House temperature without heating on

[lizziecupcakes]

Hi all, I know there are lots of factors that cab influence the temperature inside a house, but I just wanted to see if the following is good or bad.

It’s 9pm. The outside temperature right now is 7 degrees centigrade. My coldest room is 15 degrees centigrade. I only had the hearing on this morning for about an hour.

I’ve noticed that when I don’t have my heating on the temperature inside has usually been about 7-10 degrees higher than outside. Is this normal? Is this good?

I’ve never lived in a period property before. I grew up in a new build. Other than that, I have always lived in flats.

Thank you

 

[aockenden]

Sounds pretty good to me. Probably a lot of thermal inertia in the masonry mass of the walls. That’s similar to ours, although I expect that to improve as we get more and more insulated lime plaster coating our cold stone walls and eventually lay an insulated limecrete floor.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Sounds like lime heaven! Thank you for responding with your experience

 

[Lacan07]

Hi all, I know there are lots of factors that cab influence the temperature inside a house, but I just wanted to see if the following is good or bad.

It’s 9pm. The outside temperature right now is 7 degrees centigrade. My coldest room is 15 degrees centigrade. I only had the hearing on this morning for about an hour.

I’ve noticed that when I don’t have my heating on the temperature inside has usually been about 7-10 degrees higher than outside. Is this normal? Is this good?

I’ve never lived in a period property before. I grew up in a new build. Other than that, I have always lived in flats.

Thank you

I'd kill for those temps!

 

[lizziecupcakes]

I'd kill for those temps!

I hope the temperature rises in your home soon! I just don’t know what is normal or not, or good or considered bad. I’m documenting the baseline temperature compared to outside for a few days because we are installing our loft insulation now.

It is actually quite tiring doing it, or maybe i’m just tired from hammering away at the ceiling plaster. There are areas in the loft that i have to squat or lie in and i’m basically doing a workout for 2 hours lol. I want to convince myself this will all be worth it in the end.

 

[paulc]

It is actually quite tiring doing it, or maybe i’m just tired from hammering away at the ceiling plaster. There are areas in the loft that i have to squat or lie in and i’m basically doing a workout for 2 hours lol. I want to convince myself this will all be worth it in the end.

Although my home is a little newer than yours (built 1928/9), I've been insulating where I can and killing off all those nasty little draughts. Even with the temperature outside hitting -3°C, inside has been 17-20°C in most rooms. Looks like my gas bill for the month is going to be around £30.
So yes, the work will be worth it, and you'll very quickly notice the benefit of loft insulation.

 

[Flyfisher]

AS mentioned, it's all about the thermal lag and this depends on insulation and the mass of the walls and floor (and anything else that can heat up and cool down). Every house will be slightly different and it takes a while to learn how each room 'works'.

We have a room that is seldom heated at all and it has been sitting around 5-6-7c recently, which is still a few degrees above the outside temperature (probably because of heat leaking into it from other heated rooms). Last weekend the outside temperature went to 17C, from the previous week of mild frosts, and the room in quetion remained at around 7/8C until I opened the outside door and windows to let the heat in!

Interestingly though, our cellar was around 10C during the recent frosty spell of weather, a little lower than its usual 11/12C, which I assume was because it is effectively surrounded by subsoil that the frosty weather hardly penetrates (and is why buried water pipes rarely freeze during our winters).

Having said that about the unheated room, we have a few friends staying over the next few days so I've turned on the UFH in that room. The floor slab is currently 7.4C (how sad was it to embed some temperature sensors in the limecrete floor as it was being laid?!) and is about 100mm thick with pamments on top so I'm expecting it to take at least 12 hours to get up to heat. Once there it can be maintained by running the UFH for a few hours each day, depending on the outside temperature. When our guests leave and I switch off the UFH it'll take a day or two for the room temperature to fall right back to it's unheated 6/7/8c typical for this time of year.

So when Lizzie asks 'is this normal', I'd throw the question back and suggest that there is no real 'normal', except for the particular house in question and even then much will depend on how the occupant manage it. I'm sure we all know someone who runs their heating at 24C throughout the house and lives in shorts and tees throughout the winter! I'm too miserly for that approach and reach for the thermal undies as soon as winter draws on, or should that be 'winter drawers on'?

 

[Cubist]

Buggeration!

A single palpable hit, precisely targeted on my Pavlovian triggers, and I'm off like the proverbial White Rabbit exploring a new burrow while in the guise of Science Officer Cubist on a mission to explore new frontiers aboard the good ship (virtual) 'Period Property'.

For a moment there LCC you were in danger of getting a broadside consisting of salvo after salvo of references to the physical laws and how these interact with the properties of our homes that may have stretched to pages and pages.

Count yourself lucky that I caught myself and climbed out of that mental burrow in time to merely say here - you can only compare your measures with someone in a near identical situation as yourself, anything else leaves you with Apples and Oranges..... and Flyfisher just beat me to the punch... more buggeration.

 

[mh12]

Although my home is a little newer than yours (built 1928/9), I've been insulating where I can and killing off all those nasty little draughts. Even with the temperature outside hitting -3°C, inside has been 17-20°C in most rooms. Looks like my gas bill for the month is going to be around £30.
So yes, the work will be worth it, and you'll very quickly notice the benefit of loft insulation.

Can you please share the types of insulation you've carried out in your property which you've found paid dividends?

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Although my home is a little newer than yours (built 1928/9), I've been insulating where I can and killing off all those nasty little draughts. Even with the temperature outside hitting -3°C, inside has been 17-20°C in most rooms. Looks like my gas bill for the month is going to be around £30.
So yes, the work will be worth it, and you'll very quickly notice the benefit of loft insulation.

Oh thank you, I needed to read this!!

 

[lizziecupcakes]

So when Lizzie asks 'is this normal', I'd throw the question back and suggest that there is no real 'normal', except for the particular house in question and even then much will depend on how the occupant manage it. I'm sure we all know someone who runs their heating at 24C throughout the house and lives in shorts and tees throughout the winter! I'm too miserly for that approach and reach for the thermal undies as soon as winter draws on, or should that be 'winter drawers on'?

I appreciate these points so much! It it very true, each house is different. I have one room that much colder than the rest, mainly because it gets no sun and has a northwest facing window that gets blocked by the other bedroom that ends it lol. Actually , the dining room is just below it as is also quite chilly for the same reasons, but we only ear in here and sometimes work from home here with a hot water bottle. The layout is crazy lol, but i don’t mind our nw facing garden anyway.

24 degrees cent is too warm for me. I’ve realised i’m quite comfortable at 18 degrees in the house so far, i wear slippers and socks all year round, even in new builds haha, and i am the type to cover ip my arms because for someone reason they’re always so so cold. Cardigans are my best friend!

Thanks again for sharing

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Buggeration!

A single palpable hit, precisely targeted on my Pavlovian triggers, and I'm off like the proverbial White Rabbit exploring a new burrow while in the guise of Science Officer Cubist on a mission to explore new frontiers aboard the good ship (virtual) 'Period Property'.

For a moment there LCC you were in danger of getting a broadside consisting of salvo after salvo of references to the physical laws and how these interact with the properties of our homes that may have stretched to pages and pages.

Count yourself lucky that I caught myself and climbed out of that mental burrow in time to merely say here - you can only compare your measures with someone in a near identical situation as yourself, anything else leaves you with Apples and Oranges..... and Flyfisher just beat me to the punch... more buggeration.

Love your responses! Hehe. And all very true

 

[Jblakes]

Most of my rooms upstairs are 16-18 unless very cold outside ie approaching minus temps. Downstairs is generally warmer especially when cooking.

The main improvement we saw was when we massively improved the draft proofing, took some imagination on some of them due to being a very old creaky house.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Most of my rooms upstairs are 16-18 unless very cold outside ie approaching minus temps. Downstairs is generally warmer especially when cooking.

The main improvement we saw was when we massively improved the draft proofing, took some imagination on some of them due to being a very old creaky house.

it’s always the little things!

I will be finishing up the insulation by the end of the week and I can’t wait to close the hatch. It’s made of wood, no hatch ladder/staircase, so we are climbing into the loft with a tall ladder.

Can you recommend how i stop the draught around the edges of the hatch? I’m not quite sure what to use here.

It also needs a good wipe, there is so much dust gathered over it.

 

[Cubist]

Assuming the hatch is little more than a square of say plywood that fits neatly into the hole in the ceiling you can use the rubber draught excluder strip material, typically used around doors and windows, pinned to the upper edge of the wooden architrave as a seating.

By the way - your actions up there thrashing around tearing up boards and fitting insulation will have boosted the houses ambient temperature and perhaps by more than you might think. Yet another variable that has to be considered.

 

[paulc]

Can you please share the types of insulation you've carried out in your property which you've found paid dividends?

Fibreglass insulation in the loft. In places, up to 400mm thick. On the solid brick walls upstairs, 65-75mm of Celotex. Have a cement render on the outside, so breathability went out of the window when it was applied back in 1928/9. Looking at the data, insulating the walls hasn't made that much difference to heat loss.

Can you recommend how i stop the draught around the edges of the hatch? I’m not quite sure what to use here.

I used a Manthorpe (GL250 I think) insulated hatch. Not particularly pretty, and I needed to reduce the size of the hole by about 40mm all round. Killed the draught instantly, and being insulated, helps to keep heat in.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Can you please share the types of insulation you've carried out in your property which you've found paid dividends?

I’m using knauf eco rolls fibreglass.
In most places it’ll about 400mm because the previous owner has some insulation around. I’m getting rid of some though because it’s gone flat (from some weight or other) and won’t be effective.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Assuming the hatch is little more than a square of say plywood that fits neatly into the hole in the ceiling you can use the rubber draught excluder strip material, typically used around doors and windows, pinned to the upper edge of the wooden architrave as a seating.

By the way - your actions up there thrashing around tearing up boards and fitting insulation will have boosted the houses ambient temperature and perhaps by more than you might think. Yet another variable that has to be considered.

Thank you, i’ll try this first and if it could be better i’ll look into @paulc ’s solution (not sure if it will be pricey though)

The bathroom is freezing, thanks to little to no insulation above it. That will be the room that will tell me everything! Just need to cover the down lights first.

 

[Glenn586]

All the rooms where we have the UFH on is keeping all rooms at 20C at the moment. The rooms that we don't have the UFH switched on are at 12C. I guess they are borrowing a little form the rooms that are 20C.

 

[Lacan07]

Although my home is a little newer than yours (built 1928/9), I've been insulating where I can and killing off all those nasty little draughts. Even with the temperature outside hitting -3°C, inside has been 17-20°C in most rooms. Looks like my gas bill for the month is going to be around £30.
So yes, the work will be worth it, and you'll very quickly notice the benefit of loft insulation.

Thats insanely good, prior to a few weeks ago I hadn't used my gas for 3 years but was still paying roughly £90 a year standing charge, the bl**dy crooks!

May I ask what is your monthly spend on gas, electric & water? And who are you with for your power?