I've been insulating my old house Kent peg brick and timber frame lately, mainly loft, and attempting to curtail some of the drafts. Fencing will have to wait until spring..
I've been going to 300mm, replacing very old 100mm and doing the top up layer. There was a fair bit of 100mm in the eaves but I'm not convinced that makes any difference except perhaps for sound, in what are 'cold' lofts.
The walls on the ground floor are pretty thick three course brick, 1st floor is timber frame and who knows what kind of insulation or material behind Kent Peg.
Its quite a challenge on an old property, but thats what we signed up for. I expect the huge investment of redoing the tiles behind timber and insulation is the only real answer, but I might look at the stairwell which seems to be a main source of cold air.
some pics to follow, one in particular shows an internal gutter
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Comments
Why would you be insulating your fence?
If so always remember to keep it shut……I’ve found there’s a hell of a draught comes through them.
Every little bit helps.👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼
Your render is loose
Your chimney stack is crooked
Your windows are draughty
Your stairs are creaky
Oh sorry, insulating not insulting
"Your mother was a maisonette and your father was a caravan!"
Insulating old properties becomes a balance, the costs sometimes outweigh the benefits even with todays energy costs. I don't know how @Razil heats his home, but making sure that's as efficient as possible as well as sensible insulation is probably the best you can do. My new boiler is 3-4 times more efficient (less cost to run) than my old one. To achieve the same in a very old property by insulation alone would be likely cost prohibitive.
Our previous old cobb wall thatch place in Dorset took me 23 years to renovate, consequence of a 5 year plan going awry with a young family and a busy work work life and occasional weekends away back to London watching our mob, my gawd that was a very cold place in winter to start with, we were limited to do what we could do as it was listed, always bemused me that we were not able to fit double glazing, in the end we brazenly fitted new hand made oak, double glazed windows to the Nth side, that totally matched the old softwood windows that were falling apart, we had ivy growing in the house through one of the frames.
Best of luck with your renovations @ Razil.
My house is a shambles for heat retention. It's a brick and chalk terraced cottage built in 1797 so a new build by your standards. It has a 1940s rear kitchen extension with a big area of single glazing, and a 1970s flat roof loft conversion with only token insulation, very chilly on cold nights. I've replaced the 48 sq ft of rotten wooden window with double glazing but it's still not cosy. The boiler is new, the central heating is pretty efficient and there's a wood burner that gets a lot of use, but hot water bottles are still the answer!
My place is listed, part of one of the fireplaces includes large stones from Leeds Priory demolished during Henry VIII time. We've restored some of the lathe and plaster but the vandalism of previous owners would make your eyes water, including a lot of oak flooring replaced with chip board.
We've replaced some of the old fashioned radiators with modern convectors, and gradually putting electronic trvs in.
The boiler is a bit under spec and isn't a combi, but we have an immersion that is both electric and gas (via a hot pipe off the boiler). I'm still looking at what level of insulation we can achieve before deciding on a replacement and considering an ASHP.
Also not sure what is most efficient for the water. I've heard that combis being instant aren't as cost effective as system boilers because they have to blast so much heat for the instant hot water, but it probably depends how much its used.
The biggest problem elsewhere I have are trying to make the kitchen retain heat due to unfathomable drafts, and probably needs a new bigger rad as we don't use the aga so much; and the very drafty stair well which funnels cold air downwards, I suspect due to poor insulation and no rads. That is going to be a costly job to remove the kp and insulate, although the first floor isn't cold so I could just focus on the stair well somehow. The previous owners put William Morris wallpaper on and elsewhere, and the wife isn't keen for me to go over the top of it..
Radiators, although relatively expensive go for aluminium, the heat they pump out and and speed they do so is ridiculous. They also hold much less water making the system far more efficient.
Got most of mine from here via a local plumbers merchant as get around 35% off their list price;
www.theradiatorcompany.co.uk
Always make sure you check what BTU you need for each room and Radiator.
I came to the conclusion that ASHP aren't quite up to the job yet, my mate has one and you can't ever really turn the heating off in winter as it takes too long to warm up, that's in a very modern Huff Haus.
I looked at a combi but with a large house with a number of bathrooms I decided against, went for a pressurised system (so no more tanks in the loft) with a Vaillant Ecotec system boiler and a 340l ish water tank, it can run on immersion but not bothered yet, may try in the summer as just fitted a T-Smart controller. The tank is very well insulated these days, retains the heat very well, once when I accidentally turned the timer off we still had hot water for 2 days before I noticed, the tanks in the garage.
I run it all via Hive controller and thermostat (then apple home) which if you like smart home is very good.
Having changed all the system I now pay a lot less than I did a bit over a year ago for Gas, I reckon with price increases I'm saving at least 2/3rds compared to the old system and boiler which would be north of £750 a month now.
I don't know how efficient my boiler is, however if I get the insulation right and upgrade the rads, I'm wondering if it needs changing as long as its relatively modern.
Which boiler do you have?
Although most of my house is 'smart' I went for just standard Drayton TRV's in the end as all I read is people with issues with the current smart one's (generally Hive but others too) and having balanced and set them I generally rarely touch them now.
Built c1470 and Listed Grade II* so there was virtually nothing we could do with it to make it more efficient, absolute nightmare and cost a fortune to heat. Listing sounds great but it's a pain in the rear - great house though and similar to yours, the inglenook had stone pillars taken from the old Rochester Bishop's Palace. Our place in Cheshire is a positive puppy by comparison - built in 1740 to house cows! Thankfully not listed but permitted development rights were removed when it was converted in around 1990 - but there is more I can do and have done to make it more efficient.
Basically got 4 manifolds - hot/cold flow/return.
Motorised attenuators on the flow with each rad being individually piped.
Wall stat in each room controlling attenuator.
More pipework and hard wiring, but not pumping a heating loop just individual rads as an when asked for.
Every hot/cold outlet piped back individually also.
Should allow for simple changeover from gas boiler to ASHP once they improve/become more efficient.