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

In the days before insulated lining paper, a friend did a marvellous job lining rooms with hessian on battens, which definitely made them appear warmer. High-ceilinged bedrooms also seemed cosier with muslin draped across in a tent effect, although I realise that these items are no longer fashionable, perhaps it's time for a revival.

My final bit of draught-proofing was to block the living-room chimney using crumpled newspaper, as the coal-effect gas fire is never used and the cold air used to rush down at times.

We are in an Edwardian house too and have just done a major renovation. The top floor was astonishingly exposed to the elements, under the lathe & plaster it was literally some thin wood battens and then tiles, or l&p and one skin of brick. We insulated as we went which made a big difference in actually containing the heat. However it didn't stop the chimney effect ! To address this we installed Thermaskirt which is brilliant. The heat is pushed out at floor level. Its effectiveness is somewhat dependant on what furniture you have against the wall though.

Before we did the work we found the gas fires very good , but quite 'localised' heat. However perfectly good enough to warm up the lounge on the coldest of days.

"The top floor was astonishingly exposed to the elements"

Well of course, that's where the servants sleep.

Ceiling fans make a huge difference. We live in a log home in the Canadian Rockies (very cold Winters) where the ceiling of the main living area is the full height of the 2 story house. When we have the wood stove going for a while and then remember to turn the ceiling fan on its lowest speed setting, there's no draft at all (as in, no cooling effect from the fan) and it feels like you have a hot air blower aimed at you if you stand directly underneath!

I purchased the radiator booster MK2 and it worked but wasn?t manufactured very well and stopped working after a month. I got in touch with the Eco Store I got it from and they were very accommodating. They agreed to take back the broken product and replaced it with the newer Radiator Booster MK3 that they had changed to selling. I have had this for just over a week now and haven?t had any problems, it works well and seems to have been built to a much better quality. It does work.

if the kitchen has 3 external walls, then as well as secondary glazing, and insulating the ceiling and floor, you might consider insulated drylining on the interior walls. here

There is also Kingspan K5 which is the stuff you apply to the outsides of walls, but it will spoil the appearance of an old house as it has to be rendered, or clad.