Why is my home so cold??

[Freshstarts24]

I’m hoping someone might have some ideas as to what the issue could be. I live in a flat, have gas central heating. The flat is fairly old , but has double glazing and doesn’t feel particularly drafty.
No matter how long I have my heating on or what temp I turn the thermostat to it does not seem able to go above 21 degrees. Now, I’ve seen others mention on here that 21 is a reasonable temperature, but in my flat it still feels chilly. Whereas 21 in my office for example, would not be.
Surely it can’t be right that I can’t get the temperature any higher than this? It’s never warm. If I have the heating on for 5 hours, it stays at 21, and whilst no longer cold, it’s also not warm.

I assure you it is in here. At work 21 is comfortable, in my flat it is still chilly. I also can’t hear it any higher so I’ve never actually felt warmth in my own home which can’t be right.

Heating will heat the air inside the home but that isn't all there is to feeling warm. There is also radiant temp which is the temp of the walls, windows, ceiling surrounding you. If those are cold you will still feel cold and maybe even shivery, even if the air is warm.

Try wearing more layers, especially a hat! To reduce your body "seeing" the cold surfaces around you.

In other news, Home Bargains have hot water bottle belts for under a tenner, I've been wearing mine all week and it is amazing!

Try bleeding your radiators and then top up the water pressure in your system. I did this the other day, a load of air came out of the radiator at the highest point in my house, and then I topped up the pressure. It's a lot warmer in there since.

I have a dial near the boiler with two needles, a red and a black. The black one shows the pressure on the system, and the red one shows the minimum pressure below which the black needle should not go. I have to release a couple of taps on the pipes there to allow water to flow into the system, then turn off when the black needle is higher than the red.

My house is similar. An old 1900s terraced house. Higher ceilings than modern houses. I can have my thermostat all the way up to 25+ in the winter and it only ever reaches 21-22 which I know as I’ve got separate thermometers. I’ve wooden floors mostly though. Downstairs also also fairly open plan - I have doors but don’t usually shut them much as it doesn’t massively help. Some of my radiators are old though - well they’re all old but I’ve replaced one or two. I’ve one that doesn’t heat up much at all compared to the others. Also I wonder about the radiator size for the room. And if they’re double or single. My upstairs is usually warmer. I have the opposite problem in the summer though as with no heating on it gets up to 3 degrees on a really hot day and we have to have the fans going.

My DM lives in a new build and when her heating is on you can feel it. But she is also detached and you can feel it cool down pretty quick if you turn the heating off or down.

21 degrees will be expensive to keep at that heat!

Wear layers - amazes me how many people wear thin clothes and complain they're cold.

Oh and slippers too.

Our heating is set at 17 degrees - but nothing worse than dry central heated air.

If set my thermostat to 21c the house would be too hot ( well insulated new build but with high ceilings downstairs and large rooms )and I’d be sat in a t shirt .
chances are you need a new thermostat or to re position the thermostat.

I was the same wondering why my house was so cold when the thermostat read 21 degrees, I bought draft excluders for all doors and moved anything from infront of the radiators. I found it gets nice and toasty now, so much so that the kids complain it’s too hot. Another thing to check is that your radiators don’t need bleeding.

Mine wouldn’t even come on at 17. The lowest it really gets to is 18 and believe me that is absolutely freezing. You’d need to be wearing gloves indoors. It just shows that different temps feel different in different homes.

The current place we are renting out is exactly as you describe. The flat is terribly insulated so the heat does not retain. We have double glazing and thick curtains but it’s doesn’t really help. The best is to get your self a hot water bottle.

If one bedroom is particularly prone to damp, I wonder if you have a leak in the roof? Someone else posted the other day about damp and posters thought they might have a leak.

That would cause it to feel colder because the air will be humid. Does your dehumidifer have a humidity sensor/display? You could try moving it to different rooms and see what it measures.

You can also check whether the windows seal properly by putting your hand in front of the frame and seeing if you can feel cold air coming in. If so, you could get some of that window sealing foam stuff and this should hopefully stop heat loss through the windows.

Same problem. My house was rated D for EPC a few years ago before I bought it but the draughts are terrible. It's impossible to get the temp beyond 18 even with the heating on all day.

I've made some progress with extra draught proofing but some of the plumbing pipes seem to let cold in around them and there is a terrible draught from behind the kitchen cupboards.

Ideas welcome!

Do you have TRVs on your radiators? Check how they are set. The one in the room with the thermostat needs to be set to 4 or 5 so the radiator doesn't turn off before the thermostat reaches temperature. Also look at where the thermostat is located. It should be away from heat sources so it can read the room temperature accurately.

But if yours is clicking off at 21 then the air temperature is obviously reaching it?

Get a calor gas heater they're fab at throwing out heat and cheap to run too.

Sorry OP just so I understand - you're putting your thermostat on at 21.. but it's never clicking off because your house isn't managing to actually get to 21..
OR you're putting at 21 and it IS clicking off because it thinks the temp is that high but it isn't?

Honestly I live in an old..ish house and if I set my thermostat at 18 and take the timer off it does have to be pretty much on all the time. I think you might need to leave it on for a bit. It's probably the same price as some of the saving tips that other people have mentioned.

Is this a basement flat?

For those of you in old houses, how much are you putting the heating on at the moment? Curious as to what normal is.

You say at work that 21 would feel OK but at work you will have shoes on. Do you wear shoes / slippers at home, that can make a huge difference to how warm you feel. Also where is your thermostat? Mine is in the warmest part of the house and some of the bigger rooms or extremities won't have reached the target temperature. An alternative is to get thermostatic valves fitted on your radiators so you can turn down the heat in the room the thermostat is in so that the other rooms get longer to heat up.

I'm probably just repeating what others have said, but:

• Check for draughts around doors, windows, between skirting boards & floors
• Do you have nice thick curtains? We only have blinds and it's awfully cold in our house
• Do you have an open plan house?
• Check the relative humidity
• Are your radiators on interior or exterior walls? Do you have furniture covering them? If they're exterior walls/have furniture or covers in front of them, then they're not as effective.
• Carpets and rugs help immensly
• Slippers. I only have sandals at the moment and my toes want to fall off.

Is your thermostat correct? If still 21 feels cold then I'd get a different thermostat to be sure. In my old house turning my thermostat to 11 meant it was actually 19º in the house. I'd also recommend an oil heater to take the edge off if it's reaaaally cold (like this one).

Mine feels cold because it's a stupid layout
Open plan kitchen to living room and there's one radiator which is under the window in the living room
I work sat in the patio door area but that one radiator is for that entire room you would have thought they would have put two in!

Does it have a flat roof on top floor? Mine does - landlord finally insulating it - I have been here ten years. My flat is also exposed on three sides. How big are the rooms -I have big rooms and tworadiators per room - not under the window.

To add - I insulated all my curtains with cheap white fleece blankets with safety pins between the curtain and lining - made a huge difference. I also close doors and use a heated fleece blanket.

Are you on the top floor? Is the loft insulated?

I sometimes feel like this it feels ok when I’m doing stuff around the house but sitting watching tv I feel cold.

could this be why at work it feels ok but at home it feels colder?

My house especially the downstairs is the same. We have put it down to being open plan. Upstairs we shut the doors to try and trap the heat and for downstairs I have just bought a plug in electric heater which has definitely helped, not ideal cost wise but needs must.

Do you have any issues with the hot water? We had a boiler which 'needed a rest' after providing hot water- so if you ran the hot tap, turned it off then immediately turned it on again the boiler wouldn't kick in no matter how long you ran it for. You had to wait about 15 minutes (not great for washing up!)
This also impacted the heating, because the boiler was 'resting' the house never really got warm.
Landlord got us a new boiler as it was ancient and the difference was huge.