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

Just get a thermal liner and then you can use any curtain

Also making curtains isn't especially complex.

You're east right? There must be loads of alteration places within relatively easy reach. Take your two sets of curtains (nice + thermal) with the measurements to them.

Also doesn’t need to be from a box that says ‘thermal’ to be thermal. Thick/heavyweight fabric that fits well is all that’s needed.

The leccy rad will cost you a fortune to run.

Genuine question; will it?

My reading was we're talking about a limited amount of heat across a small portion of the year to take the edge off, rather than heating a room.

My gut says a thick curtain will take the edge off, and you're not hanging around in the hall anyway, are you? Most people's entrance hallways tend to be cold ime.

I am about to spend a decent chunk of change on cavity wall insulation.
1970's property with nothing at all in the cavity.
Getting quotes for poly bead and adhesive fill

There are a few risks I am worried about

1. Damp and condensation
   
2. All the beads escaping when we replace the windows, for example
   
3. Having zero recourse should either of these two things happen
   
   

Has anyone appointed an insulation contractor to do cavity wall insulation for them?

What sort of accreditations should I be looking for and what certificates do I or building control need?

We had the old beanbag filling done last year by Max Energy. We’re in Hackney. Was organised by the ASHP company so no idea about the procurement process (apart from when I turned away the first lot they sent cause they wanted to do poly fluff) but they seemed good and were much cheaper than any quotes I got myself.

We’d already done the windows but there was a few weeks where I’d find little carbon covered beans in odd places. Not a bad way of finding your air leaks tbh. Some will escape when windows are are done but you can always top up around the edges with expanding foam.

I can't help with accreditation but make sure you get open cell insulation material like icynene. Should help a lot with damp/condensation

The poly balls they mention are good for that.

1. I actually don't know what will be under the brick slips - I'm about to pester the architects about the external build up because it effects the internal. Cement fibre boards would seem to make sense though. Just probably thinner/less expensive than the Viroc boards on the ground/top floor.
   
2. 1903
   

If you compare it to the house on the right you'll see the bay will go up to the level of the top of their sloping roof, so I'm hoping there will be a sloping roof concealed by the 'box' of the top of the bay...

Sorry @bq that's shit, how frustrating. What are French consumer laws like? It really doesn't sound fit for purpose.

I did say

I'm no expert on cavity walls

Haha. Sorry, I've edited my post. Still reckon insulating cavities is easier than solid though!

Disagree. Least likely to be problems doing EWI on a solid wall. With cavity there's a lot that can go wrong in terms of moisture and I think much of what has already been done has caused a lot of damage to the existing buildings. Although it's also cowboy retrofit territory (see also spray foam in the loft, snake oil rising damp solutions).

spray foam in the loft

My mother (bless her boomer cotton socks), had the loft in her Georgian house sprayed.

When she came to sell, only cash buyers would be entertained, as nobody would sell a mortgage on a property that age with that insulation.

Happy to be corrected as that makes me feel a bit better!

Practically though with a solid wall you do still need to come up with a system to fix it to the external wall, provide weatherproofing etc. It's more work and more expensive than putting insulation in a cavity, which is mainly what I meant by harder, even if you're less likely to encounter problems when it's done.

Am I right in saying that the new windows should be installed as close to the current 'edge' as possible?

Ideally you want them in the insulation zone, but doing this isn't easy and you've then got to worry about temporary weatherproofing between the window and EWI installs occuring.

There are a few good threads on places like buildhub and the green building forum on this, I'm still getting my head around it personally:
https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/blogs/entry/245-fitting-of-new-windows-in-ewi-layer-using-ewi-brackets/
https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=15771

If you decide that's too hard and go with the as close to the current edge as possible option with extended cills make sure they have end caps to stop water entering the insulation sideways.

Although it's also cowboy retrofit territory

Hah, yeah. In that dangerous nexus of naive customers, cheap shit products, little up-front investment required, no specialist skills required, mechanical delivery, mostly invisible, all future problems can be waved away or blamed elsewhere.

Thanks! I'll have a read of those links too.

The EWI contractor said they could offer UPVC cills but I'm hoping Nordan can offer some nicer alu ones. It'll be 150mm of EWI plus whatever the render is on top so they'll need to be pretty big.

On the plus side the internal reveals/cills will be a good size for some plants :)

edit: the links you sent now have me wondering about the sliding door I'm going to get installed!

There will be 50mm xps insulation below the floor level down to the ground but not sure how that's going to work. This stuff feels like a minefield.

My boiler got a new PCB and it's back to being lovely again. I hope you can get something sorted with your system. There's only one Greta unless a simple spooning with her would suffice.

4.4C in my bedroom when i woke this morning
ice on the inside of the windows .... damn single glazing
central heating now on

Crikey! Our place gets no where near as cold as that, unless we've been away for a week and no heating and proper winter.

Jeezo. Is that normal?

was out till late last night so didn't use the central heating yesterday at all. temps have hovered around 10C in the house through the winter, central heating goes on when it gets under 10C so have only used it for maybe 10 - 20 hrs so far this winter. last night was particularly cold though. beautiful ice patterns on the glass !

Our thermostat doesn't work very well with timings or whatever so to turn on the heating I have to set the target temp to higher than it is and later remember to turn it back down. The lowest it'll go is 5 and the past week I've woken to it running. That said we currently don't have a floor in the kitchen or a ceiling in the bathroom so I know where the heats going.

It’s normal in the UK to wear a hair shirt and tell everyone how cold it is in your home.
I grew up with no heating upstairs and single glazing, I have no desire to return to those kind of living conditions.

The cost of heating and the shitty housing stock means it’s a popular narrative as it just masks a few uncomfortable truths about this country.