help me make my house more energy efficient- what works/what doesn't?

[hildathebuilder]

I like to think I am quite switched on about making my house energy efficient but I have hit a brick wall so I am looking for ideas.

I have a large edwardian semi-detached house, with ridiculously high ceilings (10foot plus in most places). So all the heat rises and if I climb a ladder its warm, but if I don't it can be quite a bit cooler. It's in a conservation area.

To date I have done the easy things, (loft insulation, installed a woodburning stove and had the chimney lined, sealed another chimney, fitted draft excluders, thick curtains all over the place, new boiler, thermostats on all the radiators, fitted carpets into bedrooms to keep heat in etc) but I am stuck about what to do next.

My husband and I looked into solar panels, but because of the aspect of the house, and the ridiculously high number of velux windows no-one wanted to do the installation- it was too costly, complex, needed planning permission etc.

The kitchen is single story, and has 3 external walls, it is also about half glass (6 veluxes, 2 doors, and glass round two sides - one of which is a french window/door). It has underfloor heating. Apparently its made of rat trap construction so again cavity wall insulation doesn't work for this type of house. Any ideas how to insulate it, anything else we can do - short of rip out the kitchen and add insutlation behind the units. Would changing the doors (old wooden, again with window -single glazed make a noticeable difference)

The front of the house has a lot of just single glazing, but again its a conservation area so we can't change this. Does internal secondary glazing make a difference? Is it permitted in a conservation area?

the hallway looks great, it goes up the whole of the middle of the house but that's three storeys and no ceilings etc so its like a vortex where as soon as you open the front door it drops a few degrees.

All the usual advice just doesn't seem to apply to our house, and we are stuck with working out where to go next. No-one seems to be able to advise on what works and what doesn't, and then there are all the rules which seem to want to preserve the character of the appearance of the house over and above the environment. I'd happily pay for some detailed advice but no-one seems to be able to help so I thought I would ask more knowledgable people here

Secondary glazing is wonderful and IMO looks better than double glazing anyway.
We have an Edwardian semi too, with glass 3-external-walls+roof kitchen, only our kitchen is falling off (crappy extension). The day we had secondary glazing installed in the lounge and 3 bedrooms, the whole house temp went up by about 4 degrees!

Lined and interlined curtains that brush the windowsills are also good.
Has the central heating been cleaned in the last couple decades? That can help.

Currently we just try to keep the door to the kitchen closed as much as we can and not be in it much in winter (olive oil sets solid in it!) Once the rest of the house is done up, then we get the fun of knocking the kitchen down and rebuilding it properly.

This is exactly why we're building a new house; we considered doing up an old victorian house, but couldn't see it as anything but a big money pit in the future

That's of course no help to you - but I wanted to suggest you browse the discussion boards on the green building forum, which is full of people facing the same issues. ALso check out the Great British Refurb campaign

Oh if a new house existed in the right location I would happily have considered it, but location was and is my main criteria, and I almost don't mind the money if only I knew how best to spend it ... any more tips

notcitrus, can I ask where you got your secondary glazing from? we have diamond paned windows which we would never rip out, but would like to make more efficient over winter.

Thanks!

Sounds just like my house, right down to the kitchen shape - though we have not so much glass and no underfloor heating. Last year our kitchen developed lots of mould as it was so cold and damp, and it's not on the central heating (does have a kickspace heater but we only put that on occasionally). I even had to throw out mouldy dried food, and the black mould won't come out of the wallpaper.

That wasn't very helpful, was it?

I sometimes think the best thing we would do would be live on platforms to be nearer the warm ceilings.

It was some imaginatively-named company like The Secondary Glazing Company, but I think they vanished some years ago - we owed them about £600 and put a lot of effort into tracking them down to attempt to pay!
But the myriad sash window refurb companies offered it too, I think. We got the 3 bedroom and 1 bathroom sashes refurbed and the two bay casements patched up for about 20% of getting new windows (2k rather than 10k!)

Our most powerful radiator is the one in the front hall - we have the same 3-storey vortex now we've done a loft conversion - and that seems to work pretty well especially as we have drying racks and over-door hangers there for drying laundry too. We don't open the front door that much though. A letterbox cover (a bristle one over the back of the slot, plus then a sheet of felt hanging down) helps.
Can you fit more loft insulation in?

Things I'm considering are timers for individual radiators, arranging things so we're upstairs more often in winter, more lined curtains for the rooms that are less used, and in due course what we want from our kitchen. Underfloor heating may well be the way to go - any tips?

Would love to have more control over my heating! We have a whole-house timer, with weekend and workday options, and that's it. I think we could heat more effectively if we had room timers - we do have room thermostats, but I don't want to have to turn them all on and off constantly so I can have two on in the evening and the others off, then a different combination on in the morning. Anyone done this? I looked at some and they seemd hugely expensive.

hilda I am no expert here but something that occurred to me is radiator covers. Do you have these? I know they are often seen as a bit 80s but they do serve a useful purpose in that they push the hot air out of the front of the radiator rather than it all going upwards.

I would agree with nocitrus about draughtproofing your front door - a decent letterbox flap and also a bristle strip along the bottom of the door.

Unfortunately I do think there is a limit on what can be done with period houses!

Thanks keep the comments coming. We have the letterbox cover and the bristle strip on the front door. I think I may just try not to open it and come in back door though. I will also look into radiator covers and try and work out how to sort some secondary galzing

Anyone tried insulating under floorboards ? I am concerned its a hige job, and also about ventilation. I knwo all the stuff about ventilation shafts and bricks but believe me I don't need any more holes. We went through all that with the woodburner, but my lounge is huge and opens onto the dining room so in the end the fire safety people were happy that you look at the size of the combined room

We had someone tie space-blanket insulation under our draughty floorboards and it made an immediate difference. There are still other gaps to plug but instead of getting a lively breeze throughout, we can now tell where it is coming from and tackle it. Recommend it as a cheap addition it you have enough space for someone to crawl under your floors to put it up. We didn't want carpet, but I feel like I may end up giving in on that...

Oh hilda- your house souds just like the one we've decided not to buy- mainly because of the heating/glazing issue. Some of the windows were secondary glazed, and from another house we saw too secondary glazing does seem to have an effect.

One of the houses that seemed warmer had wool-type insulation under the ground floor floorboards (no idea what this would be for google though)- it was in sort of sheets, like blankets, and presumably breathable so you wouldnt get a build-up of moisture.

I've seen a treatment used where the outside of the house is covered in polystyrene panels and then rendered and painted over the top. I think it requires specialist application and probably costs a fortune but apparently it's really good.

One of the biggest things that has made out house more energy efficient is having smart meters so we can see exactly when we use our electric and gas. We now only have lights on in the room we are in, shut doors a lot more the kept heat in individual rooms. We shut our curtains earlier and see our electric and gas usage fall.

I do love my house for what its worth, and wouldn't live anywhere else. Despite the fact its large and has the high ceilings we spend less than the average amounts on gas and electric (it works out about £1200 per year, plus £60 in wood). I just want not to lose the heat we do have as well as to reduce the carbon emissions where possible

Ah Hilda, someone after my own heart, although our house is a victorian end of terrace.

Thick curtains, draughtproofing all external doors and sausage dogs rule in our house in the winter lol.

We have central heating but none in our hallway/landing so it gets freezing in the winter. It doesn't help that we have no doors from the Living Room into the hall , so in the winter we hang a thick curtain between.

We are going to go down the wood burner path though, at present we have a crap nice to look at but doesn't give any warmth gas fire. We're hoping that the wood burner will keep kitchen, living room and hall toasty, but sadly it probably won't get done in time for this winter.

Most of the house is double glazed apart from the kitchen and bathroom, bathroom has a radiator but the kitchen doesn't, and with 3 external walls, it gets very cold.

Dp has just this weekend made some secondary glazing to use in the bathroom and kitchen. He got some clear perspex to fit and made frames for them and has fixed them into the window frames, so hopefully that will help. I also have a thick curtain at my kitchen door and a lined blind at the window.

Like MrsJasonBourne I too have seen the new insulation treatment that they apply to the external walls, but being in a conservation area, that would probably not be allowed, also at present its v expensive.

I shut all the curtains as soon as I start to feel the temp drop, and it seems to help.

I know my in laws have a log burner and they're chimney sweep told them to keep as many room doors open as poss as the log burner would heat the whole house if they did . They tried it and said it worked.

Ah moonmother- I like the sound of that!

Hilda, do you have front door curtains?

Our house is very similar to yours. We have an extensive amount of stained glass panels in our front door and on either side of it. The heat loss is massive. We have got heavy duty lined curtains and it makes a huge difference. I think you can get special hinges to hang the curtain without if obstructing access in or out of the house.

A shelf over the radiator will have the same effect of creating turbulence (air mixing), without risking any reduction in efficiency a radiator cover might cause.

Have insulated under floorboards here with mineral wool loft insulation. Horrid job but well worth it. If you can get all the flooring up (unlikely) you can drape garden netting over the beams and rest the mineral wool on that. Otherwise you have to get down there and staple the bloody netting to the bottom of the beams and then shove in wool the same depth as the beams using a broom handle made into a trident with bits of wire coathanger.

The key thing is the wool must be tight against the floorboards, otherwise any air which gets above the wool will circulate freely.

And yes, there's always a risk of damp from this, depending on how good your underfloor ventilation is and whether a carpet ever gets laid on top.

The other thing we've done is put flexible sealant between the boards to stop actual drafts in places we couldn't support the mineral wool.

Door curtain thingy is called a portiére rod.

God I know far too much about all this...

Ceiling fans to push the heat back down into the rooms?

Another gadget that may be useful but I've never tried is a radiator booster fan, which supposedly circulates the air more efficiently.

I can imagine with high ceilings any kind of fan might actually help, as you'd get some benefit from the hot air at the top of the room. But obviously tricky to do that without getting the cooling "wind chill" effect on your body. After all, human comfort is what you're really after.

If you have high ceilings then a ceiling fan can help to distibute the heat more evenly around the room.

I second the points above

• Ten inches (250mm) of loft insulation (which is a lot) with no gaps, especially round the loft hatch, amd where pipes or light fittings go through the ceiling
• door curtains on portiere rods
• lined curtains on all windows
• secondary glazing is good for heat, and better for noise and draughts. If you have nets it is pretty well invisible
• underfloor insulation between the joists (there might be a cellar or crawl space, otherwise wait until you are having floor work done e.g. for repairs or plumbing). Clean up underfloor rubbish and clear all airbricks to ensure good crossflow of air which combats damp

External insulation on solid walls does work, but it is very expensive and will spoil the look of an older house, unless it is rendered and painted.

One other thing - draping wet washing around the house or over radiators is the UKs primary source of damp and condensation (the next cause is failing to use extractor fans during and after baths and showers). So try to invest in a washing line, or a tumble-drier, or a carport-type thing where you can hang it outside; otherwise hang it in the bathroom and leave the fan going until it is all dry.

Insulated Lining Paper Is really good. I couldnt afford the wall rock that goes over it to stop dents (polystyrene on the inside, so if you knock it with furniture it may make a hole although you can just fill and paint over it) but it keeps the heat in really well.

Insulated lining paper is good to prevent condensation problems, by keeping the wall surface at a slightly higher temperature.

But in terms of overall heat loss it won't do a great deal. Insulation works by slowing heat flow, not preventing it, and a 4mm thickness of polystyrene is not going to slow it very much. So in terms of bang for your buck, it may not be worth it.