/bedroom issue?

[itsbloodyfreezing]

Sorry bit boring but posting here for traffic as I can't find any answers online and I know you ladies will come up with something!

We've just moved house, house is lovely and bottom floor nice and toasty. DD14 is in the attic room and despite the room having two radiators it's bloody freezing!! She is a bit miserable about it, walking into it is like walking outside, especially if you stand under the two dormer windows, it's like a cold draught whistling straight through the windows. It's a big room and unless you're standing right beside a radiator it's just uncomfortable to be in. There is an attic space that runs behind one of the walls, not insulated.

We don't have much budget to do any serious overhauls at the moment so do you have any suggestions? I've got her a fan heater but the power bills will be extortionate so it's not a great solution.

Do your best to fix the draughts round the windows, but invest in some thick, blanket lined curtains - they are as good as double glazing for keep out the cold - works a treat (we lived in a very draughty old farmhouse until 4 weeks ago). Buy them so they pool on the floor slightly, otherwise you'll feel the draughts round your ankles and the heat will leak out.

Don't use a fan heater - they're hideously expensive. Put kitchen foil behind the radiators to reflect heat back into the room (fix to cardboard for a cheap option). If DD's room has a door at the bottom of the stairs, keep it open to let some of the heat from the house upstairs. Line the attic space running behind one of the walls with insulation. Buy her an electric blanket to stop the bed feeling damp & cold.

Oil fired and convection heaters are really cheap to run (oil fired being slightly safer for young people who tend to drape their clothes over them - be aware of that tendency upfront).

I second the suggestion of free insulation. There are several funding streams out at the moment, some income based, some postcode based and some open to all. Try help link, the one Johnny ball advertises on the TV or British gas (you don't need to be a customer). Loads of companies offering loft and cavity insulation, or other forms if walls not suitable. You will need to have a quick energy survey of your house, so probably not likely to be done before Christmas, but no reason you can't get the ball rolling.

Also energy saving trust.org is a good source of income.

Definitely do not use straw! Per roll loft insulation is not prohibitively expensive and would certainly pay for itself by the end of winter if the alternative was a fan heater. If you do it yourself though, resist the temptation to push it all the way into the eaves, as that can cause other problems with sweating.

Attic rooms are terrible places to be if the house is on fire. Move her downstairs and take the risk yourselves.

Am pmsl at the hay bale suggestion. Do you want the girl to be bullied

Yes was going to say same as tinkerbell - not that long ago (4 months?) we got cavity wall done for free and could have got better loft insulation if we had been arsed enough to shift the stuff out of it. Not sure if we'd have got that bit entirely free though; can't remember but worth asking/Googling your local firms.

Heavy duty curtains over door(s) and windows will keep drafts down and heat in.

We have oil radiators as secondary heating as only have a wood burner as the main source (which obviously isn't much use if you want it to be warm when people get up in morning). They aren't working out much more expensive than gas was in my old house (this is in badly insulated old Welsh miners' terrace so if it was going to be expensive anywhere, it would be here). Definitely worth it, you can get second hand ones pretty cheap or even new I think are not too bad for price. Plus nail blankets up over the roof windows if you have no cash at all for curtains etc. You don't get much light anyway this time of year so better to keep the heat in.

Oil filled radiator with a built in timer. They take a while to heat the space so you time it to come on for an hour before she will be going to her room.

Don't use an electric blanket. My mil left hers on in our house and it scorched the mattress (of course I WBU to appear even slightly upset it). My fireman neighbour then told me he'd never allow one in the house.Hot water bottles stay warm most of the night.

Next week British Gas are coming over to install insulation in our loft for free. We don't even get our energy from them. All we had to do was call and get them to visit to check our house was eligible.

That would easily be your cheapest option.

Try and ascertain exactly where you're losing heat. Use insulation to stuff up any gaps and get a price for proper insulation.

Oil filled radiators as recommended by PP are brilliant. Definitely do that!

Good luck!

Oil filled radiator plugged in to a basic timer so she can set it to come on before she gets up in the morning and before she comes home at night. I used this system when my baby had a colder room, as long as its on for long enough it can't be too cold.

I dont think you would be eligible for free insulation as they have to be able to cover a certain percentage of the loft space which they wouldnt be able to do if it is a living space

The free insulation is just laying down a thick blanket of insulation on the floor of the attic space - it does not preserve the attic as living space.

Is it a solid wall to the next door attic, or a thin partition? If it's just a partition you will find that insulating it (you can get sheets of compressed foam stuff which you cut to shape with a bread knife, they fit between the wooden supports on the "wrong" side) makes a huge difference. We have eaves cabinets in all our bedrooms, all completely uninsulated when we moved in. It was freezing until we did them, now it isn't.

And definitely deal with the drafty windows. You can make fake "double glazing" with a lightweight wooden frame and cling film at a pinch. It does help.

Kingspan insulation is the stuff that comes in sheets. If your loft isn't insulated, you're wasting masses of heating! Usually, a converted loft room is the warmest room in the house!

Definitely, your priority should be getting the roof insulated, then seeing how much difference that makes before investing in alternative heat sources - otherwise you're just completely wasting your money!

Kingspan, that's the one! Keeps us really toasty in our rooms in the roof!

How about a hot water bottle and a thick winter duvet! I got a 15 tog duvet for £14.99 which wasn't too bad from www.thebeddingcompany.co.uk for my little girl. Or perhaps try an electric blanket?