House is freezing!!

[Mobydick100]

My house is freezing. It's very draughty by Windows. What can I do?! We have central heating but makes little difference on a cold night. Can't bare another freezing night. Thanks.

Can you give us a bit more information? What kind of heating do you have? If you're centrally heated, are the radiators hot? What kind of glazing is in place?

I'm not sure what you can do for tonight, but if you can get some thermal curtains they should help to keep the cold out. Even putting another pair up behind the existing ones should make a difference .

Close the curtains when it goes dark. Use thermal linings. Stick a blanket on the bed. We have the original single glazing and, especially in our bedroom, it is very cold around the window. On freezing nights, an oil filled radiator on low overnight makes things much more pleasant. That said, providing you're warm in bed, the room doesn't need to be heated overnight.

We have gas central heating. The radiators do get nice and hot. We have double glazing on all but one windows. One window is just a single pane.
I wondered if the window frames need sealing better. How would I know if they do?
They are 'normal upvc Windows.
Thanks.

So if the rads are hot, either there isn't enough heat for the room size (are they old radiators?) or the heat is escaping faster than the rads can pump it out.

Look at your seals on the windows (and maybe get the single glazing double glazed) and maybe at insulation too - are you losing heat under the floor/through the loft?

My mum's house is like this but she likes it ! She's kitted out the spare room for when I stay : electric blanket, plug in oil filled radiator , blinds and heavy curtains .

Can you feel cold spots anywhere around the windows? We had dodgy windows fitted in one house so we did newspaper in the sides of the opening panes and packing tape around frames that had wind whistling through.

Here we close the curtains around 4:30 it makes quite a difference if you have good weight well lined curtains. I have had some blinds made for kitchen and bathroom and close these too even though no privacy issues due to their situation.

Have you got bare floorboards and high ceilings?

For tonight you could stick fleecy blankets over the entire aperture of the single pane window (use masking tape if you are fussy about your walls).
You could look under the window sills for droughts/gaps, I had a window once with a gap of a few mm between the underside of the window sill and the wall, big draught was getting through. You can deal with these using silicone sealant or caulk, but a bit of blutac might do for tonight.
Are the rubber seals on the double glazed windows in good condition?
Are you sure it's the Windows, and not a minuscule gap above the skirting boards? Plaster often doesn't go right the way down to the floor, so a quick run over with sealant/caulk can help here. Same with the edges of laminate flooring, you can get coloured sealant to ensure a seal between the floor and the bottom of skirting.
Tomorrow, if that single glazed window is a big problem and you can afford to get it replaced, I'd look at one of the cling film-type draught excluders, or possibly wedge a Perspex sheet into the recess and seal round it, and accept not using the window for the next couple of months.

Are there any draughts coming from around the window frames? You can check with a candle. If so you can fill them in quite easily with newspapers or polyfiller.

You can get clingfilm and use a hairdryer to make it cling to the existing window frames to cut out draughts. Or you can stick it down with masking tape.

Have you thought about a heated underblanket. They are very reasonably priced in Argos and they can be kept on a low setting all night. Save on heating bills.