No heating upstairs? Are we mad!

[bounty007]

we are building a new house and have installed underfloor heating downstairs and in the bathrooms upstairs...bedrooms are plumbed for radiators but we decided not to install any...are we mad?

Actually, we do keep a radiator in a cupboard in case we need to take the chill off the baby's room. But it's fine at the moment. We hardly ever use it. So perhaps you could have one just in case?

Nooo, don't do it.

We lived in a house without heating upstairs for 15 years. Getting up in the Winter was horrible - I used to make DH go and run the shower before I would go in the bathroom in the morning because it was so cold.

We've been in this house 4 years and I still get a thrill from the fact I have a centrally heated bathroom and bedroom

Quite mad, yes.
I'm one of those who grew up with storage heating in an old, cold house, I was perpetually freezing (in London) and now we have central heating, real fires, and underfloor heating.
I'm taking no chances!

Scotland??? Mad.

I spent my first 11 years in a house without central heating upstairs in Devon and it was farking freezing in the winter. My mum used to have a little electric heater she would use to warm the bedroom before bed.

How will you dry your washing for a start ?

Seriously though, I was 14 before we had central heating installed at home but only downstairs as apparently 'heat rises'. Sorry Dad, it didn't! It was freezing.

We now live in a recently built bungalow and despite being toasty during the evening when the heating's on, it's pretty damn cold in the bedrooms during the day when they're off.

another vote for mad. i've lived in unheated houses as a student. oh how i remember peeling the net curtain off when it froze to the condensation on the window in the winter! makes pretty patterns in ice though

I'm in Northern Ireland, so not a million miles from the temperatures of Scotland. And I have downstairs underfloor heating.

As to how you dry your clothes, you put them on a clothes horse on top of the floor, and they dry. It's great. I do love it. And all visitors to our house say its very warm even as the thermostat is set at 20.

Although OP, we do have radiators upstairs. The heat just doesn't go up that far, although we aren't open plan. This is a new build, insulated to the hilt, with the required trickle vents, but it's cold in the winter. I think you've done the right thing, leave them able to be plumbed in the future if you need them. Modern radiators need not be ugly!

is that enough answers yet?

What's your opinion PigletJohn??

I live in a newish build (10 years old) with cavity wall insulation, loft insulation etc. Maximum insulation, radiators throughout and our bedroom is still freezing. I live in the Westcountry as well so not the coldest climate! It's end of terrace and the side of the house next to another house is fairly warm (including bedrooms) but not the open side. I hate a warm bedroom but I couldn't sleep in there if it was any colder. Admittedly that room is north facing so that doesn't help. Possibly depends on the layout but I'd have radiators just in case.

You're daft - why would you build a new house without it - you may get damp upstairs because of the radical difference in temperature. I don't like a warm bedroom but at the same time there's no need to have ice on the inside of the window.

You need to be more creative with radiators - how about those ones that are under a short wooden bench at floor level - who can't make use of a short bench in their bedroom?

Nothing nicer than a cool bedroom. Warm rooms downstairs will warm the upstairs by proxy. Not by much, but they wont be ice boxes.

Good excuse for nice fluffy jammies.

Or, get these <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=mirror+radiators&um=1&hl=en&rlz=1T4ACAW_en___GB393&biw=1366&bih=555&tbm=isch&tbnid=e0JnngaKtPuvrM:&imgrefurl=www.heatandplumb.com/acatalog/Double_Quick_Alaska_Vertical_Radiator_Mirrored_Stainless_Steel_1520mm_High.html&docid=TJ6usavbof7pCM&imgurl=www.heatandplumb.com/images/double-quick/main_product_alaska_mirror.jpg&w=537&h=692&ei=R4YzT4OEMeev0QXxz_m-Ag&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=309&sig=110896105201524590518&page=1&tbnh=118&tbnw=88&start=0&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:0&tx=55&ty=80" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mirror radiators

Do you want to sleep with your bedroom door shut? Or your DC's doors shut? Because if you do then the rooms will be freezing in the morning because the warm air will not be able to reach them.

I'd have to second the idea to look at the more creative radiator ideas: see if any of them will fit well into your rooms.

Where are you living at the moment?

As a test, turn off all your upstairs radiators tomorrow and see how you go. That should make the decision easy for you

although our bedrooms have radiators we do not use them nor our central heating and we live in a not particularly well insulated 1930's semi. All our heat is provided by our stove (pic on profile) . If you stand at the top of our stairs you can feel the heat rising and the bedrooms are never chilly.

barmy

if you fit radiators, then you, or the next homeowner, has the option to use TRVs to set the rooms to a comfortable temperature of choice, or, if they have not yet entered the 1980's, to turn the rads full on or right off.

This idea that radiators are ugly is IMO like people who hide their kitchen sink, or conceal their switches and sockets, or put velvet swags round the legs of the piano.

These things have a purpose, and do their job.

Yes, I think you're mad. But then I've only ever lived in Victorian houses rather than super insulated modern ones - I suppose it might be different in a mega insulated house, I wouldn't know.

How much glass will there be in the bedrooms? If a lot, the room will be cold when it's cold outside - even if it's super efficient triple glazed glass.

Will you be shutting the bedroom doors at night (I'd assume so)? If so, then surely that will stop much heat transferring from downstairs.

Hudevad do nice looking flat panel radiators.

You are in Scotland!!!!
This is a child abuse issue.

If the plumbing is already in place etc, why don't you leave them out and see how you manage next winter. (I assume you won't be moving in for what's left of this winter).

If you're all fine then don't bother putting them in. If you're too cold for a significant part of it then you can install them easily enough.

Agree with ImpYCelyn going to leave it a year and see how it goes....

Do you remember last winters' temperatures in Scotland........

Not at all. I'd hate having heated bedrooms. haven't done for 16years and don't intend to start now

I am not a fan of heating in bedrooms overnight BUT I also don't like getting dressed / undressed in the cold so the bedrooms would have to have some heat source for me. Are you going to have the pipes hanging out of the walls but capped off? wont this look worse than having a radiator in situ?