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)

@benning I'm jealous of your warm old house. Ours has a lot to do with badly installed doors / windows / conservatory and we're waiting on builders to be available to fix some of this as it requires stonework changing too!

@RoachTheHorse
It was bliss. We hardly even ever had the heating on as it retained its heat so well. We never had heating on in the morning, even in January.

A quick blast in the evening and it was toasty.

If only we hadn’t had to move!!

Any damp? Damp houses take longer to heat because you need to heat all the extra water.
What's under your downstairs floors? My house has a very well ventilated void which chills the living room floor. Long term plan is to insulated under it. short term I have thick rugs with underlay.

Hi op, do check your loft insulation, for fibre glass (most common type) you want at least 300mm.

Meanwhile one common cause of this is the loft hatch itself. Just like your front door if the hatch isn't well sealed and insulated, all your lovely warmth will rise and disappear out of your cold loft space because it is allowing free flowing (heated) air to escape to the outside and it's at the highest point of the house so it's a really efficient loss! ..
Add to that, If the loft hatch is also located at the top of the stairs it will create a massive chimney effect and literally suck heat up the stairs and funnel your warmth out of the roof...
Add to that, if your entrance door is at the bottom of the stairs and maybe the door isn't particularly good at retaining heat you will have a continuous corridor of cold threaded from top to bottom of your house via: door below - up the stairs - out of the loft hatch.

Luckily it's a relatively easy fix, put good seals all around your loft hatch so it's a snug fit and insulate the against the back of the hatch to a good level and (rest of loft to match).

Meanwhile, check all windows and doors aren't draughty (don't know if you said you'd done that) .

If you are 99 years old or very ill, perhaps. Otherwise the actual NHS advice is “heat your house to at least 18 degrees”.

How old is your thermostat? Our last one we had it set at 22. We got Nest installed in the same location and have it at 19.
Also, was your heating system flushed when everything was newly installed and do you have the correct size boiler for your house? What is the flow temperature set at on your boiler?
Do you have good quality curtains/blinds?

Could it be draughts between the skirting board and floor? Ours is a modern house and it blows through (from air bricks apparently) Also around bathroom piping is another place in our house, closing the bathroom door makes a huge difference

Underfloor heating is different and not really suited to your situation. You either need very good insulation and draught proofing, or a thermal store (like an old stone house, at least according to my late husband the plumber. It worked well in our newbuild)

How do you run it? It’s a low heat, high flow system so it will take a long time to get up to temperature. You can’t put it on at 6 and expect it to be warm by 7, like with radiators it can take a few hours. Do your rooms actually get up to temperature? If they are hitting 20°c and you don’t feel warm, I’d look for draughts, or turn it up. Also, where is your thermostat? Temperatures can vary in houses, so if the heating is clicking off before the rooms you are using are up to 20, even though the thermostat is, you will still feel cold.

My sympathies. I hate being cold!

No draughts and the fabric of the building suffers. It can feel like a no win. If you can seal the house there are heat exchanging units that warm incoming air with exhaust air. So you still get fresh air. I have to open the house up once or twice a day all year round as I hate fuggyness. The bathroom suffers without ventilation. We just keep the window open all year round now in there, keep a couple of rooms warm and doors closed, but don't bother heating the corridors and hallways. Always seems pointless heating rooms you seldom use.

New windows don't make a huge difference for your money, insulation does. Check out the loft- laying on some more loft insulation is a far better investment and will pay you back sooner. If what's there is old, it may be compressed and therefore less effective, remove it and put in new thicker stuff. The modern advice for loft insulation is to have it a heck of a lot thicker than the old advice, so if it hasn't been done recently, it's likely not to be enough- if it is in good nick, just top it up to modern standards.
My experience of underfloor heating is that except as a top-up it's not up to much, but that's been in rented places so it may just have been badly installed. We put it in a conservatory to keep the chill off, it was fine for that. Insulating the underfloors here seems to be making a big difference in the rooms we have done, so if you have any suspended floors with no underfloor heating, insulating them from underneath is one way to make a difference.
If you have an older house (ours is 1930s) you will never get it was warm as a modern house unless you're willing to spend (waste) a fortune. Try wearing thermal underlayers in the winter- you can get great thin ones from outdoor activity shops- as thin as tights, but really effective. TBH, if you need a house warmer than 20 degrees, and you aren't willing to spend a lot on heating, you need to find a modern house. We keep ours at 17, rising to 18 in the evening, less overnight. That's about right for an old house, according to our surveyor. If you need it warmer, heat the room you're in while you're in it.

The doors? My friends front door was draughty as turned out not to have been fitted properly.

I’ve got my heating set at 21 continuous and all the radiators are off at that temperature so it’s cold. (Ie once the ambient temperature is 21 the radiators don’t need to be on). 21 just isn’t very warm.

Unless you're elderly and/or ill, or have very young children, 21 really is not cold. Maybe your thermostat is in a warm part of your house? If it is, I'd put it in the coldest part and use thermostatic valves on the rads to stop warmer rooms getting too hot.

However, if the whole house is up at 21, maybe you just need to get used to it. 21 is warm- too warm for me now I'm used to it being colder, and I'm no spring chicken. Mum is elderly, so she has hers at 23. I find that to be like being in a furnace even if I strip off to just a t-shirt, and actually have to go outside for some air. Ours is currently at 17 in the daytime, and yes, that really is chilly if you're not doing anything active. I've been standing around looking at a job, and though most of me is warm as I dress wram, my nose is frozen. 😑I'll soon warm up when I get doing things, though. But 18 is fine if I'm just sitting reading or whatever. You do need to persevere in terms of getting used to lower temperatures (It took me a year or so), and dress suitably - thermals and wooolies. And if you are cold, just heat the room you're in, not the whole house.

Our house is relatively modern (1970s), but it's always cold because it faces N/S. The sun goes from E/W so the house never gets any direct sunlight in it and therefore doesn't warm up. It was great when everyone else was complaining about it being 40deg but not so great in the winter.

My advice would be to keep it warm once it's warmed up, and not switch the heating off or onto a very low setting. Our house maintains the temp well once it's at required temp, but takes ages to warm up.

Funnily enough at 52 I know how to use the heating. The thermostat is not in a warm area and it’s nowhere near any radiators. I just feel the cold, some people do.

I don’t need to persevere in getting used to colder temperatures as I have no intention of having my heating really low.

It's currently lashing down with rain here in the Pennines, with 40mph+ gusts. Outside temp is just over 10 degrees. The sheep in the fields are crouching by the walls and look as miserable as heck.
House is just about 17, the temp the heating kicks in, but it hasn't quite yet. The room next to the boarded off bit where we've just had a new roof put on is 15 (brrr) as the new roof beyond the boarding hasn't got any roof insulation in it yet and of course the rad is off. The kitchen diner has no radiator in it either, as we haven't put one back in after the plastering in there, so that's a bit Baltic as well.

That was to @BlueMongoose

Just a suggestion, I'm actually older than you, and I have learned that a lot of people do put thermostats in the wrong place, I was trying to be helpful, including to the OP, so keep your hair on.
Lots of us do need to get used to doing without as much heating, lucky you that you don't. I like it warm as much as the next person, but I can't afford to waste money if I can avoid it (and as a side issue, I care about the environment as well).

And in my experience, which I all I can speak of personally, I can get used to colder temperatures up to a point- that point will be different for everyone, of course. I know some people feel the cold, which is why on previous post I was careful to say that what I was saying didn't apply to people who were elderly, unwell, or those who had very young kids. Perhaps I should have put a similar disclaimer in every post.... I'd need to add those who have conditions like Reynaud's, etc to that, they also need to keep warm, of course.

Put a piece of foam in the letterbox
if u can invest in proper blankets. We were gifted a NT sheep one and man it’s warm.rolled up sheets or blankets for door dogs.fingerless gloves.ski headbands for wearing in house.

Plus remember if your oven cooking the heat that kicks out is good. So can require the heating off throughout a cook.

And for those suffering from anxiety that dis regulates your temperature so try all your techniques to make yourself feel more comfortable.