AIBU to think my house is too cold?

[myhouseistoocold]

My kitchen today is 11 degrees C, my hallway is 14 (no radiators in either). My dining room where I'm working from home is currently 16. My bedroom is usually 18 or 19 in the mornings (these last two weeks).

Is it normal for Victorian houses to be this cold? We bought this house 4 years ago and I just can't ever get warm here in winter.

Are these normal temps for a UK house in winter or should I be trying to move (or somehow impossibly save up for a zillion-pound extension with triple glazing and under floor heating)?!

[MacarenaFerreiro]

www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and-support/room-heaters

Says about 20p an hour. We've got one running in our kitchen/dining room at the moment as we're waiting for two new radiators to be delivered and we have no heat in there at all.

However, missed the bit in the OP's post where she said she has her heating turned right down to 1 and is moaning about it being cold. Just turn it up, woman!

[Menta1elf]

I moved from a 3 bed Victorian semi few years ago to downsize to a 2 bed detached bungalow just up the road.
My old house had huge rooms, high ceilings, chimneys, big conservatory etc and was always warm. Had to replace the boiler and upgrade the radiators when I bought in 1999 but I was never, ever cold in that house.

Fastforward to my downsizing to a 2 bed dinky detached, double glazed 1940's bungalow. I can't get bloody warm in here at all despite a Worcester Combi boiler, log burner, new rads and insulation in every orifice.
I've sacrified being warm for being mortgage free so can't complain really.

[Fightingfit2019]

Your rad on 1 is nothing! Turn it up!
Apart from dc’s rooms who’s rads are turned off as ds14 is always hot! My heating is set at 21 constantly throughout the winter. If I do get a little cold I turn it up to 23 for an hour and then bring it back down to 21. However I do feel the cold. So even waking up this morning to the temp 21, it was slippers and dressing gown for me! Do try bleeding or flushing your rads though!

[Deadbudgie]

Buzzzzzzz are you living in my house? It sounds exactly like ours.

[Threehoursfromhome]

The OP has the radiator set at 1 because she had a message about her bills going up.

I agree that turning up the heating is the most obvious term solution, but it isn't always an option.

[BlackeyedGruesome]

my neighbour needs to insulate her loft hatch. there was a dark square of defrosted snow above where it is located. I have started insulating mine. (some of that silver stuff that goes behind radiators, had some that has ripped a bit and stapled to inside of hatch I need to do more to fix it as there is still a dragught blowing through, less than before but still.. )

[BlackeyedGruesome]

ffs, fat fingers.. draught

[smellsofelderberries]

Oh gosh, these replies are scaring me! We live in a beautiful new build but DH wants to buy a house. It almost never drops below 20 in our place and that's without the heating on! It's fantastic!!

[smellsofelderberries]

That should say, new build flat. Heritage building converted 10 years ago.

[MiniMum97]

You need to make sure you have radiators in all rooms and that their output is the right size fit the size rooms you have (plus whether you insulated walls and double or single glazing will also come into it). There are BTU calculators you can use online or a heating engineer should be able to check for you.

Our house (Edwardian - mainly single glazed)is also freezing downstairs but we replaced two radiators in the front rooms (which were the coldest) on the advice of our heating engineer and they are now the warmest rooms in the house. We intend to replace the others downstairs if we stay here when we decorate as they are also too small.

Make sure you are also finding and sealing any holes and/or installing draught excluder etc.

[myhouseistoocold]

Radiator isn't turned down to 1 - it's the boiler that is on 1 (there's 1-6 in the settings there). It deffo gets warmer (in the rooms with radiators) if you turn the boiler settings up.

The boiler setting of 1 has been okish in my bedroom when it wasn't so cold, and my energy bills were already £115 a month, now going up to £127 a month (because recently we've been bold enough to turn it up to 2 or god forbid, 3).

Dining room, living room and my bedroom are ok, cooler than I'd like (but guess that's the 1 boiler setting and I could improve that if I could afford the increase in heating bills). Top floor kids bedrooms are the ones with the not-getting-hot radiators - they were newly fitted in the last couple of years so god knows what is wrong with them, think husband has tried bleeding them. Will have to get a plumber out to have a look.

Kitchen and halls obviously horrific with no radiators.

I think the aim of my post was to find out whether putting up with colder temps was the norm in Victorian houses - I could deffo turn my boiler setting up beyond 1 (it's on 2 now for the evening) but not sure I could afford to on a regular basis!

[myhouseistoocold]

I'm going to sound super thick now, but what does the thermostat actually do? We have ours in our freezing cold hallway, not sure if that is impacting anything? But then we have the 1-6 thingie on the boiler so feel like the thermostat is redundant probably... literally no idea.

[justasking111]

Are kids bedrooms on second floor?

[myhouseistoocold]

ps I love all the suggestions on this thread, there's lots I can do or look into.

[myhouseistoocold]

yeah kids bedrooms on second floor

[justasking111]

Well could be crap in the pipes, or pump struggling, either way I would call in a plumber. He would make it more efficient which would save you money. The only other thing is the boiler is too small for the work it has to do.

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

I live in a Victorian terrace. We have a modern double radiator in the hall and we have the temperature on this turned up high in the winter. I swear this more or less heats the rest of the house! The warm air rises up 2 flights of stairs and into the bedrooms. It also feeds into the sitting room and study. The kitchen in the back extension is colder, but that's ok. We stick a fan heater on for an hour or two in a particularly cold spell.

[sonlypuppyfat]

I grew up in a house with just a gas fire in one room, I used to wake up with ice on the inside of my bedroom window

[twiglet]

We have a victorian fishermans cottage in a protected area so double glazing isn't allowed!

We have thermal lined curtains, a hive heating system which comes on automatically when the temp drops below and just finished wall insulation on 4 rooms and upstairs hallway (no radiator)
It's a lot of work but basically knocked every wall back to the brick then stud wall with thick insulation foam sheets. It's not cheap at £50 a sheet let alone the work but we part funded some of it with warm energy grant (not sure if they do them anymore) and did it slowly over 4 years concentrating on bedrooms first!
Upgrading your radiators will also help!

Upright radiators are great when wall space is at a premium.

[longtompot]

We have several heat settings on our boiler, but also have twist dial settings on each rad. Have you had a look at what number the rads you have are actually on? We have a thermastat which we have around 20 but I turn it down when we go to bed as its difficult to sleep if too hot at night.

[Adversecamber22]

I grew up in a house built in 1840. The ceilings were double height and the windows were huge. As much as it looked beautiful and if it was modernised these days maybe it would be a bit better it was just far too hard to heat.

I live in a 1920’s house with original features and well insulated, it seemed like a good compromise.

[Foslady]

Do you have a variable setting central heating pump? It could be that the pump speed is too low (it’s just a dial on top usually like on your iron)

[Myimaginarycathasfleas]

The thermostat measures the temperature in your hall and tells the boiler whether to run or not.

The 1 to 6 setting on your boiler determines how hard you make it work. 6 would be the winter setting. It will cost more to run at this setting but your boiler will be doing a better job.

Can you tell I’m not a qualified gas engineer? 😂

[myhouseistoocold]

Radiators are all on maximum.

Foslady I can't see that dial thing!

[bellabasset]

My house is partly 1725 and partly 1905 but lower ceilings, part cob, part stone nearly 2' thick walls. But DG. The heating is set at 20° and has been on for about 5hrs today. The temp is 19 to 20°

My bill's are due around this time of the quarter, and I've just submitted the readings and the bill is for £267 and my account is £95 in credit. My annual usage is around 9500 for gas and 2600 for elec.The projected cost is around £900 annually and I pay it over the year.