to ask if your heating is struggling in this cold snap?

[ohbigdaddio]

We've just moved to a Victorian terrace and are bloody freezing. The thermostat is struggling to get to 17 degrees in the double glazed kitchen and the heating has been on all day. There's no way it's 17 degrees in other parts of the house!
Only been here a week so no idea what it's like in normal winter temperatures.
Trying to work out if it's our new house or if it's due to the unprecedented weather! We have wooden floorboards throughout all 3 floors, single glazing at front of house (conservation area so can't change this) and a lot of the house is open plan which I know will be contributing to the cold but is anyone else having this issue?

@Retrogal

You need carpets and underlay. It's amazing how much cold come up through the ground

It’s true. It’s astonishing how much colder our rooms with hard floors are compared with the carpeted ones.

We live in an Edwardian semi, original wood floors throughout downstairs, tiles in kitchen and bathroom, floorboards in DSs room, carpets on the landing and in the other two bedrooms. It's currently 24 in here. The kitchen is a bit chillier as it's down a couple of steps and sticks out into the garden on its own, we don't have underfloor heating. We have double glazing but it's quite old and not brilliant, we get condensation if we don't ventilate every day.
When we moved in we put really good lagging in the loft and that has made a good difference upstairs and we close the door to the kitchen (where the back door is) and to the hall as both doors are a little draughty, we've also got thermal lined curtains in most rooms. We turn the heating off at half nine and just light the log burner downstairs or DS gets too hot in bed.
Thermostat is set to 20/21 overnight and is taken upstairs, heating very rarely kicks in even when we were having all of that snow and the temps were well below freezing.

Op’s post is exactly why l left a Victorian house. Everywhere was freezing below knee level. We used to have the heating cone on at 4:30 am just to make it warm enough for everyone to get up at 7:30 am.

We couldn’t afford the power bills (5k pa) and that’s what made us move.

Never again. Much prefer my warm cosy modern house.

I put my heating on an hour ago 15.5, intend turning it down as I'm roasting! Old house, double glazed, only a few radiators on, sitting room, hall, landing and one bathroom.

Op’s post is exactly why l left a Victorian house.

My last house was a Victorian end of terrace. When the heating went off, the place was freezing five minutes later.

This house is much older but once warm, holds its heat.

Victorian house and yeap it is a tough one to heat .Huge windows and no cavity wall. But I still love it .

@bloodyhairy

My heating hasn't once been off, and the original single-glazed sash windows don't help

I feel your pain mine are original sash too.

Yes, end Victorian terrace here and absolutely Baltic lately. Whilst WFH, we have the hearing on and an electric heater by our feet

Yup, we live in an old draughty 400 year old building. Original windows. Yesterday we couldn’t get warm at all downstairs,. Heating on full bung and wood burner on, and big blankets. It’s very rare it is like that but it was minus six outside.

Today is much warmer, I woke up early and the wood burner was still glowing red, as my husband had thrown a log on when he went to bed at midnight, I just threw some more on, and it burst into life again. I’ve literally had to turn the heating down as I was too hot.

It’s been fairly extreme temperatures but it’s also fairly unusual.

@Allmyarseandpeggymartin

Yes!

DH had to go out and pour warm water on a blockage in a condensing pipe outside earlier. Right ballache. Piss off cold.

Yep we had to do this today, its never happened before even when we had the beast from the east!

also cold in victorian semi...we do have wooden floors but replaced the old floor boards with tongue and groove boards as originals were rotten...also have rugs down everywhere...open fire in lounge....thermals on and dressing gown etc....its just the very cold spell....it makes me so miserable....

We have exposed floor boards throughout downstairs. A massive rug in the living room, but when you stand on the actual floor itself you can feel the cold coming up.

But it is rare snd not for long we hit these temps and from tomorrow it starts warming up again. In fact it’s already warmer, right now it’s one degrees here, where as last night at the same time it was minus four.

I've got a Victorian terrace. Taken me years to get the heating right. For me we found having the thermostat in living room. Shutting all doors in house really helps maintain temp as hallway space steals all my heating! I have a void under my house, when wind blows in certain direction the floor gets really cold, we found worth every penny laying really good quality underlay made huge difference.

Condenser pipe froze. Boiler fitter fit a straight pipe to the drainpipe, which is silly, IMO. It filled up and froze. My dh was on the flat roof defrosting it with the kettle and had to chop the pipe (on my plumber’s instructions). Not helpful at the start of a very cold snap!

Last year we had cavity wall insulation done and wow, what a difference. It’s finally warm downstairs too

At our last house (newish build ) we did not find it as warm as our previous semi. We thought it was because it needed double glazing. We had this fitted but still wasn't as warm. When we realised we hadn't got cavity wall insulation we had this done.
Was done in a few hours and absolutely no mess. Only a few hundred pounds. But what a difference!!!!!!
10 times Warmer in Winter and kept cool in the summer when it was scorching outside.

In this house - newish build we have storage heater off set by solor panels.
They are fantastic.
With cavity walk insulation, loft insulation, double glazing, carpets in all rooms, bar bath room and kitchen ( which has really super insulation under the laminates )
Curtains on doors and windows we are very lucky but I am keeping doors shut and waring an extra layer and extra blanket on the bed.
We did have to replace the wooden front door when we first moved in with a lovely double glazed , as it blew a Gale thorough it.

Strange, we have floorboards with massive gaps... And we are as toasty as anything! Heating is so effective and works instantly when we turn on boost.
Our radiators are about 10 years old, new boiler about 2 years old. Old double glazed windows with sealant gone in some places...

Have you bled the radiators

My house won't warm up at all despite the heating being on constantly (I dread to imagine my gas bill), it's been -6 here.

My house is 185 years old and I'm having work done downstairs. Therefore the sole radiator has been removed for the plaster to go on and the fireplace is out of use. There is also a hole in the wall where the electrician put in a new supply (it took him a couple of attempts to drill it accurately), the fireplace is open, the chimney pot uncovered, and there is a draught around the inner front door. God knows where the mice are getting in but that would be another draught point. It's bloody freezing down there, even in thermal socks and slippers.

the two upstairs radiators are really struggling to keep the upstairs bedrooms at 16°. As for the heated towel rail in the poorly insulated bathroom extension? It's hopeless.

I asked how much it would cost to dig up the floor slab and replace with insulated limecrete. £10k. Not including the cost of fitting UFH pipework and a floor surface. Nor does that cover reinstating the kitchen or a month of Airbnb accommodation. With all of the other work planned, it'll be 10 years of freezing stone floors then. At least putting UFH in upstairs should be easier (just lay it over the existing boards).

Mine is a 1980s house and normally the heating (gas boiler) is ok but has really struggled last few days. I like to keep it at least 20 as I am arthritic and cant function if too cold. I have the heating on at night otherwise it goes too cold and never warms up enough. Its on almost full at present. I am wearing a furry kaftan with a hood and thick tights underneath. I dread going to the downstairs loo as there is no heating in there!

Sounds like you might need a new boiler...

Look at insulation though. Even in a conversation area you can have double glazing. If you have sash you can get an inside window that closes in the middle, so doesn’t destroy the look of the sash - or you can get double glazed sash, but that is expensive.

There are some government grants for insulation so worth looking into.

Mum and dads was like that until they upgraded gas boiler to higher output and put at least one double convector radiator in each room, 2 in sitting room. And fully insulated the loft. Gas fire in sitting room helps.

Also old school for single glazed windows - big heavy curtains and curtain on front door if wood.

Our victorian house is fine - but we have a bloody big boiler!!

Have you checked the temperature the boiler set to ? Crank up the heat to 90 if needed!

Before they did conversion with boiler - I used to do my revision in bathroom (huge add on) as had 2 radiators and one was always on