Central Heating - on yet?

[MrGrumpy]

Unfortunately boarding the loft has two impacts, often the amount of insulation is reduced but also it tends to be compressed underneath the boards, which if it is the lower cost glass fibre type reduces the efficiency. There are a couple of ways to fix this, unboarding and adding the insulation back is one way, the current recommendation is at least 230mm IIRC of glass fibre roll.

The second way is to change the insulation type, PIR board has a much better insulation factor than the regular insulation (about twice as effective for a given depth) so cut and fit it between the joists and then fill any gaps with expanding foam and reboard the loft. That's not cheap though depending on the size of the loft, a 12'x6' board will set you back at least £50.

Our loft is badly insulated, a lot of the insulation was put down poorly and doesn't cover evenly and in a lot of places is heaped up in the corner, there are also board piled up in various locations as well as polystyrene boards in random spots as well. One of my jobs for next year is to lift all the insulation, put fresh insulation down the centre and then board it over properly and then to put PIR between the roof timbers as a second insulation layer. It won't be quite as effective as a mount of thick insulation above the ceiling but it will give some usable loft space which we don't at present have and improve the thermals a bit.

We have quite a few PIR boards left over from when we insulated the walls upstairs before moving in, so it's a relatively low cost option for us as we already have some of the materials.

I’m not lifting the flooring ! I’ll just insulate down the sides ( double up what’s there ) that aren’t covered by board .

 

[wiggydiggy]

Only as a test as its a new house to me and a new CH system. Seems to be working ok but not ran for a long time yet so fingers crossed it works ok!

 

[potsy]

Still not been on here in tropical Manchester, have taken to wearing a t-shirt in bed though, and occasionally closing the bedroom window...

 

[si_c]

We've had ours on for a couple of days properly, being Nest we don't set the times it comes on we set target temperature ranges for the times we want heated, Nest pre-heats to meet those targets. We've got it coming on to warm the house in the morning for an hour from 7.30 to 8.30 and then 6.00 to 7.30 in the evening - both periods set to 18°.

I find that as long as the temperature through the house is quite even and there are not cold spots or draughts then a lower temp is quite comfortable.

The first problem we have with that at the moment is that the back door is rubbish - think single glazed windows with a shoddy door seal and then the surround or about 18" either side is thin plywood so the heat escapes quickly. We've got a new DG back door on order awaiting delivery and installation.

The second problem is that upstairs when we moved in was covered in the cheap bathroom vinyl flooring so we ripped it out, Mrs C wanted to have the bare floorboards, but they "looked ugly" so she had them painted with a chalk white paint, but that's looking terrible but regardless it feels draughty and cold by the floor so we're fitting carpets before new year. I've been looking at thermal underlay this week

 

[lazybloke]

Interesting, how will you measure the effectiveness of the cladding?

If I clad a trial section of a wall, the interior temp of that section should be noticeably better at retaining heat (bits of my house are that bad). I can quantify the improvement with spot ir thermometer readings.

First thing is to confirm it is a solid wall with measurements and test drillings. If not solid I'll research cavity fill instead.

 

[lazybloke]

Unfortunately boarding the loft has two impacts, often the amount of insulation is reduced but also it tends to be compressed underneath the boards, which if it is the lower cost glass fibre type reduces the efficiency. There are a couple of ways to fix this, unboarding and adding the insulation back is one way, the current recommendation is at least 230mm IIRC of glass fibre roll.

The second way is to change the insulation type, PIR board has a much better insulation factor than the regular insulation (about twice as effective for a given depth) so cut and fit it between the joists and then fill any gaps with expanding foam and reboard the loft. That's not cheap though depending on the size of the loft, a 12'x6' board will set you back at least £50.

Our loft is badly insulated, a lot of the insulation was put down poorly and doesn't cover evenly and in a lot of places is heaped up in the corner, there are also board piled up in various locations as well as polystyrene boards in random spots as well. One of my jobs for next year is to lift all the insulation, put fresh insulation down the centre and then board it over properly and then to put PIR between the roof timbers as a second insulation layer. It won't be quite as effective as a mount of thick insulation above the ceiling but it will give some usable loft space which we don't at present have and improve the thermals a bit.

We have quite a few PIR boards left over from when we insulated the walls upstairs before moving in, so it's a relatively low cost option for us as we already have some of the materials.

I've got 300mm of the cheap itchy insulation, and used loft legs to board over the entire lot without compressing it. Horrible job - needed overalls, gloves, mask and goggles.


And crocs.

 

[Mike_P]

I had free cavity wall filling done a few years back The loft is fully boarded so the offer to have free improved insulation was said to be unnecessary.

 

[oldwheels]

A few years ago the OAP's in this area got offered free cavity wall insulation which most accepted. Turned out to be done by a shower of cowboys and was useless. Another firm appeared and removed the unsuitable stuff and installed polystyrene pellets bonded with an epoxy of some kind. Very messy externally but it did work. Painting the outside walls did improve the looks.
One storage heater has been put on this week which is at least a month earlier than usual.

 

[gbb]

Nowhere near yet (heating on)
Windows open virtually 24/7 at this time of year. It was 14c inside the other morning, that was chilly but no rush for the stat yet.

 

[bikingdad90]

Unfortunately boarding the loft has two impacts, often the amount of insulation is reduced but also it tends to be compressed underneath the boards, which if it is the lower cost glass fibre type reduces the efficiency. There are a couple of ways to fix this, unboarding and adding the insulation back is one way, the current recommendation is at least 230mm IIRC of glass fibre roll.

The second way is to change the insulation type, PIR board has a much better insulation factor than the regular insulation (about twice as effective for a given depth) so cut and fit it between the joists and then fill any gaps with expanding foam and reboard the loft. That's not cheap though depending on the size of the loft, a 12'x6' board will set you back at least £50.

Our loft is badly insulated, a lot of the insulation was put down poorly and doesn't cover evenly and in a lot of places is heaped up in the corner, there are also board piled up in various locations as well as polystyrene boards in random spots as well. One of my jobs for next year is to lift all the insulation, put fresh insulation down the centre and then board it over properly and then to put PIR between the roof timbers as a second insulation layer. It won't be quite as effective as a mount of thick insulation above the ceiling but it will give some usable loft space which we don't at present have and improve the thermals a bit.

We have quite a few PIR boards left over from when we insulated the walls upstairs before moving in, so it's a relatively low cost option for us as we already have some of the materials.

We’ve got loft legs which screw into the joists and then insulation and then boards on top, it means the fibreglass doesn’t get squashed and is still effective and then the board gives added insulation.

 

[Slick]

Still not on yet. 20 degrees C as I sit here this evening.

??

My attempt at humour, I'm just back from Turkey and that was around the evening temperatures there. Slightly better than the 6 to 8 degrees here.

 

[Slick]

A few years ago the OAP's in this area got offered free cavity wall insulation which most accepted. Turned out to be done by a shower of cowboys and was useless. Another firm appeared and removed the unsuitable stuff and installed polystyrene pellets bonded with an epoxy of some kind. Very messy externally but it did work. Painting the outside walls did improve the looks.
One storage heater has been put on this week which is at least a month earlier than usual.

I have a fair bit of experience with cavity wall insulation and the cotton wool stuff was never going to work in the west coast of Scotland. Not just the rain, but render needs to be perfect for it to work. The polystyrene pellets are better but still along way from perfect. Its all external insulation wall boards now.

 

[oldwheels]

I have a fair bit of experience with cavity wall insulation and the cotton wool stuff was never going to work in the west coast of Scotland. Not just the rain, but render needs to be perfect for it to work. The polystyrene pellets are better but still along way from perfect. Its all external insulation wall boards now.

Further along my street there is one solitary council house. Not only did they get the pellets but the council did external wall boards as well. There are very few council owned houses now but so far as I know they all got the same treatment.

 

[Dave7]

Ours has been on this morning. 4 weeks ago we had a new DOUBLE rad fitted (whoopee) which was good but has now gone on the blink.........must be the valve. Have to get that sorted asap

 

[si_c]

Ours has been on this morning. 4 weeks ago we had a new DOUBLE rad fitted (whoopee) which was good but has now gone on the blink.........must be the valve. Have to get that sorted asap

Assuming you've already bled the radiator, it depends on if it's the lockshield or the TRV, you can test this by opening the lockshield fully (the fixed valve) and seeing if that sorts the problem out, if not open the TRV all the way, and if that fails take it off. Removing the TRV takes only a moment or two and should fully open the valve, if that sorts the problem, try refitting the TRV.

If not, underneath the TRV is what looks like a pin, tap it a few times to see if it is stuck.