Coldest room in the house-tips please

[Roxyrocks]

Hi all,

Our box room aka the coldest room the house is soon to be used as a bedroom for our baby once they're old enough.

My problem is the room is so cold, been going down to 13° overnight and I'm feeling quite guilty at the prospect of putting baby in there as the weather gets even colder.

It's a small room with 2 outside walls. We've put a double radiator in there and had a new double glazed window fitted too but it's still cold.

Does anyone have any ideas how to keep it warm?

Thanks

Try thermal wallpaper. The decent stuff is expensive but it works to keep heat in the room. You need the very thick stuff

Plus one for thermal liner. Wallrock Thermal Liner is available at screwfix.

We had this type of heater on a timer plug. Set it low and had a thermometer in DC room to keep it between 16-18 as recommended.

De'Longhi Bambino TRN0808M Oil Filled Radiator - 800 Watt https://amzn.eu/d/2s6Dvm2

What's on the floor and what room is underneath? If it's above a garage then you need a decent thick warm floor covering. If its above a room is the room below cold?

Flooring is thick carpet with a decent underlay too.
The room is above our stairs/downstairs hallway, which is quite warm.

I have a strip of carpet which I run along the external walls in our box room in winter. It fits underneath the windows. I have the fluffy bit facing the wall and the base facing the room. It insulates very well, but you do need to move it once a week to wipe the wall behind it with a disinfectant cloth to prevent mould growth behind it.

Long thermal curtains is another option. all the way to the ground, over the window and over the external walls. Again, watch out for mould behind them

Is the loft space above it? Add more insulation.

A dehumidifier might help?

One of those oil filled radiator with a timer. Baby sleeping bags are good for cold rooms. Nice thick curtains.

Did you check the BTU of the radiator and whether it was enough for the room and its type of construction?
We had 2 cold rooms, did what we could with insulation, they were still cold, and thought we just would have to live with it. When we were replacing the old rads, DH calculated what the new ones needed to be, and then out of interest compared it to an estimate of the old ones we had. Less than half what was needed. We replaced with higher BTU again, so that if we had a heat pump later they'd be big enough, and I have mine turned down to 2/5 just so I don't boil in here......
Also, consider underfloor insulation, We can't in these rooms, but I gather it helps a lot. We're going for thick high-tog underlay when we replace the carpets.

The energy efficiency mantra is always 'fabric first' - insulate as best as you can otherwise any heating you add is largely wasted.

What type of walls do you have? Are they cold to touch? Most cavity walls can have cavity wall insulation, otherwise external or internal wall insulation. This should be your first step.

Assuming your loft is above this room, is it insulated? It should have 300mm insulation in it.

There is funding to cover some or all of the cost of such measures if you qualify. You either have to be in receipt of benefits (ECO scheme) or in a council tax band D property of below (Great British Insulation Scheme). Some councils also have funding if you're off mains gas and earn less than £31k a year as a household.

Make sure you use a Trustmark approved installer though.

Good luck with the little one :)

I would second loft insulation.

It is relatively cheap and easy to install.

Check the loft space above the room to see whether there is enough insulation and that it is correctly fitted.

I have used thermal imaging on my ceiling and found that they did not roll the insulation up to the eves (you need to leave a small gap for ventilation) leaving big cold spots that were 2C colder than the rest of the ceiling.

A roll of insulation is pretty cheap.