House is so cold

[frozensolid1]

I completed on a house a few months ago and it is absolutely freezing. I viewed it both times during summer and autumn so was a comfortable temperature but I have since discovered it is ridiculously cold during the winter! The rooms sit at around 8 degrees unless I put the heating on.

Does anyone know how I can find out why it's so cold? I know to check the loft insulation etc but was wondering if there is someone than can come in and check these things? The house I moved from sat at around 12/13 degrees in the in the winter without heating.

How old is the house? Does it have double glazing? Is it detached?

@ApolloandDaphne It was built in 1989. Semi detached. Double glazing throughout. House is timber framed but the extension (which is nearly half the house) is brick/cavity (sorry, not sure what the term is!).

Watching with interest.
Am looking to move so am studying EPCs of all properties I'm curious about and am feeling so put off.
I've spent thousands insulating my current house and making it energy efficient (14°C-15°C no heating and subzero outside, stays at 18°C with heating on for 30+30 mins / day) so am shocked to see how low ratings are in general.
I don't get why people moan about Insulate Britain, it's such an important issue.

1. What is the EPC of the property? This should have been available before you bought the property and should have given information on what can be done to improve the property from details like loft and floor insulation. I am also astonished sometimes that some fairly ‘modern’ houses are not very energy efficient.

2. where does the house face? My house is so much warmer on cold days than the one across the street as we have a different aspect and the sun warms the house more, what sort of aspect do you have compared to your previous house?

3. draughts - we have an enclosed porch that stops a lot of draughts coming in.

4. trickle vents
   do you have trickle vents in your windows and are these left open? They are great it ventilate a house and prevent mould but can be problematic in cold weather. I only worked out why my study was so cold compared to the rest of the house when I went round inch by inch and it was a simple wide open trickle vent thst was actually more like a gale vent!

5. air bricks
   are these working the right way?

6. radiators - are these all on external walls or a different type of hesting like storage heaters?

Have there been any holes drilled in the walls/ceilings? My 80s house had a hole in the corner of the lounge to outside for a sky/satellite cable and a couple of holes drilled in bedroom ceilings through to the loft for TV ariels, so filling those helped. Have a good look/feel around for any cold spots.

Also loft hatch - is it insulated round the hatch? £5-10 roll of insulation tape from Amazon will sort that out.

My house was built in 1985

It's freezing in winter and boiling in summer. The stupid conservatory doesn't help.

However, we have a fairly new combi boiler, new windows and doors and it's still really cold.

It's costing £15 per day in gas and electric during this cold snap.

@PettsWoodParadise Thanks for your reply. The EPC is D and everything was 'average', with a few 'good' as well.

The front of the house is facing south, so garden is north facing. The front of the house gets lots of sun, the back none at all.

We have an enclosed porch.

The trickle vents were all open but I've recently shut them all and unfortunately it's not improved how cold it is. It's been 7 degrees in some of the rooms lately!

I'm not too sure about air bricks to be honest.

The house is electric only. There used to be storage heaters but the previous owner replaced them with electric radiators instead. All of them are on internal walls.

@Iwritethissittinginthekitchensink There are a few holes where aerials were but I've stuffed kitchen roll in these temporarily.

The loft hatch is a thin piece of plastic, no insulation on or immediately around it.

Do you have a vent for a washing machine/drier? I think the tube that my tumble drier has, is having a major negative impact. (If any of you have any suggestions for this I would be very interested!)

I've also ended up stuffing blocks in keyholes and that has made a difference! And up a fireplace - do you have those?

You need to systematically look for draughts. You can feel for them or use a candle, just run your hand/candle around the edges of all windows, doors, skirting boards, pipes going through external walls like the back of sink, toilet, bath etc. The flame will flicker if there's a draught. Then you can use sealant to fill any gaps.

If you have wooden external doors it's likely there are gaps around the edges, you can buy insulating strips that you screw on to the door frame to block the gaps and brushes that you screw/stick onto the bottom edge of the door to block those. Door curtains are good too, they do make a difference.

Loft insulation should be about 25cm thick, so if yours isn't then that needs topping up, it should also be on the back of the loft hatch otherwise you've got a big square where heat can leak through.

Radiators on internal walls -the previous owner of my house had done this, most likely to save on piping. Mine is not a big house, but if he'd used 15m of copper piping to connect rads in all the rooms, that would be a generous estimate. Changing to external walls below windows made a difference for us.

Insulating the loft hatch will make a huge difference! I had my hatch changed last year when having a ladder fitted (workmen didn’t tell me they would be replacing the hatch with a thin piece of wood!) and the house was freezing until I got it sorted.

Thanks all, I'll start working my way through all your suggestions. I need to do something quickly as the house is just ridiculously cold!

Our new curtains across the front door and adjacent window has made a great difference to the temperature in our hall and up the stairs and landing.

They are pair of dorma curtains which were £5 from a local charity shop and £20 for a long strong rail and hoops from B&Q.

I also leave curtains closed if I can. I do this in hot weather too to keep the house cooler!