Keeping warm

[Anonymous]

Much discussion recently about insulation - fine.
We had a big problem in our main sitting room - the radiator just was not delivering enough heat, though too hot to hold. Answer?
We reinstated a door to a small side room with several windows - a door which had been removed in trendy times when open plan was the thing. Result? Instant and tremendous improvement (and a very nice door too).
Then we hung heavy curtains which drape right down to the floor - and used them. Result? Total success - the room heats up to cosy comfort level.
The moral? Use the old low-tech features of you period house and you may find you get excellent results at a fraction of the cost of some of the modern fixes.

 

[Anonymous]

So if you say curtains to the floor can I assume your rad was not beneath the window? We have discussed /argued this scenario twice at least.

I think the general feeling is that rads heat a room better if they are under a window.

 

[Anonymous]

Once it begins to get dark, we can feel a drop in temperature in our living room. We close the shutters, and this makes a real difference.

Rads - we have one on a wall. Despite it having a posh cover over which is sealed as best we can where it meets the wall, the wall above gets dirty. Rads under windows tend at least not to affect the decor in this manner!

 

[Anonymous]

Noooo marm.
The radiator is not under a window!

 

[Anonymous]

Just wondered!

 

[Anonymous]

Radiators?
I hope you'll be ripping these out forthwith, they are hardly period are they?

 

[Anonymous]

Aye, and get rid of that new-fangled electrickery too (invest in a Jack Russell-powered computer running Sash Windows 95) and all that evil plumbing (unless it's lead, of course!).
I do hope you're having your teeth removed to provide an authentic eating experience (or at the very least ground down with a mill#####file to approximate the period effect). And for the kids, I'd recommend Barrow & Fall's excellent spray-on rickets and polio effect hosiery.
Honestly, some people simply don't appreciate what living in a period house should entail...

 

[Anonymous]

Weird, the censorship on this site. One can say shit, but not b*st*rd. Most odd.

 

[Anonymous]

Well,#####is sometimes censored too! No, I can't explain it either... it's a bugger.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh the radiators don't work, now we don't have a boiler to which to attach them.

The rads are c 1979. Real period items.

 

[Anonymous]

Does anyone remember how it went? Something about a new fashion going from outrageous, through various stages of acceptance, to dreary, to hideous, then back to quaint and attractive.
He was talking about clothes, but it applies pretty well to houses, too.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd have do dig him out from the tottering piles of books which 'furnish' a great deal of our home - but yes, that's about it!

The rads were installed by a then MP, later a senior gov figure, and now a Lord. The house has gone downhill, ownership wise, since his time here of course.

 

[Anonymous]

Nice one Gervase!
Is Sash Windows published by Bill Five-Bar Gates?

 

[Anonymous]

I hope the piles of books are startegically placed against the outside walls. Excellent insulation!

Of course, insulation will only keep in the heat if there's some heat there in the first place!

 

[Anonymous]

Only when me an im have words...

 

[Anonymous]

The blessed Google came up trumps again.


http://www.fashion-era.com/lavers_law.htm