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

If you put a canopy over your bed it makes an enormous difference. we have a four poster and attach curtains in the winter (mosquito nets in the summer). It makes the bed so warm.

I can recommend the Marks and Spencer thermal lined velvet curtains. They literally have a thin quilt attached to the back of them as lining. They are amazing (but very heavy and probably not great if you don't have a good fixing for your curtain pole).

Rugs. Look on line and buy large cheap rugs and work towards getting the floorboards caulked. Also home made secondary glazing using Perspex sheets worked well in a badly heated 100 yr old cottage.

If you can, get curtains up at least temporarily. Line with an old thin duvet or blanket. Put a call out to friends and family for spare curtains in the short term. We double up on curtains in the winter. Bleed the radiators.

Your single glazed windows without curtains are a disaster.
You need to get properly thick curtains, or failing that as a tempirary measure fleece or wool blankets hung up as curtains - ideally double layered.
Have a good check on window frames outside & in. Are they rotten? Replace the worst of the rotten ones when/ if you can afford it. Repair the rest (wet rot preventer , 2 part epoxy). secondary glazing - google Magneglaze or Gecko glazing (there are loads of others).
Water is much harder to heat than air, so make sure damp is sorted out. Also, buy an efficient dehumidifier.

If you can see daylight from your floorboards (!!!) then thats going to be horrendous to live with. Caulk the gaps at least. Id see about getting a specialist in to sort how to insulate that.

Large house,built 1877. Was absolutely freezing so we.....
Bought new sash windows ( not wood). Look authentic,require no maintenance and ,best of all, they are triple glazed and fit perfectly so no drafts.
Same for exterior doors.
Two wood burning stoves. One in each living room . Shed full of wood. Chimneys swept EVERY year.
Get your central heating system flushed through and modernised where necessary

Carpets in any downstairs rooms that have air bricks.
Skirting board heater in the kitchen.
Rug under kitchen table much warmer for feet.
Slippers that go above your ankles.
Weve been here for 20 years. It can be done but you do need to compromise on original windows and floorboards downstairs.

I have an electric "hot water bottle" the heat from it lasts ages & mine came with a cover & belt thing, so you can walk around wearing it! Love it, but only turned my fan off 2 days ago, so trying to tuff it out until officially into October!! (No specific reason, I'm just a bit crazy!)
https://amzn.eu/d/07aeHxUe
This is the one I have only takes about 10 mins (if that) to recharge from completely cold too

Big thick velvet curtains or heavy weight curtains ( to the floor) with thermal linings. Get thick curtains for front door, back door.

I have asthma and 2 wood burning stoves. They burn with the door shut. Everyone is different ( my triggers are stress and cigarette smoke from other people) and the stoves have never caused me or my mother or SIL ,who also have asthma, any issues

If there are gaps in the floorboards you can see daylight through there is no point doing anything heating wise because nothing is going to combat the freezing air pouring in. You can get plastic strips that you put in the gaps . We tried these but the only solution that really worked was boarding the floors with sheets of plywood nailed down, then thick underlay then quality wool carpet.

Fill all gaps between floorboards, draft excluders for all doors. Invest in a dehumidifier and let it cycle on and off to remove cold, moist air. Buy insulating film for all windows - I did last year and what a difference it's made (much cheaper than buying heavy curtains and easy to apply.) Thermal blackout blinds for windows. Run the CH 24/7 on a low heat not on timer, that way the walls stay warm. Silentnight do a gigantic self-heating blanket with Sherpa fleece, I've just bought one for the sofa and it really does work. They also do a self-heating mattress topper.

Oil filled radiators are great for heating just the room you are in, such as when you are working or watching tv.

Heated blankets, electric blankets on beds. Furry slippers and thick jumpers/ cards. Keeping the house warm is v expensive and unnecessary. Personal warmth is essential!

I'd just hibernate for the winter and stay in bed. I too live in a draughty old house (with oil heating which I can't afford now!). I bought some oil filled radiators but they're crap and expensive to run. Like I said, just hibernate for the winter 😅

We live in a freezing cold Victorian house. The first few winters were tough!!

my suggestions:
*thick curtains (including one over the back of the front door)
*draught excluders
*thick thermal insulation roll under rugs
*log burner
*we put in a couple of extra large column radiators in key rooms
*hat inside, as well as shearling slippers
*really snuggly dressing gowns & hot water bottles
*artificial fur blankets over the beds, they’re sooooo warm!!

On the flip side, the house is blissfully cool in the summer! And as global warming gets worse, that’s something to be thankful for.

Victorian house here too.

Make sure the heating is working efficiently - we had the system flushed (yikes) then the chap showed me how to set the individual room rad valves in the order they filled from the boiler. Revelation. Don't be scared to replace a radiator if necessary either, it's not horrendously expensive and you'll feel the benefit daily.
Thick curtains on temporary spring tension rods at the front door - Thick as in blanket-as-lining thick.
Two sets of curtains at a window - I have a rod that fits inside the gap berween the wall and main curtain rod, plain set of thermal curtains on in a coordinating shade so you don't notice them. The curtain idea was a Norwegian tip, their cabins can have more than 5 layers of curtains at a window. We're trialling a thermal blind this year too.
Double sided draft excluders - the ones that have what looks like a thin pool noodle on both sides of the door.
Heated gillet - I held off until last year as gillets are not my thing. Still not my thing but I love how much freedom my gillet gives me both inside and out. Buy extra batteries.
Heated throw - absolutely. This was the gateway to the gillet.
Decent thermal baselayer - daily, no question.
Wool duvet as a separate quilt layer or as duvet at bedtime - think wool blanket but looks like and washes like a quilt.
Disposable heat pads inside your slippers if really cold.
Dehumidifier - moist air will cause problems in your home and make you feel colder too.
Tumble dryer or heated drying rack - avoid having wet laundry hanging about, just adding to the humidity. We usually have our Drysoon down in the kitchen during the very cold months and it keeps the kitchen at a comfy temperature as well.

Hope something here helps.

Woolie hat and two pairs of socks. Tights under trousers.

Cover the you windows you don't need to see through with bubble wrap. Place insulated foil behind all radiators. You can buy bubble wrap and the insulated foil on Temu cheaply. Buy some Warmlite Infra red heaters, they heat the body not the room. Approx £40 off E bay or Amazon, so you only need to heat the rooms you are using rather than the whole house. An electric throw over your legs whilst at your office desk or in armchair watching tv. An overnight electric blanket which has the facility to be left on a low setting all night. After having a bath, leave the hot water in until it cools. Switch off electric fan oven at the main switch when you have finished cooking and open it. This will save electric on cooling it down and warm the kitchen. If there is damp in the house buy a low energy dehumidifier. Dry washing on a heated clothes airer. If you cannot afford carpets buy mock wood vinylay which will seal any draughts. Cheap roller blinds or vertical blinds will cost much less than thick curtains.

Over a decade in a stone Victorian house here. Keeping things drier helps. We vent bath/shower steam immediately out of the bathroom window, while keeping the door shut. I have little pots of salt on window sills prone to condensation, which also helps you keep track as well

And I've got passive dehumidifier things. Can't remember the flaming name. They're just refil blocks that sit and collect the water. Cheap and surprisingly effective

If windows get very wet, a window vac can help

In the longer term, keep your roof and gutters in good shape, and your plan of white walls to show up issues should show you where to look

Victorian three story end terrace here. .. high ceilings and original sash windows 🙄
Installing a multi fuel stove is the best thing I ever did.
I have fitted removable internal glazing in the sitting room and bathroom and the stick on stuff in the big two window front bedroom.
I wear warm clothes and love my electric blanket 😄

Thick under felt. Thick fitted carpets. Close fitting thermal curtains.
Work out where draughts are coming from. Stuff the gaps.
Thick velour door curtain.
We did all of that and it was just about bearable.
Current house built in 2000. Fugly but warm!

If your bedrooms can afford to lose some space, internal insulation..I realise this is a job for builders. Thick curtains supposedly help. Close up all doors to rooms not in use/ cold. When it's cold at bedtime, hot water bottles in beds in advance, socks in bed for a little while, blankets/throws on the bed. If it's horribly cold and before you want to light a fire, then tights ( old ones with the feet cut off), under joggy bottoms/PJs. Thick decent slippers. When we have a fire in the evening, I bring my PJs downstairs so that at bedtime I can get changed in the warm lounge before I go up. You can do it !. Hang in there.

I had a 200 yr old cottage, no heating, only a plug in elec fire. I expected to die every winter..
I wore a woolly hat all the time indoors, plus thick socks, boot slippers, a dressing gown on top of clothes, & Fagin type fingerless gloves..

Wool socks and draught excluders. A feather down quilt would also be a boon

Get the thickest underlay you can find. I don't like carpet so have a very thick laminate then rugs everywhere.

Replacing the windows will make a lot of difference, as would a new front door.

Our place was freezing when we first moved in but these the things that made the biggest difference (although the windows were already double glazing that has held up ok).

As your DD is asthmatic, I would really prioritise getting these fundamentals fixed somehow.

Edited to add that in the meantime, I would suggest oil radiators in each room, thick fleece hoodies and do run the central heating now and then to avoid mould.

No wonder you're cold. Thermal curtains ideally floor length will make a huge difference as will carpet with underlay, however cheap. You can get great curtains on eBay if money is tight.