House losing heat quickly

[Ocelotka]

It’s not even that cold outside yet (16-17 C), but the temperature inside is not much more than outside - actually drops to 16 towards the evening and even lower overnight. Colder upstairs than downstairs.

It’s a 4 bed detached, built in 2001. EPC rating D, done back in 2013 but not since. We’ve been in the house since 2021 and every winter it’s extremely cold.

Double glazed windows, insulated cavity walls. Loft insulation is about 200mm, partially boarded.

There is a gas fire with a chimney. It is still in working order but we don’t ever use it. (Can we block the chimney opening off somehow?)

I have no idea where the heat escapes from and where to even start tackling it. Do I need some kind of survey? Or is it safe to assume that the loft is the issue as upstairs is generally colder than downstairs, and get it topped up? If so, then topped up by how much? Please help, we have 2 young children one of which is a newborn so want to get it sorted so we’re not burning (literally) through the £££ every winter.

We put foil loft insulation across the rafters in our loft last year and it made a noticeable difference to the house.
We did it ourselves by using a staple gun to attach the foil to the rafters and then using foil tape to stick the sheets together. It was very easy and didn't take long.
This sort of insulation.

Most likely the loft. It can escape from anywhere but lots of loft insulation makes a difference.

Re: the chimney - we put one of these in when we decommissioned our fireplace. Stops the downward draughts
Chimney balloon.

A heavy curtain on the inside of the front door really makes a difference too.

A house that old shouldn't really lose heat that quickly.

The loft is an easy target, and buying insulation to improve it can be really cheap.

But my guess is that there are other issues you need to find and rectify.

Thermal imaging cameras can be really useful for this. In my house they had not rolled the edges of the loft insulation right to the edge of the roof where it meets the wall. You need to leave some gap for circulation of air in the loft, but not that much ! The thermal imaging showed this up nicely and allowed me to rectify it.

Also there is one cupboard in my place that for stupid build reasons gets cold.

So thermal imaging located the issues here and guided me to put in insulation which reduces the heat leak a lot.

If you’re with Octopus energy they’ll lend you a thermal imaging camera to find out where you’re losing heat - if you’re not you can get a surveyor out to do the same thing. I would definitely recommend increasing the loft insulation either way. The recommended level is now 270mm.

Do you have a garage? Garage doors can be very leaky.

I second @GasPanic says thermal imaging camera. You can either hire one for whatever length of time you need or buy one.

We bought one, realised there was a whole section of our loft without insulation (roof has two different areas so we couldn't see it from inside) we had gaps that we sealed, replaced the door threshold strips which were leaking heat from the bottom of all the doors. Lots of videos online on how to do these things too. We also put thermal blinds up even though we had curtains, curtain over the front door etc.

We also insulated the loft hatch opening, not the hatch as it has ladders attached to the hatch but made a box out of Kingspan insulation boards that sits inside the loft covering the hatch opening. We think that has made a massive difference too. Again, this was picked up by the thermal camera.

It is really good to actually see where you have cold spots and then work out what you can do to fix it. Far easier than just guessing. Sometimes windows are installed without them using expanding foam to seal the gaps. So even if new, they might be leaking cold air from the sides.

A thermal imaging camera is the best option but I was also able to identify cold spots around doors, windows and on my ceiling by using an infrared thermometer, less than £20 on Amazon.

Have you looked at how much cold is coming down extractor fans? We have wind gusts coming down ours (a rental) and one is half stuck open half the time.

A scramble in our hard to get to loft also shows me the gaps around the pipes to vent them outside look far larger than I think they should be.

Actually the recommended level is now 300mm, 270 is outdated. Thanks for the tip re. the camera, I am with Octopus so going to look into this!

270mm is what Which? says - they reckon there’s limited improvements from going above that https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/insulation/article/how-to-buy-loft-insulation/types-of-loft-insulation-atI1Q7O22f0m

Oooh I never thought of this. What can be done about it?

Idk. But I do know that not all extractor fans are created equal because I have lived in many houses and never experienced this (that I can remember) before. Put them into google, find the most expensive ones and see what fancy features they claim to have that others do not. Or maybe "stop extractor flapping noise" into Youtube.

I certainly don't think it's normal to be woken up by bloody flapping noises all throughout the night, so they must have installed some cheap toot or not maintained something on the roof exit points to stop wind from getting in.

Interesting. But the building regs update in 2022 changed the u-value requirement for roof insulation to 0.15 for a new element (ie. extension) to an existing dwelling. This equates to 300mm of Rockwool - not 270mm as quoted in the article (which doesn't seem to reference the 2022 updates.) I wouldn't have thought OP would be feeling that cold with 200mm of insulation though - but an extra layer installed over the top could help. Heat should be rising, it doesn't make sense that it's colder upstairs, which means it's probably being lost through draughts. If the house was shoddily built there could be gaps in the cavity insulation around the windows - 2001 would pre-date air pressure testing for new dwellings so would be the first place I'd look to. It's worth feeling around windows with your hands to see if you can feel cold spots at the edges.

Is your house open plan OP and/or do the stairs came straight off the living room or kitchen? Both are ways to lose heat quickly. A porch, separate rooms with doors, front and back door curtains are better, and thick curtains on all the windows make a big difference even with double glazing. Oh and conservatories unless very well built lose a lot of heat.
I'm surprised that such a new house is so disappointingly cold. I live in a high-ceilinged large-windowed Victorian money pit built on a very exposed cliff, and it doesn't sound much worse than yours.

Does it get sun to build up heat in the summer?

I don't think they started getting really big on energy efficiency in houses until maybe 10-15 years ago.

Mine is 2005 and I wouldn't say it was great. Mainly because of the huge amounts of ventilation they put in the flooring. This is supposedly needed to allow air to circulate to prevent the joists rotting. But I am not wholly convinced it needs as much as there is currently.

Yes it’s definitely colder by the windows - they don’t feel particularly crafty though and the seals are good (if I put a sheet of paper in the window and close it, I can’t easily pull the paper out).

How would I check if the cavity insulation is missing there?

Not open plan, no conservatory, no porch and stairs are coming off the hallway not a room. Can’t add curtains downstairs as it’s an oddly shaped and recessed bay window, meaning half of the room would be shut off by the curtains due to wheee the rail would have to be placed.

Yes it’s roasting upstairs in the summer, absolutely boiling. Which again makes me think that there’s something wrong with insulation as it heats up really quickly. Downstairs stays nice and cool a lot longer

Yep that could definitely be the hot sun heating the loft up and the insulation not working for whatever reason. My loft is always boiling in summer.

Sounds as if heat is being lost through the floor then. Thanks for the warning. We’ve been planning a downsize to a newish house but that doesn’t guarantee anything by the sound of it!

Ah. May I suggest wooden plantation shutters for that bay? They set off the shape of the buy and are good insulation when needed, and you can control how much sun comes in in the summer.
Also heat can be lost if there’s a space under the house , or as a pp said, if there’s too much ventilation round the joists.

I guess there’s no way of checking ventilation without ripping the floors out?

Shutters are a good shout, will look into it!

If your house is built on a slope, there is likely to be some space under it. Otherwise I'm not sure how you can tell. It could be useful to put a thermometer on the floor and another higher up in the room and see how much difference there is. If your floor is suspiciously cold, a thick carpet with underlay could make a big difference.
We took up the carpets in a 1920s house built on a slope and my God we regretted it, the temperature immediately dropped on the ground floor .

Argh yes the house is on a slope actually. Carpets downstairs are definitely on the cards, but not for a few years (basically not until the kids are a bit less messy and potty trained!). We currently have a large, thick rug covering the majority of the floor space in the living room and it’s definitely much nicer to walk on than the hard floor.