Help me work out why my house is so cold

[benning]

Bought a 1930s semi last year. We’ve made several upgrades after a very cold and miserable winter last year.

BUT - it’s still cold and I’m gutted.

Csn anyone work out why the house is still so cold?

We’ve had:

New double glazed windows
New Underfloor heating
Brand new radiators and all pipes replaced
New boiler

There is also cavity wall insulation and loft insulation (not sure how thick though).

It is still not what I would call warm, even with the heating on.

Any thoughts?

Or am I using the heating all wrong? (thermostat set to 20 degrees)

You are possibly right. I HATE being cold.

However, I’ve set it to 21 degrees this evening and it’s been on for several hours and the room temp is still 20.5, which is worrying.

Watching the smart meter going up as we speak 😂

Also, because last winter was so miserable we have spent THOUSANDS on these improvements to make it warmer. So yes, I am panicking that after all that we will still be cold.

The luxury vinyl is designed for use with underfloor heating

Sorry, but did the sales assistant tell you this? It’s quite simply the laws of physics that make vinyl a poor heat conductor, it literally can’t be “designed” to have good heat conductivity. Perhaps it’s been designed to be safe to use and to not be damaged by underfloor heating, but there is no possible way it can have been designed to efficiently conduct the heat from the underfloor heating into the room above.

We stayed in a massive conversion for a holiday let in very cold Northumbrian conditions last year, and upstairs had underfloor heating under wooden floor

This place was like an oven, it was unbearable. I had to keep reverting to the downstairs rooms which were cold stone slabs for flooring and outside doors which were wooden and drafty and freezing in order to get some relief

I swore then I would never have underfloor heating, its too hot

I dont think vinyl will be a bad floor for this, underfloor heating is effective if you like that sort of thing

We have a cold late 20’s house and have found installing a wood burner to be a game changer. The house doesn’t have the same chill and the living room almost gets too hot when it’s lit. These older houses were designed to have fireplaces, not modern central heating and double glazing. Ours gets damp without airing religiously every day for an hour too- it’s the nature of these older houses.

I think if you've got an old house and you've sealed it up, you might have quite a high humidity level which will make it feel colder. You can have humidity issues long before you get to visible damp issues.
Dehumidifier?

Yes all our windows are open upstairs

I find it is best to crank the heating up until
it feels too hot. Then gradually reduce it to comfortable. Obviously at the moment that is expensive though! 23 is my preference, 20 is what we can afford.

Some houses are just cold feeling though. My mum’s house is very warm, my Dad’s is only a smidge larger and is freezing. They both use the heating similarly, I don’t know if it’s the construction, the orientation or something else. The only difference is that the stairs from Dads are in the living room whereas mum’s are in a hallway. But they both have open plan spaces and both built in the same era. Dad’s is just cold and when we all visit we wear a lot of clothes!

We live in a freezing cottage with cracked, rotten single glazing. But it’s all being upgraded in October. Hopefully it will be better!

Do you have a conservatory OP,that and old radiators leaves mine freezing

Underfloor heating takes hours to warm up. Once it's there it will be fine but it's not the kind of heating you can flick on for instant warmth.

I share your pain! And I'm following this thread with interest brrrrrr

Yes absolutely. We had underfloor heating in our last house. It was on constantly, set to 19 but it would only kick in to maintain the temperature so was economic. It would take the slab a good few days to reach optimum when the cold weather hit though but would stay lovely after that. We had slate floors though which were lovely underfoot.

Can’t believe people have got the heating on already 😳 still got the French doors open .. ( midlands )

Any chance you could invest in a wood burner.it was a game changer.the heat is different.its gets to the whole house.a cosy heat.
Do you allow heating on long enough to penetrate and heat the house not just quick spurts on and off when your cold.

Everyone please bleed your radiators!

Which way does your house face? north facing houses are freezing . We have the same problem but one side of the house faces North.

I moved to 30s semi from a very warm flat. First couple of years I found it cold but I’ve adjusted to cooler air and temps over time. We only have the heating to 19 and not all the time. jumpers, slippers and blankets. Also being less sedentary.

Ours doesn’t have underfloor heating. Is mostly well insulated but we do have cold air somewhere in the kitchen/utility. But we aren’t in that side of the house a lot!

If the UFH was retro fitted, did it have slabs of insulation under it? If not it is just heating the earth. Is it electric or wet?

The cavity wall insulation. What are the walls? Brick or stone. We have had a company refuse to fit it as with stone and rough undressed stone it won't spread properly and you then get cold and hot spots causing condensation and damp. He said a lot of companies do for though and it just doesn't work.

In the end, there are limits to what can be done with old houses

You have my sympathy. Ours was built in the late 1800s and is a stone affair. We are in the process of working through insulation and heating improvements. we also have patches of damp from lack of air circulation for added fun! I hope you solve it.

We have a wood burner (also had that installed) but haven’t lit it yet. I wanted to see what the heating would do.

Wood is also not cheap so we can’t have it lit all the time. I need the house to be warm with the heating on and not the fire lit.

Sorry, the vinyl is ‘suitable’ for underfloor heating, not ‘designed for it’. We didn’t want tiles as they feel very cold under foot. Yes, it has insulation under it.

I wouldn’t call 1930s an ‘old’ house tbh - the last three houses we’ve lived in were built around 1800, so this feels modern to me! I think it is just a cold house (we are high up and very exposed).

Im going to experiment with having the underfloor heating on all the time during the day set to 19 and see how that feels. I’m just scared of the bills!

It is worrying that last night the heating didn’t even get to 21 though…

It’s weird though - our last house was build in 1830 and was the warmest house I’ve ever lived in!

We have underfloor heating in a totally open plan downstairs. The trick is to leave it in all the time, but a much lower level. So we have it set to about 16degrees.

Also don't put rugs down as these insulate the floor and the heat can't get through.

Good luck!

I had underfloor heating in my old house set to constant 17 degrees

in this house a 1960/70s it is south facing beds and lounge - so no heating needed there. The kitchen utility and bathrooms are on the other side and god knows where but there is no heating in the utility or the toilet beyond that. So they are handy in the summer but we don’t use them at all in the winter we treat those rooms as extra insulation to the outside I haven’t put the heating on and won’t until minimum of October - we are out during the day and we have think carpets and duvets. Hot water bottles we have always used.

What water temperature are you running at for your UFH?

Definitely look in the loft. There should be about a foot of insulation, at least: just make sure the outside air can circulate ,above the insulation to keep the roof structure dry. You might need a builder/surveyor to pop their head in there to see how its ventilated, or you may be able to see purpose-built vents.

Do you have ceiling lights in upstairs rooms eg bathrooms? They can be shocking energy drains, allowing warm air up into the loft through badly sealed fittings (and moving air will leak the heat out through loft insulation as it has an open, fibrous structure)

You need LED lamps with ceiling-sealed fittings. Halogen lamps eat energy to run, then the loft insulation is often moved away from them to stop them overheating, so they are basically putting a big energy hole in your upstairs ceiling.