to think old houses are pretty and interesting, but not comfortable (energy bill up 4x)

[alittlethyme]

So I moved a few months ago from a modern terraced house to a detached cottage.

I thought the energy bills would go up a bit, but not x4! The last house often got too hot in the winter this house does warm up but overnight I get woken up with how cold it is. It never seems that confortable. I thought with double glazing, loft and wall insulation it would be fine but it isn't. I spend 150 on 3m of wood for the burner, this has almost been used up and this just heats the lounge!

Both properties are electric only and that has added to the cost I guess.

I hated how boring my last house was, but it was warm. Here is just so cold.

Electric balnkets that you can leave on all-night are your friend.

Agreed. We lived in a listed building which had double glazing etc, but during the winter we had to leave the heating on low 24/7, when the heating went off for an hour or so it needed a good day to get back to warm again. High ceilings really doesn't help.

What sort of ambient temperature are you expecting? We live in a large, old, draughty house and we've discovered that it's relatively easy and cost-effective to heat the house to 15-16 degrees but beyond that it's hard to do without ridiculous expenditure. If your house is the same you might find you need to adjust your expectations and put a jumper on.

There are a few things other things you can do (as well as putting a jumper on). First, put curtains over all the doors - we found that made a MASSIVE difference. Also concentrate on heating the rooms you use most. Get a multifuel stove: coal is much more effective than wood, and cheaper too. Get 100% wool duvets (Baavet, can't recommend highly enough, warm in winter and not sweaty at all even as the weather warms up) and put a quilt over them if that's still not enough.

Also, did I mention put a jumper on? And Celtic & Co make gorgeous calf-height sheepskin indoor boots that make ALL the difference if you have stone floors

that's more to do with moving from terraced to detached I'd say.

Also agree with Winterskies - leave the heating on, at a lower temperature, all the time. If it goes off and then on again you waste most of the energy just re-heating to the same fucking baltic low temperature.

I'm in a new build (built last year) and it's amazingly toasty, we have solar panels for hot water and they recently reduced our combined ags and electric DD down to a tenner a month as we'd used so little (down from £170...).

I woudl never go back to a draughty old house. Brr.

It's all down to insulation. Personally we found moving from a top floor new build flat to a 1930s semi a real (cold) shock and have been insulating and draughtproofing for years now but damn thing just not built to retain heat.

Our energy bills have only gone up slightly but really because we now accept 15/16 degrees as normal operating temperature and spend the evenings huddled under blankets.

well, we moved from a newish (15yo) built 2 bed flat to a large (ish) : bed victorian.
proper windows mean half the bill we had in the flat with shoddy double glazing

Yep

But you do get used to it
I've spent the last 20 years living in old terrace houses mainly edwardian and victorian but one was Georgian (this was the coldest).

We just moved to a 1960s semi and I find it gets too hot and stuffy when the heating is on!

PPS I can't recommend these highly enough. Toasty warm for telly watching, especially with a hot water bottle too.

Give it a year, OP - once you're used to it you'll be hardy as anything and think everyone else's houses are way too hot

I have moved from a draughty 19th century farmhouse to a 15th town century less draughty house. Both require the heating to be on 24/7. 16Degrees always and 18 - 20 when we are in. Both have fires in the living room that get used daily over winter.

next year buy your wood early and in far more bulk! Find a good local coal merchant - ask about deliveries that include the coal bunker!

Totes, slippers, woolly sloppies, couch blankets and hot water bottles become essential.

But in the summer you get your reward - they are so very cool!

We live in a detached old farmhouse of about 300 years old. It is fucking freezing. The other day we started peeling up the revolting old carpet and found amazing stone tiles beneath. the only problem is that they are like blocks of ice. There is a log burner but it only gets one room really warm. Last night I had to share a bed with a large child just to get warm!!
Roll on spring!

A terraced house only has half its external surfaces at outside temperature. A detached house has all its external surfaces at outside temperature - and, normally, a whole lot more windows.

Even with really good insulation, that's going to make a huge difference.

How old is the double glazing and loft insulation? Modern versions are far thicker and more efficient.

And put more blankets on your bed if you're waking up cold, or an extra duvet.

That is right - we used to live in a cosy little maisonette with neighbours on three sides - it was never cold!

I am working from home in a beautiful old listed house with no double glazing. I have the heating on, UGG boots and am wearing a down puffa and a thermal vest.

Its probably about 17 degrees here - doesn't get a lot hotter unless I light the log burners as well. The bills are pretty big, but the house is 4000sqft with no insulation. I do shut off the bits of the house we don't use in winter and turn the heating down in those parts of the house to save money.

You get used to it. My hands are a bit cold, as I am typing, but the rest of me is fine

At night I have PJ's bedsocks and an extra blanket over my bed to keep out the cold. You just have to change the way you live

We moved from a detached built 2000 to a similar size detached new build. It is amazing how much warmer new build is. Bills lower and retains heat. Insulation/windows technology move on very quickly,

400 year old house here. Absolutely freezing!!! Heating oil costs 200 a month to spread the cost throughout the year but still end up spending more in winter. Electricity 95 a month! Doesn't help that we still have a foot of snow outside!! In bed lots of layers are needed and it works. Quilts, lots of old blankets and were at 13 degrees in the bedroom at night. Baby is in vest, babygro, grobag, gloves and two blankets. But I love it here x

Double glazing is old, maybe 15+ years.

I can deal with most of me being cold, having loads of blankets its just my nose that gets the coldest. My room was 12 degrees when I got out of bed today, I'm sure I've got some new broken vains on my face too :(

Can't buy coal as its a wood burner and not suitable.

Keep all the doors closed all the time, and shut the curtains in your bedroom (and get nice thick ones) when you've got the heating on - it makes a huge difference
Buy draft tape from B&Q and put it around all the doors, internal and external, and windows, and get draft excluders for key holes, letterboxes, air bricks. Store the wood around your wood burner to keep out drafts!

Get word out that you burn wood. We put our open fire in probably about 3 years ago now and we haven't bought any wood for it. Our outbuilding is full of wood as we have been given loads.

Our house has 3' thick granite walls so no wall insulation but we have plenty in the loft and replaced the windows 5 years ago when we bought it. Our central heating runs off oil, we use about 1000L a year. Hot water is off the immersion though and our electric bill was about £700 last year.

We bought a badly-maintained (and, as it turned out, very poorly insulated) Victorian semi in '91. Our gas bill for that winter (just a quarter) was £409. When we stopped reeling, we got busy with insulation, draft exclusion and the like. It was never what you'd call a cosy house, but we get it warmer, cheaper. Lots of good advice from pp's and online, I'd say it's definitely worth spending some time and money on your place.

"Get word out that you burn wood. We put our open fire in probably about 3 years ago now and we haven't bought any wood for it. "
that really wouldn't work round here, everyone wants wood.

I feel your pain, 4 storey Victorian villa here, on a hill too for extra draughts! It simply doesn't matter how long I leave the heating on for it NEVER goes above 16 degrees in my house. Log burner in the main lounge was the best money we ever spent, open fires in the other rooms but hardly light those or I'd spend all my time 'fire tending' the wind howling down the chimneys often wakes the children at night but the trade off is huge rooms and loads of space to play, plus I have become very hardy and break out in a sweat when we visit friends and family. Especially when they have the heating cranked up to 30. MIL I'm talking to you....