Can I insulate an 1880s stone house with insulation panels?

[paulc]

Because we have Victorian houses we should live like Victorians? Be freezing cold in the winter except when 2 foot away from the fire. They also tended to wear heavy house coats indoors, have wingback chairs to contain the radiant heat. The reality is that is not the way people live these days.

They also used massive amounts of polluting coal to heat their houses.

The bigger more affluent houses also had "staff" to bring in the coal and keep the fires stoked.

 

[Lacan07]

This has always wondered me: I read that you should heat your house to x °C to avoid condensation. But how did people manage 100 years ago? Rooms were heated by fireplaces and there must have been times that no one was present to manage the fireplaces so the house was unheated.

Or does this advice apply mainly to modern houses (built with gypsum, cement, ...)?

Open fireplaces removed the moist air effectively and there was no shortage of fresh air to replace it due to the leakiness of the houses, and the fabric of the buildings were much better at absorbing the moisture anyway. Also, in our modern lifestyles we create much more moisture in our houses - kettles, showers, cooking, etc - coupled with modern materials like gypsum it can create more issues.