Heating is on but still freezing....... (long!)

[warmsummersday]

Hi. We have an old house and rubbish windows (OH wont buy new ones.) In the summer we had our heating system cleaned as termometers put on each rad. Our heating bills have always been massive, last winter £300!

The past couple of weeks have been really cold, I have been setting the heating to come on for 4 hours in the morning and by the time that is up the house is only 17 degrees! Someone suggested leaving the heating on continuous which I have been doing and once the house has reached 18 degrees it's alot easier to keep warm. OH is worried I am using too much gas and the bill will be loads but to me it seems more economical to keep the ouse warm and then top it up when it drops. Also our system doesn't allow you to turn off the hot water so it's also heating that up all the time.

I hope I make sense! I am very limited to when I can get on the internet but I will be back!

Thanks in advance.

Investing in decent windows will potentially save you thousands in heating bills.

Also I believe you can get free assessments of insulation etc, and the council can give grants towards improving insulation in certain cases. Maybe give them a ring?

Are the radiators all working properly? None of them need bleeding do they? I would keep as many curtains closed as possible to keep the heat in, i.e. don't open the bedroom curtains during the day unless you have to.

Thanks. Also what happens when im out for the day? If I switch it off the temp will drop and take forever to heat up but dont really want to leave it on all day.

Just brought some new curtains for the worst window.

Will it affect the gas bill so much if it's on constantly?

Yes all the rads are working, we just had the whole system drained and cleaned etc.

Maybe I will look into the concil thing more, thanks.

If you are out 9-5pm for example, what about letting the heating go off at 11am and having it come back on at 2pm. You save 3 hours of heating but you still maintain what warmth you have.

You really need to look at replacing your windows though. It is a false economy to leave it really. In the long run it will make the house warmer and the fuel bills lower although I do realise the outlay is horrendous. If you can't do the whole replacement window thing, how about fitting secondary glazing which is cheaper? Or maybe just replace the downstairs windows and keep all your internal doors closed upstairs so as to restrict draughts coming down the stairs.

Definately ring your council - if you have no loft insulation at all you can get it done for about £150. We're just waiting for ours to be done.

There was an article last year about heavy curtains being as good as double glazing - I sewed fleece blankets from Ikea (£3 each) inside our front room curtains as lining. It has made a tremendous difference - its the only window that is single glazed.

I also wipe the condensation off every morning with a microfibre cloth.

Like you my house doesn't get particularly warm - the heating has been on for 5 hours now and its only 17 degrees.

Like the idea of turning it off between 11 and 2 (also those hours during night) as the house doors presumably will be all shut if your out so no heat to escape. I can't believe how cold the house gets in two minutes of opening the back door to let a cat out or get something from the shed.

I think you will be using a lot more gas by leaving the heating on continuously. Read the gas meter now and leave the heating on 24 hours a day for a week. In exactly one weeks time read the meter again to see how much you've used. Then for the following week, time the heating to come on for a few hours in the morning and then again in the evening and compare the meter readings. Maybe if your DH sees how much money is being used on heating then he will be more inclined to want to have new windows.

I agree with the others who have said that thick curtains, kept closed can make a big difference. Also, make sure you close your internal doors to keep rooms warm.

It takes 124 years to recoup the cost of installing double glazing

Secondary glazing costs a lot less but is fiddly.

I agree that draughtproofing as much as you can (doors, keyholes, letterbox) + thick curtains will help. We have double glazing but it's a very leaky house and any time there is a strong wind from the E or W (back and front, as it's a terrace we don't have to worry about N and S!) it finds any gaps there are and whistles through them.

If it takes 4 hours to get the house up to 17, which a lot of people would consider quite cool, I would leave the thermostat set at 17-18 and see what happens - once it's at the temp you want it will cycle on and off so it won't actually be on all the time.

When you're out during the day, instead of turning it off just lower the thermostat to 15-16 and then it will only come on if the house starts getting too cold.

Our annual gas bill is £600 and most of that is in the winter (apart from the CH boiler we only have a gas hob)so £300 for the winter doesn't sound too bad to me

Every winter we use double glazing film on our most rattley and draughty windows.

It's cheap and effective but a bit of pain to do. Places like Homebase and Wilkinson's sell it - but it does sell out quite quickly.

Warmsummersday - we went to my mums on saturday, gone all day (9am - 8pm) and when we got bakc the boiler had given up. House was absolutely freezing. Lucky for us we have a logburner, so we had one warm room, the kids didn't believe us whne we said this is how it was when we were growing up - rayburn in the sitting room and rest of the house cold, ice on the inside of (single-glazed) windows & v. little hot water. Anyway we got the gas people out sunday and when he had fixed it we turned it up to 24C - it's normally at 18. Still feels cold today, I think it's warmer outside!

we were told it costs more to keep warming up to the temp we wanted rather than keeping it at a constant temp hth, shutting all doors closing curtains heavily lined ones at that will help or invest in jumpers wear extra t-shirts etc warm socks hth

I would agree with Wendy that it takes a long time for you to recoup the cost of the windows but it is about comfort too. If you are heating a draughty house and it is never warm it doesn't make it a very comfortable place to live. There is the environmental cost of heating a house continually too.

I know, fio!

As I said it's very leaky, we can't have cavity wall insulation even though it has kind of cavity walls (ancient Victorian ones, plus the cavity goes along the whole row at the front) we have an open fire (draughts down chimney), gaps under skirting boards, and loads of gaps in the rear extension - which has N & E walls so is cold anyway.

We also have a Victorian attic with a poorly insulated roof and gaps into the roof space (crumbling plaster). Oh it's lovely

OTOH my bro has a modern house insulated to the max and you can hardly breathe in that! (But it is warm...)

Knocking down and rebuilding would improve ours a lot too!

We are supposed to be getting re-roofed and properly insulated next summer, that will help a lot (if it happens...the builder I want is busy until April and I said we will def want him then but this was months ago and he never got back to me...but then he's a casual sort of bloke, but v reliable, so I have to trust he has us pencilled in!)

I've also found a velvet door curtain which I am going to buy.

Wendy, I was told recently that Victorian houses don't have cavity walls - apparently they were only introduced in the 1930s.

Oh we're v advanced in Lancashire, Mercy! It is definitely a 2-skin wall, I've seen the gap, but it's v primitive.

OTOH it was built in about 1892 and They Say that damp-proofing was introduced before that (using slate I think) but ours doesn't have one of those.

There were no building regs back then, they made it up as they went along

You can buy oneof those chimney-balloon things, that go up the chimney and stop the draughts coming down. They come out again really easily too. ANd get really think carpet and underlay, stops the wind whistling through the floorboards and gaps.