Heating Solutions in Bedroom

[Purplecarrots123]

Hoping for some ideas. We have an integrated garage in our house with a bedroom over it. It's a sizable bedroom so I want to use it otherwise it's a waste. However, it's much cooler than other rooms. It has two radiators in there, albeit I think older, possibly original ones from when the house was built in 1997 (some radiators in what was children's bedrooms have clearly been replaced by the previous owners). We have had new carpet and underlay as the old carpet when we moved in was threadbare. But it's still much cooler.

I tested it earlier moving the thermostat from downstairs to the room upstairs - downstairs was 20.5 and the room over garage was 19 (and it's still dipping). I know 19 is warm to some but I generally like to keep the house at 20.5 or so, I am a person who feels the cold.

Any ideas or suggestions? I'd like to use it as a nursery in the future as it's the best sized bedroom for this but worried about the cold in there.

What insulation does it have in the ceiling?

Have you tried the new radiator fans? We’ve found them great as we had cold spots in our house. They don’t have an element but work by simply distributing the radiator heat quickly into the room. About £35 each and plug into the wall.

Good question, it's the roof as there is no loft above that part of the house. Not sure if that helps?

https://amzn.eu/d/0iNfyW95

That’s what I assumed. Normally there would be insulation board between the ceiling and the roof, but for all you know, you might have an empty void. Unfortunately the only way you can tell would be to put holes in your ceiling, and if proves to be empty, you would need to bring the ceiling down, install insulation, and put up a new ceiling. Assuming you don’t want to do any major works, your only option would be generate more heat. I would start by replacing the radiators with new larger units and see what that does.

Tbh 20.5 is a bit too warm for a nursery anyway, 19 is safer.

Insulate the ceiling of the garage - just space blanket and a staple gun will do it and make a huge difference- we had exactly the same in our old house.

18 is a comfortable and healthy temperature.

20, wow!

19 is warm for a bedroom, absolutely fine for a nursery. Nothing to worry about.

At 18 our house feels cold. And I feel the cold too and do like to be warm at home

Our house also feels cold at 18.
19 works for us, although DM keeps turning it up to 20 - battle of the hive thermostat 😁

Do you have a single thermostat for the house? Where is it located and what temperature is it set to? Do your radiators have thermostatic valves and if so how do you leave them? Do the radiators in that room get as hot as the others?

Put a jumper on. Any higher than 18 is not healthy day to day for fit and well people. Or turn it up to 20+ if you must then open a window.

Improving insulation is always a good thing. Are the radiators cooler than ones elsewhere? The system may have been balanced for that room to be cooler, as many people prefer a cool bedroom, maybe try adjusting the lock shield valves at the other end to the on/off valve, to increase the flow rate, sometimes you may have to reduce the flow elsewhere to get it all working properly, you've obviously checked they don't need bleeding. Replacing the radiators may be a solution, modern ones with fins on the back are much more efficient, or you could try fitting a double panel radiator

We sleep in an unheated room with a wide open window. We’re very healthy. But have woken to snow on the carpet…

I think I would go straight to source and look at upgrading your rads & adding thermostatic valves. Modern double or triple radiators kick out so much extra heat and if you end up adding "too much" then thermostatic valves will limit the output. Use an online calculator to figure out what BTUs you need for the space and round up. Also what is the window like? If it's old double glazing, replacing it with a modern unit might make a significant difference.

Appreciate these are "bigger" things that are harder to DIY but both rads and windows can be cheaper than you expect and make big difference.

We lived with a freezing cold kitchen for years,which feels stupid in hindsight when one properly spec'd radiator completely solved the problem.

Start with insulating the ceiling then if that isn't enough, insulate the floor and walls. Rooms above garages are notoriously cold. Be sure to allow for ventilation or the room will get mouldy.

Agree with this. 16-20 is what is recommended for rooms babies sleep in.

Use an infra red thermometer to read the temperature on the ceiling and the floor and walls. Check than the windows are not blown and also that the radiators are operating correctly (no cold spots).

Once you identify where the major heat leak is then you can move onto solutions.

You may find that the cost of upgrading insulation to make the room warmer is not worth it, and the same objective can be performed by burning more gas by upgrading the radiators from for example single to double panel if you have singles already and there is no more space.

For example £1000 at todays prices will buy you 14000 kwh of gas.

If you used an extra 10 kwh of energy into that room per day you could do that for about 1,400 days. Assuming you heat it for 1/2 a year that's about 8 years before the insulation pays back if it costs £1000 to put in.

We lived a new build 20 years ago which had a bedroom over the garage which was considerably colder than all the other bedrooms. The builders re boarded the garage ceiling which made no difference and then discovered the closed loft above that bedroom had not been insulated. In another house with a recent double storey extension I’ve been really pleasantly surprised how warm the bedroom over the integral garage is. It’s built to latest regs, the garage ceiling is double boarded in fire rated plasterboard and loft above will have the latest levels of insulation.

I'd focus on the insulation underneath the bedroom before spending money on bigger radiators. Rooms above garages can lose quite a bit of heat through the floor, especially if the garage ceiling wasn't properly insulated when the house was built. I'd also check whether the radiators are getting as hot as the ones in the other rooms. If they're cooler, the heating system might just need balancing. No point replacing both radiators if the real problem is heat escaping through the floor.

If there aren’t any restrictions like being in an AONB, I would put air source heat pump in - then you can set it to the temp you like for heat and have ac in summer. They’re very cheap to run as heating as well as controllable.

This is crazy.

The last thing you want to do is this. A heat pump is never a good solution to localised poor insulation.

Doing some calculations based on the type and size of existing radiators, and the volume of the room would be sensible first steps before either changing rads or ripping up existing new carpet and underlay. Also I assume you have checked that rads are bled but have you checked that the system is balanced?

I'd compare this room's temps with the other bedrooms, not with the living room.

Will it only be used for night sleeping? If so then 18 or 19 is fine. You want a cooler room for sleeping than for being awake in. But guess you might spend a bit of time there if you use it for feeds, nappy changes etc.

Insulation is the best solution for making it warmer. Currently it’s got cold from below (garage) and cold from above (roof) and I’m assuming it has at least one external wall if not two or three. I would probably insulate the roof first if it’s fairly easy. Is it a pitched roof - if so there should be a small loft space to access and insulate? Flat roof is harder to insulate but not impossible, you need someone you take off the plasterboard and add insulation between the joists. I would also consider adding insulation to the floor and the external walls but only if you are renovating the room anyway. A big thick rug will do a lot for the floor and thick curtains at the windows. Are the windows double glazed?

Also agree with checking if the radiators need bleeding and possibly adding another rad.