Tackling a cold room. Suggestions pleased.

[Minkeycat]

Our sitting room has literally everything against it in terms of staying warm so it's several degrees cooler than any other room in the house. It's not a small room, about 5m x 5m and ceiling height is about 2m20cm. In no particular order, here are the issues I feel cause it to be a cold room.
1. It's lower than the other rooms with three steps to go down into it.
2. It's situated at the bottom of the stairs so cold air pours down the stairs (there's no loft insulation yet) and straight into the sitting room.
3. There's a fireplace with woodburner that's too powerful (about 14kw when 5kw would suffice) which, when it's lit, sucks cold air through the house, across your sitting room and into the fire and then, when it's up to temperature, it makes it too warm.
4. The outside ground level slopes from marginally above floor level in the sitting room to just below it.
5. It has two outside walls albeit thick, cob walls.
6. Each wall has a single glazed window.
7. The floor is boarded, presumably suspended, apparently over old flagstones that may or may not be there still (I'm going by a neighbour's memory).
8. Another neighbour thinks there might be a well below it.
9. Just to add a cherry on the cool cake, a psychic lady told me that the room is "active" meaning it's haunted too!

I'm trying to ascertain which of the above contribute most to the cooler temperature of the room so I know what to tackle first so any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Cubist]

Hi Minkeycat,

Sounds like our respective domiciles share some common features in terms of their design and the heating challenges they present.

Our sitting room too is somewhat lower than the rest of the house, is open to the stairs and hall - read dining room now - and has its own wood-burner. However, It is not the coldest room in the house, as that particular credit goes to the study/library to which the sitting room connects via a plank and ledger door. As a consequence, whenever we light up the lounge fire the First Lady and I are assailed by cold draughts that could cut through steel.

We have tried a few things to remedy the problem but it would be pointless to recount these as none so far have met with much in the way of success. Sadly, we are combatting with physics and the laws governing thermo-dynamics are very hard to overcome or circumvent. However, aside from the obvious ones of double glazing and loft insulation, there may be some things that you can do to alleviate or reduce the heat loss / cold draught problem some of which need not be too expensive.

The first step though would be to verify where the cold air is coming from. Convection currents created by the wood-burner can be observed using a few incense tapers placed at floor level at entrances to the room and at other locations around the room - place them on a plate or saucer to prevent any possible damage. Whilst these give off only a small amount of smoke you can, through careful placement and observation, effectively map the flow of cold air and get a feel for its relative strength. This should at least confirm the major source of cold air being drawn to the fire and define where to focus your next efforts.

If the stairs/upper floor are indeed the culprit you may need to consider how you could separate the sitting room from the stair well using doors or perhaps heavy curtains or, if that’s not possible, whether the first-floor rooms could be removed from the equation using the same approach.

If the bulk of the cold air is coming from beneath the floor I would first check whether there is indeed an old water-well below the floor and ensure that it has been properly filled and covered. If there is, and it has not, you have a much bigger problem to fix.

Next I would check the floorboards. If they are very old they may not be tongue and groove and gaps between the boards will be obvious. Gaps can also open in old tongue and groove boards through splitting and separation of the tongue. If you find such gaps you could consider the possibility of rope caulking hammered into the gaps to close them and waxed to match the rest of the floor. You can use this approach in corners and under/behind skirting boards as well. You could also find out whether it would be appropriate to insulate the space below the floor-boards but you would need to keep in mind the dangers of wet/dry rot.

Hopefully this may be of some help because my next resort would be Ghostbusters.

Sissy, who happens to be responsible for all the lost keys and bumps in the night at our place, sends her best regards to your lodger together with a request that he/she does not blow out the tapers.

 

[Flyfisher]

#2 - We have stairs leading off our similarly-sized sitting room (6x5m) but they also have doors fitted so we have no problems with cold air coming down or heated air going up. Might be worth considering.

#3 - We also have a 14kW boiler stove in our sitting room but its not over-powering and the boiler runs our kitchen UFH and our bedroom radiator. A straight 14kW stove does seem a bit much so perhaps added a few firebricks at the sides might help reduce the capacity. What is not generally a good thing it to close down the stove to an 'idle' burn. The flue will cool and combustion gases from the smouldering wood will condense more readily, possibly leading to premature corrosion. Better to have a normal burn and then rest the stove completely if things become too hot.

#6 - Thick, lined curtains can work wonders.

#9 - yeah, right :roll:

 

[MikeG]

If you have a suspended floor it should be relatively straightforward to duct in an independent air supply for the fire. Most bigger units have the ability to fit directly to a duct, but if there is stuff in the way of that, then just bringing the pipe to the vicinity of the fireplace will do wonders for the draft-creating aspect of you woodburner.

Before you do anything else, I'd get in the loft and sort out the insulation. Put 18" of mineral wool in if you can.

 

[88v8]

Ahhh, you've described our sitting room. Lower, cooler, below ground, three solid outside walls, part secondary glazing part not, great summer refuge. A night storage heater takes the winter chill off before we light up in the evening.

To an extent it is what it is. Perhaps there's another room you could use in the winter?

Otherwise, a Clearview stove https://www.clearviewstoves.com/stove-details/solution-500, the Clearview 500 has a nominal 8kw output but that's flat out, Ours - we have two - happily heats our 12 x 15 x 7ft room whilst running in the correct temperature band. Ours came vie eBay.

As Mike say, you need a good air vent local to the stove. Preferably at the back of the fireplace but nearby will do. A diamond core drill may be your friend. The stove must have a free flow of air. Although you can cover the vent when no in use, make a little wooden door.

At the bottom of the stairs, curtains with side recess and pelmet, or a door. There is a reason that may old houses had the stairs screened off. As Cubist noted, not even psychics can defeat physics.

Carpet on the floor may add cosiness. Turkey carpets &/or rugs.
Wall hangings. Tapestries were not only decorative, they had a function.
https://www.jenningsrugs.co.uk/

As FF says, thick, well-fitting curtains. Perhaps a light summer set of curtains, and a thicker winter set.

Being lower, it will still be inherently cooler than the rest of the house. It is what it is, a summer room. Bring thick socks and a wooly.

Ivor

 

[livias]

I too would start with loft insulation and heavy curtains - we bought good heavy interlined curtains inxpensively from meldrum_interiors on ebay. Hang one in the doorway too as an alternative to a door.

 

[Cubist]

Oh, forgot to add: -

1. Add Footstool to comfy chair - gets feet and lower legs out of the draught.
2. Jumper and blankie - more insulation.
3. Single malt - you'll stop caring after a couple.

And another thing; have you ever noticed that many contributors to this and similar forums report that previous owners seem to have been alcoholics? Your draughts are yet another reason.

Cheers,
Cubist

 

[MatthewC]

4. The outside ground level slopes from marginally above floor level in the sitting room to just below it.

7. The floor is boarded, presumably suspended, apparently over old flagstones that may or may not be there still (I'm going by a neighbour's memory).

So if the floor is suspended, the wall under the floor has ground on the outside, so the air space under the floor will be almost certainly damp. Is there any ventilation for under the floor? I would see what can be done about that ground - even digging out a few inches would help - and think about some vents to that space.