To think that my house should get warmer quicker?

[Axlcat]

it takes about 2 hours to move 2 degrees and won’t go above 18.4. I can’t afford to have it on constantly! Surely 1 degree an hour is slow? And to not go above 18.4? It’s been on 4 hours now.

I don’t know what is going on. It wasn’t like this last year. The house feels so cold - it’s even colder upstairs. Boiler is not old and is set to 70 and radiators all feel hot.

Is there something that I am missing? Why won’t it go up and stay warm?

Mine moves 2 degrees in about 10 minutes. Yours doesn’t sound right.

what other insulation do you have going on - are you closing doors, do you have draughts, do you have thick curtains etc? Are you losing it as fast as it's going hotter?

It shouldn't, but have you waited too long with heating?
When we come from few days away during winter ot takes a long blast to bring house to some solid temp and then just heating bit there and there. If rads get hot, house should warm up.

Drafts?

Doors are shut. We have a thick curtain covering the door. Blinds in windows which are not great to be fair (rented) but nothing has changed from last year and we didn’t have this issue - it would get to temp quickly and stay warm. Not sure it loses at same rate but definitely loses it quickly. Is 1 degree an hour slow? It is right?

Sounds slow but how cold did you let the house get? Is it damp? The wetter the house the longer it will take.

@Cheesuswithallama ive been frugal with it but have been having it on 1-2 hours a couple of times a day for the last couple of weeks. Could it be that neighbours are not putting theirs on (we are a mid stone terrace) so we have cold either side? I’m in a little tiny box room which was super cosy last year and it’s like a fridge even with the radiator on for hours.

@OhmygodDont i do wonder this - could it be damp. It’s been very wet here and I do think it suffers damp - old stone terrace. I’ve been more frugal than usual of course. I’ve been trying to air the house in the hope that helps but don’t want to let what little warmth we have out!

It may be that as well.
I would try to do one blast for few hours to over 20 to see if the house "soaks it up" and gets easier to heat.

Tbh I was also moaning the house temp drops faster than last year in mine.

Have you tried the reflective foil behind rads? It helped in bedrooms with inadequate rads.

Ours (rental house) only moves 1.5 degrees in 4 hours 😫But it’s a poorly insulated Victorian terrace with original single glazed windows and the boiler guy, who we had come out on the weekend, says the radiators are probably knackered (they’re pretty old). He did put some cleaner into the system to see if that helps - said if it was going to help it would do so in about a week.

@Cheesuswithallama it won’t get above 18.4! It’s been on hours today. I can’t get it any higher……I haven’t got reflective stuff yet but might do.

Sounds like it could be all the wet plus the possibility of your neighbours also being tighter with heating. If you can afford I’d get a dehumidifier and try and get it up to 20c at least once.

our old house costs a fortune neighbours apparently didn’t feel the cold. I did notice in the new house today felt a lot colder but it was drizzling all day but we still got up 1c in under half an hour.

@Burm thats awful! Really hope it works for you. We are lucky that we have a wood burner in the living room but I just can’t understand what the difference is this year. It was fine last year.

Do your radiators need bleeding?

@DementedPanda they are red hot throughout so I think they are ok.

@OhmygodDont possibly the wet. I reckon a dehumidifier would help for sure. It’s just more bloody cost!

You need a dehumidifier, or a tumble dryer. You can’t just dry clothes inside without one or the other.

You can tho. It's quite normal. You just need to ensure ventilation

Ours is similar and increases by around 1 degree an hour. I think it is becuase it is timber framed with poor insulation which loses heat. Fortunately we also have an extension with underfloor heating and good insulation which heats up much quicker. It runs off the same boiler so it isn't the boiler which causes the slow heating.

What temperature are you starting at? If you've not had the heating on at all or very low, it will take longer to heat to a reasonable temperature. You're not just heating the air in the house, you're heating everything in the house. You're heating the air, you, the furniture, the carpet, the internal walls, the food in the cupboards, the hoover. Everything absorbs and retains heat at different rates. The internal walls in the house will absorb huge amounts of heat, and then release it slowly. If you've not had the heating on, the they'll be starting from a very low temp and slowly heating up.

My house goes up a couple of degrees in about 15 mins when I turn the heating on, but that's because I've only had it off over night, so everything in the house still has a relatively high ambient temp. If I go on holiday for a month and leave the heating off, then it's going to take a couple of hours to go up by 2 degrees when I get back

@fdgdfgdfgdfg is typically about 18 when we go to bed. This morning when I got up it was 15.2 in the living room but much colder upstairs. We don’t have the heating on overnight.

Get some hydrometers off Amazon and place them around the house.
If the humidity is 70+ your heating won't work as effectively as if you can get it into the 50's or low 60's.
You can invest in a good dehumidifier to run overnight, but first I'd recommend understanding your humidity levels - and check thoroughly for sources of water causing damp in the house and tackle those.
For a quick experiment I'd recommend opening all the doors and windows for an hour and try to get the wet air out of the house and replace with outside air - which will be colder but will have less humidity after you have shut all windows and doors and warmed up the new air - you may notice it's easier to heat and retain heat but long term the house needs dryer air if it has a high humidity, for the heating system to work well.

@Antaboo this is great advice and a good starting point so that I can at least try and work out if it is indeed the humidity before investing in a dehumidifier. Thank you.

Ok, ignore what I said then, I figured this was going to be one of those threads where they were suffering at 9 degrees and had only now put the heating on.

I'd agree with other posters, check your humidity, check your radiators don't need bleeding, and if it's neither of those, you probably need better insulation

Ours is exactly the same OP. About 18 degrees at night then drops to 15 of so by the morning. Heating comes on at 6am and then takes until 9am to get up to 18 again when the heating goes off.

Our humidity as measured by nest stat is 66 degrees. I am wondering if a dehumidifer would help. We have a large 5 bed though so presumably we would need several? Also how does opening the winsows help when the humidity outside is in the 90s? I keep them closed when it is cold as it takes so long to get the temperature up again.

@Wheretheskyisblue it’s slightly better today but we have same issue. It’s so foggy here that opening the windows yesterday would have no doubt made it worse! I managed to air for 10 mins this morning and it came to temp quicker. But it loses it so quickly if we leave it on it’s constantly topping up. I’m so much colder this year I just can’t work it out!

have you checked if your radiators need bleeding?