Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Original poster

uncomfortably hot upstairs, really old downstairs

12 replies

twoluvlykids · 19/02/2009 08:48

I'm not sure I've posted in the right category. Maybe I need a plumber.

Last night I sat in DS's room to watch TV, and it was so hot I broke out in a sweat. He's got the airing cupboard (with no door) in his room, but the switch is always off. (So does that mean it's off?)

But whenever I sit downstairs, I have to have a rug round my shoulders.

So I want it the other way round, I want the bedrooms to be cool (they're all quite hot, with DS's the hottest), and I want downstairs to be warm.

The house is a small, detached, brick built 1980's, with the stairs in the corner of the living room. Gas fired central heating, radiators in each room.

Any suggestions? TIA.

OP posts:
Original poster
twoluvlykids · 19/02/2009 08:49

Oh, really cold, not really old...that's just me....

OP posts:
fishie · 19/02/2009 08:51

my house is a bit like this, we've got something called a gravity system, which means there is only heating when the hot water is on. sometimes the upstairs radiators are hot when the heating is off and the water is on. is this you?

heat rises of course, you could try having no heating at all on upstairs.

warthog · 19/02/2009 08:53

turn radiators off upstairs?

Original poster
twoluvlykids · 19/02/2009 08:54

None of the radiators, up or down, have thermostats. Maybe if I had thermostats fitted, I could adjust each one?

No, fishie, if the heating's off, all the radiators are cold. I can have just the water heating up, but not just the central heating (which I could in an older house).

OP posts:
Original poster
twoluvlykids · 19/02/2009 08:56

Sounds a bit stupid, but how can I turn rads off? They've got little plastic covers (mostly snapped in half, they're so brittle) over the bit I think I'd turn.

Can I use a pair of pliers to turn them off?

OP posts:
ABetaDad · 19/02/2009 09:01

Turn all the radiators of upstairs except for the bathroom and all of the radoiators on downstairs and then switch the wall thermostat (if you have one it is usually on teh wall in the halway downstairs) down to 22 degrees centigrade.

See if it makes any difference. What should happen is the downstairs should be at 22 degrees and the upstairs at around 18 degrees.

Is your boiler upstairs in a cupboard along with the hotwater tank like in my parents in law's house? They have the same problem.

If so the heating system might well have been built to feed the radiators upstairs first so all the heat goes there first and by the time it makes its way down the heat has gone out of the circulating water.

It is unhealthy to sleep in a bedroom over 16 degrees centigrade. Better to sleep in a cool room with more bedding on if you feel cold.

Whenever we go to my parents in law's house we immediatley go and switch all the radiators off upstairs and it cools the bedrooms before we go to bed. They have complained their heating bill is very high since they had new combi boiler fitted in the upstairs airing cuopboard but it seems fairly cold downstairs and overly hot in the bedrooms.

By switching radiators off upstairs we find it restores the normal warmness of their house during the day but makes sleeping more comfortable. It also exploits the natural tendency of warm air to rise from downstairs without needing to actualy heat the bedrooms.

ABetaDad · 19/02/2009 09:10

twoluvly kids - just read your post above mine. Sounds like you do have the radiators on upstairs and the taps have become gradually worn out and brittle with the heat of the rdiator. You can turn them off with pliars if you can get to the little brass shank that sits inder the cover.

Do not twist hard though - it should be fairly easy to turn. If in doubt get a heating engineer to come and look at them. I am pretty sure you can buy new thermostatic taps and have them fitted which may be the answer. I am sure you wil not have to have the radiators replaced though.

Original poster
twoluvlykids · 19/02/2009 09:20

Thanks. And turning off means turning anti clockwise, doesn't it?

I'm not too good at this sort of thing, DH is worse than me, and doesn't see it as a problem

  1. He's never cold downstairs anyway
  1. By the time he goes to bed, the house is quite cold (the heating goes off at about 9pm at the moment)

The boiler's in the kitchen.

OP posts:
ABetaDad · 19/02/2009 10:55

Look at your bathroom tap on your sink and turn it on and off to see which way it should go.

The radiator tap should work the same way.

Original poster
twoluvlykids · 19/02/2009 11:13

OK, cheers, it's actually clockwise to turn off. I've turned them all down upstairs, DS's one started to leak a bit of water, so I tightened it up till it stopped.

Heating's all off anyway now, and I'll see what it's like later.

Many thanks to everyone, esp ABDad!

OP posts:
ABetaDad · 19/02/2009 15:24

twoluvlykids - do come back and let us know whether it is working.

You might find you do need to keep the bathroom radiator on full to dry towels etc but turn the other right off upstairs as it gets to warmer weather in spring and summer.

Original poster
twoluvlykids · 20/02/2009 19:26

Well, 2nd evening now, and the bedrooms are comfortable, maybe a bit too hot still, but downstairs is much warmer.

Hopefully I've cracked the problem without having an expensive plumber round.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page