Heating and Insulation

[watervole]

This is what ten inches of loft insulation does (photo taken this morning):



The neighbours, as you will observe, have somewhat less.

We've got insulation in the loft floor, and also between the rafters in the roof.  We've got floor boards over the floor insulation, so we also have full use of the loft as storage space - and the ceiling insulation means that although the loft is cold, you don't freeze when you go up there in winter.

Interestingly, my mother-in-law (the incomparable Molly) has a similar roof effect, although she has no insulation at all.

She lives in a very old, half-timbered house.  It can't have things like cavity wall insulation. She turned down an offer of loft insulation from the council as she didn't feel it would benefit her, and there is no double-glazing.  She's 80, lives on her own (with her dog) on her pension, and you're probably now imagining a wretched old lady shivering in the cold.

Not Molly.  We phoned her last night just to be sure she was okay, though we knew it was almost certainly unnecessary.  She replied cheerfully that she was fine.  It was so cold last night that she actually turned the convection heater on in her bedroom for the first time in ages.  She's spending the day in the lounge and only bothering to heat the one room (coal fire), thus saving costs on heating the rest of the house.

She laughingly pointed out that she still has snow on her roof whereas her neighbours with insulation had none left on theirs.  She says they waste heat, heating every room and having the thermostat set far too high.

Molly just adds a thick wool jumper, wears warm socks, and only heats the room she actually needs.  (and with a coal fire, that room is very comfortable).  She'll keep warm by walking the dog, eat well by digging up a few veg from the garden, and hopefully be fit and well for many years yet to come.  (though we're all grateful to the friend who drove her to the shops to stock up on essentials just before the snow hit - Molly has a lot of friends, she's lived a long time in her village and has helped many local causes over the years).

Therefore the Proctor family tips on saving heating bills (and CO2 emissions) appear to be: insulate as well as you possibly can, only heat the rooms you really need to, and wear warm clothing.

Comments

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Wow! I really should lag my loft properly before I do the windows; that's a very graphic que!

Mind you I quite often just stay in one room and keep that sealed and heated instead of the whole house :)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Loft insulation is massively more cost effective than double-glazing. That's why double-gazing salesmen have to work so hard.

Loft insulation doesn't have massive profit margins and so lacks big sales teams.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

I'm looking for quotes now! :)

[jophan.livejournal.com]

Hehe, ten inches is so little it's almost illegal in Sweden! But then we had -26 C here yesterday morning...

[watervole.livejournal.com]

LOL! We could learn a lot from you.

Is it true that new houses in Sweden have to have ground -source heat pumps? They're only easy to do if installed from the beginning, but they're also supposed to be very effective.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

AFAIK it's not a requirement, but you get tax breaks to install them (and they work so well) that almost all new houses get them anyway. And they can't be that hard to retrofit, because I know several people who has done that.

[j-lj.livejournal.com]

One of the first things I did when we bought our house was to get the loft insulated. Last year we floor boarded and intalled a loft ladder to use it as storge space and our roof is covered in snow where the houses next door have snow less roofs.

On the central heating front we are a lot less greener than we should. I like to keep the house nice and warm and the heating has been on 24/7 since December. But we do have Thermostatically-controlled radiator valves which keep the rooms at a set temperature.

I grow up in a house with a coal fire and only the living room was warm in the winter. So thats why I think I keep our central heating on all the time in the winter. I can't stand a cold house!

There is no reason why all homes should not have adequate loft insulation installed. There are plenty of free schemes and Govement grants availble for this.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Have you got lined curtains? If you have all the rooms heated, you can still make quite a difference by making best use of your curtains.

Sounds like you did a good job with the loft insulation! I agree with you that people don't really have any excuse - I think most people don't actually know how much they have and believe they have more than they actually do.

(I acutally find I don't sleep well in warm rooms, so I always have the heating off at night)

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend double-lined curtains: blackout lining and thermal lining. The blackout lining isn't bad on the thermal efficiency in its own right, but adding thermal lining on top just makes them so much better. Being heavier they also hang better, which also seems to help.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that people don't really have any excuse

How about living on the ground floor of a multiple occupancy residence where each flat has its own landlord and the actual owner of the building seems to have disappeared down an interdimensional wormhole?

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is an extremely impressive difference. :-)

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's an effect of different climates, but all English houses I've been to have been so badly insulated that they'd be actively dangerous up here. When the temperature outside hits -30°C you need good insulation and heating. Stockholm doesn't get that cold every year, but often enough that it needs planning for.

I've been pondering what's the biggest difference between indoor and outdoor temperature that people expect over the course of a normal year in different places. Here, I'd say we expect a difference of 45-50°C at some point during a normal winter (-25 outside, 20-25 inside). I suspect that in England the expectation is 20°C or less.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I think we need a delegation of Swedes to come over and tell us how to do it. We're fumbling around in the dark compared to you.

[jophan.livejournal.com]

Haha, an Eastercon talk, perhaps? Maybe we can get our Eastercon expenses covered by the Swedish Trade Council? :D

[steverogerson.livejournal.com]

The problem in my house is the back door in that there are slight gaps around it that let the heat out. All the windows and front door seal properly and there is loft insulation. Can't afford a new back door though.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Draught proofing strips are dirt cheap. Go down to B+Q and get some, and a cheap curtain rail. Then go to Oxfam, get an old curtain and hang it on the rail and that will stop anything that gets past the draught excluder.

Reminds me, I really need to replace the strip around our front door. It's about a decade old now and part of it's come away.

(How thick is the loft insulation? Most people over-estimate what they have. It's worth actually going up there and measuring it.)

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Of course about the best loft insulation is made from recycled newspaper mushed up and blown into the space between the rafters. A bit messy and difficult for the man-in-the-street to find an installer, but it has a higher insulation result and it doesn't take up non-renewable resources like most other forms. I can't remember what's it called off hand, but I found out about through the Centre for Alternative Technology (http://www.cat.org.uk/)

Another good insulation material is sheep's wool.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Some googling and memory searching has come up with WarmCel. http://www.warmcel.co.uk/

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

This effect is well known to me...we are going to use an insulation on our roof as soon as we have enough money for its repair.
And we would definitely die without our central heating, we are not so economical here, and I admire Molly a lot!!!

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

All the houses round here still have snow on the roofs, but I still want Dad to finish the extra loft insulation sooner rather than later. I suspect a new front door will be moving up my priorities list considering the draughts in the hall.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

See some of the other comments on this thread regarding the cheapness and ease of draught excluder around doors.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

We have a partially half-timbered house -- in the old part of the house, not only is there nowhere to put insulation (no cavity, no roofspace) but there are also many unpluggable holes in the walls. I keep a duvet in the sitting room so that I can snuggle up even when the fire isn't alight, and find that 1 kW portable radiators work very well in warming the locality without wasting too much heat on warming the whole room.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you have Molly's approach to life. Very practical.

[decemberleaf.livejournal.com]

Talk about inspiration!!!!!!

Yet another bunch of good ideas.
____________

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Smile. I was waiting for your reaction.