Victorian house keep warm life hacks sought!

[slugjelly]

Hello,
First winter in my draughty north facing mid renovation Victorian house looming. I’m already cold. What hacks do you have. Do I need small heaters? Heated blankets? Dehumidifier? There must be some way to make it better apart from hot water bottles. I have central heating, but need to seriously supplement it.
Yours freezingly,
slugjelly

You will be absolutely fine with floorboards but you must must get some big thick woollen rugs later if necessary and a fluffy one where you sit on the sofa

Rug under kitchen table and chairs too.

Roller blinds (can be cheap simple ones in white) AND lined curtains, you do not need double glazed windows

Solar gain whenever sun shines in and no nets, then close the nets or make nets only half height kind when sun shines

In emergencies close blinds the minute the sun goes in if they are the white translucent kind, all this insulates any heat you have gained

Open windows once a day for ten minutes regardless and then draught proof shut doors when you are in a room. No open plan life style!

Definitely dress warmly. And heat one room well with a heat source the rest can be low.

Think Victorian, layer your clothes eat hot filling food...do not walk around in a teeshirt

Consider putting in a couple of powerful but energy-saving air con units (I have Mitsubishi and they're amazing). Modern units have heating option as well which is more energy-efficient than gas heating. I use them all winter - the living room is warm in 5 minutes. Not to mention cooling in summer - I could kiss the units every day this summer because I had 21 C in my house while people were crying from exhaustion in 36 C heat.

One unit in master bedroom, one in the living room, all doors open and you'll never have more than 24 C in any room of the house ever again

Sounds good. What model of unit do you have?

Good central heating, good double glazing, jumpers and socks.

Works for us.

I've added a screenshot from the invoice below

"More energy efficient" yes, but since energy from electricity costs four times as much as energy from gas, not more money efficient.

What we did was close in the stairs with plastic sheeting so the heat didn't all rise. Put extra insulation in the roof if you can. We also made secondary glazing with sheets of clear acrylic attached with magnetic strips on the frame and the acrylic sheet. Lots of layers of clothing, fingerless gloves and a wooly hat if desperate. Heated blanket will help, especially if sat down for long periods.

If your house is already freezing, I’d check your radiators before buying lots of small heaters. In an older Victorian house, the existing radiators may simply not have enough heat output for the rooms.
Check the room size, windows and insulation when choosing radiator output. A BTU calculator can give you a useful starting point: BTU radiator calculator
Draught-proofing doors and windows, using thick curtains and a heated blanket can also make a noticeable difference while the renovation is ongoing.

It is possible to fill in gaps in floorboards, but time consuming. Carpets are quicker but not cheap. You could use just felt underlay - and hopefully can afford carpets later. Or cheap vinyl flooring of some kind would work.
We used seals to reduce draughts from external doors, and fixed draught excluders to the backs of the doors so that they moved with it, with a purpose made draught excluder or the back of the letter box. You can also draught proof windows to some extent, but use a good quality seal, not a cheap foam which will disintegrate quickly.
One other thing you can do us just use one room to live in apart from bedrooms in the winter. For example perhaps you have a kitchen large enough for a sofa and TV? Then you only need to heat one room and the heat from cooking would help too. We found that fan heaters were ideal for heating one room quickly, rather than using central heating.
Presumably bedrooms are not so draughty, and a good warm duvet would keep you warm at night, synthetic ones are not expensive. You can use electric blankets to initially warm the bed, but don't use them all night.

Thanks

I second curtains on doors, we have a draughty, now old new build, lovely entrance hall two windows either side of the front door.

I used to have one curtain, now I have double floor length, lined curtains, and it’s fabulous.
I don’t know why everyone doesn’t.
I’m lucky that a thin gold curtain rail fits, in previous houses, I had single curtains.
You close off the world and keep the heat in.
It’s great for privacy at night time.

Oh and an oil filled radiator, in what ever room you’re in saves on central heating, and do buy a dehumidifier or two depending on the size of the house

I agree, we bought 2 smallish ones last year because we have storage heaters which are horrible & expensive , but these oil filled rads are fab . I wish we'd bought them years ago

Curtains will make a big difference. Is it double glazed? Try to find all air draughts and plug/caulk/insulate. Xx

My point was that you can retrofit it thanks

put that with a solar panel system and its really cheap and efficient way of heating and cooling

Cost Comparison: Mitsubishi MSZ vs. Gas Central Heating
The table below compares the hourly cost of running a medium-sized Mitsubishi unit against a standard UK gas central heating boiler.
Heating MethodEnergy SourceEfficiency RateAverage Cost Per Hour
Mitsubishi MSZ (3.5kW)
Heating one room
Electricity
(~24.5p per kWh)
300% – 400%
(Extracts free heat from outdoor air)
12p to 15p
Gas Central Heating Boiler
Heating the whole house
Mains Gas
(~6.2p per kWh)
80% – 92%
(Energy lost through the flue/pipes)
75p to £1.50+

I did wonder so asked for help working it out - its cheaper to use the electric

Yes that's what the air con guy told me - it's cheaper to heat with the air con. It wasn't a sales pitch as he was already mid installation

Out of curiosity, is the aircon cheaper than a heat pump to use? We need to get some and I'm wondering if we could get away with using it to heat and cool sections of the house so we don't need to have the heat pump on all the time.

This is amazing, really helpful information, both for heating a single room and for good air conditioning during our rare, but likely future heatwaves. Where do you buy the Mitsubishi MSZ, at what cost and does it require professional installation? Obviously a valuable asset.

I recommend the menopause.

Put in thermal curtains/blinds for all windows, and across doors. New windows with shutters and a small dehumidifier in the front room along with radiator and a fire. Put carpet in up the stairs and on the landing, which made a noticeable difference. Have hot water bottles and a variety of blankets draped ready to swing into action. Scarves in my office to wrap up in. Thick jumpers and borg fleeces. Still get cold.

You can buy some very cheap composite carpet on line, easily cut without fraying. The one I saw was 3.75 a square metre. This could cover the draughty floorboards until you finish renovating and can get better quality.

Unfortunately I don't understand your arithmetic.

You appear to be telling me that it is cheaper to heat one room than to heat the whole house.

Look on ebay for large thick, lined curtains - there are some great bargains to be had. If buying new, look at readymade ones in Dunelm and hope that your windows are a standard size, or be prepared to get a couple of inches take up from the bottom. Dunelm also have a range of curtain rails and rods.