How cold will my house be?

[Hellohowareyou112]

About to complete on an Edwardian (single brick)terrace in London. Kitchen has been extended many years ago (single brick extension). All double glazed, mostly carpeted, roof is old so I doubt well insulated.

I have previously lived in an end terrace with alleyway between us and the neighbouring house. This was further north and it was FREEZING! BUT only two rooms actually were joined to next door - as opposed to all the rooms in the new house.

How cold will such an Edwardian terrace be? For context we like our flat to be about 22 degrees…will I have crazy heating bills?

Surely your structural survey advised in relation to the roof.

Is the double glazing sympathetic?

How many square feet is it, impossible for anyone to advise without knowing the size.

1200 square foot - ground and first floor. Roof is knackered - we plan to put a new one on in the summer and do loft conversation/extension at same time. Windows are 20 years old - also plan to replace as some point but not straight away.

Wondering about how cold it will be before we have done any work! Thanks :)

If it's single skin of bricks it will lose heat quickly. So it will probably feel warm when the heating is on, but chill quickly when off.

My mum's Victorian end of terrace is 1350 sq ft has 5 external doors 14 windows and a 5 window bay 4 rooms are attached to next door the other 4 are detached. It's got a 24kw boiler has basic double glazing, some, but not a lot insulation, on a hill in a northern town and gets to 22 when it's not absolutely freezing outside.

We have an Edwardian mid terrace in London. It’s not too bad but worst thing is the suspended floorboards on ground floor. Carpets would help! Also we just changed our boiler and that’s made a huge difference.

I live in a similar terrace (Victorian). We've had lots of work done including replacing all the windows, properly insulated extension and loft conversion. But it was never especially cold even before that. If terraced both sides, you are very well insulated except the roof. We also like to be warm.

We live in an old house that has been very hard to insulate. Honestly, if you can keep a couple of rooms warm when it's very cold, the rest of the house doesn't matter that much - you get used to getting dressed in a bedroom at a balmy 14C (because it was 11C last week),

If your boiler isn't up to it, oil radiators do an excellent job.

6 years old

thanks! This is very reassuring!

18kw and we plan to replace all the radiators in line with the BTU requirement of the room- before we move in

Thanks! I don’t think the oil radiators are too expensive to run if you have a thermostat on them?

We were thinking of getting rid of carpets when we renovate…maybe we should think again!

Is your floor suspended or solid?

I live in a solid brick 3 bed semi and it can get warm but the heat flies out the minute the heating goes off! The rooms attached to next door definitely keep warmer so hopefully in a terrace it won't be too bad.

I would also advise putting radiators on interior walls. The rooms where we have radiators under windows are definitely colder than rooms where they're on internal walls!

In terms of costs, last week it was about £7 a day to have the house 18 degrees for 1.5 hours in the morning, and 18 degrees for 5 hours after work. This week hasn't been as cold and avg cost for same temperature has been £5 per day. If it goes below freezing, can be £10 a day (although prices have come slightly since last year so that may be less now).

Is single skin house common? Just curious.

@Hellohowareyou112
What was the EPC rating? That should give you a rough idea.

Most houses built before WW2 have solid brick walls, so no cavity.

D

No idea re floor - something for us to look into!

This is super helpful thanks :)
thankfully all of the radiators are on internal walls and not underneath windows!

I live in an Edwardian terrace with no carpets on the ground floor and it can get drafty. They look lovely but definitely contribute to the cold in winter.
My gas and electric have been around £7-8 a day lately. In the recent cold snap it can get down to around 10° if I leave the heating off so I’ve been playing around with settings to try and maintain around 18° in the day/eve and 16° or less overnight.

My Victorian terrace is fine and always warm in the winter

Floorboards downstairs

Carpets most of upstairs

Decent boiler and radiators (under windows and just on walls)

Heating 18 during the day and 7 at night

If temp drops I just turn up the thermostat and it heats up quickly

Never ever been freezing cold

@Hellohowareyou112 consider having the external walls internally insulated. You don’t need to get the party walls done, just the front and back.

As per @DianaRiggsCatsuit most houses upto the 1920’s have solid walls.
Single skin usually means the wall is 9” thick though, the bricks are layed alternately to give the wall strength.
Occasionaly, particularly on kitchen extensions on old houses, single skin can literally mean a 4” wall as they have knocked into the shed or coal scullery.

Cold.