Keeping your home warm / heating / energy crisis / insulation etc

I probably got the hygrometer right after that big rainy spell and just had the gutters cleared too but so much more comfortable and thermostat down a degree or so. Was the 8l Maeco not the 20l big boi too.

Good points.
When I did ours I cut a small bit off and took it to a window manufacturer near work and one of the guys sold me the end of a roll they had. I put the joint on the vertical next to the hinge and cut it at a 45’ angle.

Find the gaps, plug with linseed oil putty (it's the stuff that's used to keep the panes in the frames - it needs to be painted with an oil based paint or primer when dry. Takes a few days to dry out.)

Thanks

That should give me some kind of starting point.

Unless something else is very very wrong with your gaff, the bulk of the heat loss will come from the single skin uninsulated end of terrace wall. If you can insulate that externally, most of the job would be done. At the moment, it acts as a giant heatsink / cold bridge for your entire house.

So £50 for a used trv? Yep, that seems expensive to me.

I'm not on tado so I've always paid under £40 per trv, new l, and usually closer to £35.

I'm not on tado so I've always paid under £40 per trv, new l, and usually closer to £35.

For a smart, connected TRV?

Get an infra red camera and look at the outside of your house. You can see where heat is escaping. Most provincially owned energy companies in Canada will do this for free.
It was minus 30C here in Winnipeg the other night. Furnace was on for less than an hour, inside was 17C. It sounds like you need serious insulation and real insulated windows. I wish I could help you!

It sounds like you need to live in an insulated North American timber framed house, not a one hundred year old European brick built house

European

Please don't...

Not having insulation in your walls is strange to me. It’s common for detached garages to be insulated and drywalled here.
Even though it’s December two neighbours are getting new windows. One local window manufacturer has an 8 week backlog. Lots of 1960s houses here have aluminum sliders that are like having a hole in the wall.
The province will give you money for insulating your attic, and partial credit for triple pane windows. Not sure about doors.

"Hellooo Moose Fuckers"

No moose (fortunately) but lots of deer, raccoons and lately coyotes.

Not having insulation in your walls is strange to me.

Terraced houses init. Next door provides the insulation. Unless you are unlucky as in Aggi's case where you are the end of the terrace, in which case you have a huge combined heat sink & cold bridge.

The real fuckers are pre 1950s detached houses and semis that either had single skinned brick walls or (if you were lucky) cavity walls with just an air-gap.

If I was in an EOT or the Edwardian semi we nearly bought, I'd get something on the exposed wall if I could. Suspect the boundaries might be an issue with external insulation which is a right fucker as internal is both shitter and a more of a ball ache to do.

Mrs Howard's parents gaff in Canada always amazed me with its ability to retain warmth despite the outside temperature being mega-cold.

Need to have a serious assault on insulation and energy saving measures in the new year, in the draught box. Absolutely haemorrhaging monies and everyone is still cold.

External is easy but a big job. Usually means ripping off siding, attach rigid foam panels, tyvek housewrap, and replace siding. Replacing windows and doors is sometimes done at the same time.
Expensive and best left to contractors.
Indoors means filling cavity with fibreglass wool and a vapour barrier. This is common when replacing a window. Not a huge job if you do one room at a time.

Mrs Howard's parents gaff in Canada always amazed me with its ability to retain warmth despite the outside temperature being mega-cold.

@Doctor_Cake appears to have been demoted.

Make the walls thick enough and it's ok. Ours are 80cm minimum and it's never too cold in the house.

If that's what my Drayton wiser count as. Yes.

Price in image is plus vat.

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scottish government have just announced £7.5k grants available for insulating homes

I've contacted about 5 firms who qualify for the scheme to ask if any of them offer hygroscopic external wall insulation. Sadly, suspect the answer of all 5 will be 'no'.

Same. Have the Karcher vac which does wonders. Just bit the bullet and ordered a Meaco dehumidifier

Not everybody seems to be getting the message, Nisa local has the door wide open at all times and inside they are blasting hot air from the ceiling. HSBC branch today felt like a sauna all for 1 member of staff vs all the customers who come in from the cold in thick coats.

Nice! Good to see the cost of these things getting more reasonable.

Weirdly, no one was complaining about the cold.

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Its the usual with these grants, they get the absolute cowboys to do the jobs and they seem to be the only folk to be allowed to do them. It should be a grant that you should allow anyone to do it and as long as they are registered in that field they can claim the grant.