Ireland/Irish and the love of cold houses

scottledeuce

I've moved to Finland about 4 months ago and it's now starting to get fairly chilly, about +/- 1 being the daily average.

What’s really surprised me though is how warm they heat their houses compared to the relative cold outside.

I’ve lived/shared/visited many houses over my years at home and I can’t remember many times where I’d be comfortable just wearing a t shirt in any of them and it got me thinking have Irish people been brought up to “save the heating” so to speak or maybe it’s just dampness.

Either way its 21.5 degrees in my bedroom at the moment and this is fairly constant day and night, also I just seen that room temperature is defined as being in the range of 20°c (68°F) to 25°C (77°F) so has it just been me living with people who love the cold all these years????

bonerjams03

I've noticed that too... My hands are pretty cold most of the time.

My name is URL

Duncan Stewart has failed us

CreepingDeath

Probably more to do with the fact that the Finnish homes are very well insulated.

dr.bollocko

It's the landlord's love of the old storage heating. Curse them.

dsmythy

I guess it's not as cold in Ireland as it would be in Finland. Why heat your home so you can wear a t-shirt and shorts when you can heat it enough where a jumper and trousers will keep you warm. Saves money and good for the environment i guess.

brummytom

I'm not Irish and my house is like a freezer

Owen

It's our crappy house construction methods. Cavity blocks with no insulation, draughty fireplaces, no attic insulation, etc. My sister & brother both built scandanavian homes here in Ireland (Scanhome.ie are the distributors) - thrown up in 4 weeks, and then rarely need to heat the houses. The walls are stuffed full of sheeps wool, there's geothermal heating, boiler tanks which keep your water lukewarm for a week once it's been heated. I never wear more than a tshirt and shorts when I'm in their houses.

The bottom line is we waste a lot of energy in our crappy homes here.

View Profile

Yeah the Irish mentality with turning the heating on seems to be pretty stingy.
Maybe its because we pay so much for oil/gas/electricity!?

I think the colder nations have better heating systems. Like heating from thermal springs and having power stations heating vast amounts of steam and pumping it into every home and business instead of having your own personal boiler.

herya

scottledeuce wrote: »

I’ve lived/shared/visited many houses over my years at home and I can’t remember many times where I’d be comfortable just wearing a t shirt in any of them and it got me thinking have Irish people been brought up to “save the heating” so to speak or maybe it’s just dampness.

Very true. In Poland winters are much colder but I've never felt so freezing cold indoors like here in Ireland. Polish houses are lovely warm nests in comparison, in the heating season the heating is always on. Insulation here is a joke, I could put my hand through the gap under most doors.

But I hate slippery frozen snow too so it balances out!

View Profile wrote: »

I think the colder nations have better heating systems. Like heating from thermal springs and having power stations heating vast amounts of steam and pumping it into every home and business instead of having your own personal boiler.

This.

CreepingDeath

The apartments in Carrickmines are losing a lot of heat through the ceilings at the moment.

PirateShampoo

Insulate our house's, are you mad?

Its the only reason the wife will touch me in bed is because she's cold.

citizen_p

its too doo with humidity.......dampness in the air = cold.....

finland is freezing so you get no dampness ...

and they know how to build a fire properly

scottledeuce

dsmythy wrote: »

I guess it's not as cold in Ireland as it would be in Finland. Why heat your home so you can wear a t-shirt and shorts when you can heat it enough where a jumper and trousers will keep you warm. Saves money and good for the environment i guess.

I thought the same at first and said this is pretty damm warm but as I said room temperature is defined as being between 20 and 25 and I guess thats a worldwide thing.

I've looked at yahoo answers(however reliable that is) and it seems this is mostly true

What do we live in back in Ireland??? I'd love to know the average there as it must be quite a bit lower than this.

Poor Uncle Tom

dsmythy wrote: »

I guess it's not as cold in Ireland as it would be in Finland. Why heat your home so you can wear a t-shirt and shorts when you can heat it enough where a jumper and trousers will keep you warm. Saves money and good for the environment i guess.

Put a zip in the duvet and switch off the heating.

AnonoBoy

Des Bishop's work has only begun I see.

Put a jumper on and cut down on your bill for feck's sake.

helimachoptor

I was in Kosovo a couple of years back, a few days in got down to -20, I was staying in a hotel and the room regularly was 25C+ it was unbearable!

I dropped clothes down to get dry cleaned and the receptionist came up and found me sitting on the balcony in a snow storm in a pair of shorts, she asked me was everything ok, I said yes its just far too warm in the room!
But the Kosovans homes were like this also, a couple of times I excused myself to go outside and cool down!

mike65

Damp air and ****ty building standards must waste a billion or two every year...

Agricola

yeah combination of piss poor insulating jobs and being tight asses with the heating! Tell ya what lads, I just got in the aul double glazing this year and I dont know meself so I dont, the hate is woeful altogether.

rossie1977

i remember when we were in finland about 2 years ago, it was really cold outside (about -11c) so being irish we put down a fire in our wooden house as soon as we arrived, 2 hours later we had to open all the windows it was so hot inside

Jay P

Heating on, fire raging. I'm cosy. :cool:

Wertz

Mousey- wrote: »

its too doo with humidity.......dampness in the air = cold.....

Yeah we get mainly maritime air here when it's cold, so it's both cold and damp. Worked with a guy from the eastern Ukraine a few years back...he was telling us about winters being 20 below, but that it still didn't "feel" as cold as 0 degree typical Irish winters day, and that's before you add in any windchill.

Construction methods don't do us any favours either...old houses especially.
I grew up in houses with no central heating so the cold doesn't really bother me, the heating only goes on when it's really needed.
Have to laugh when I hear people giving out about the cold when they're dresssed for summer and sitting in the house with radiators hopping off the walls...

Euro_Kraut

helimachoptor wrote: »

I was in Kosovo a couple of years back, a few days in got down to -20, I was staying in a hotel and the room regularly was 25C+ it was unbearable!

I dropped clothes down to get dry cleaned and the receptionist came up and found me sitting on the balcony in a snow storm in a pair of shorts, she asked me was everything ok, I said yes its just far too warm in the room!
But the Kosovans homes were like this also, a couple of times I excused myself to go outside and cool down!

Ah yeah but its a bit much to except us to have the same building standards as Kosovo.

scottledeuce

View Profile wrote: »

Yeah the Irish mentality with turning the heating on seems to be pretty stingy.
Maybe its because we pay so much for oil/gas/electricity!?

I think the colder nations have better heating systems. Like heating from thermal springs and having power stations heating vast amounts of steam and pumping it into every home and business instead of having your own personal boiler.

I don’t think the Irish pay any more than they do here...In fact less I think.

I can understand colder nations building warmer houses but with energy prices only going up why can a new house in 2009 Ireland not be built to a similar standard.

I mean It's only sub zero for four months of the year here after all and surely over the lifetime of the average house this would pay for itself.

I can only take our last annual Irish heating bill of 1000 as an example but even over 50 years that adds up to a lot of money and a lot of cold mornings to wake up to. Even after turning on for an hour or two our house would be just as cold as if it was never on at all, Here we have geo thermal (almost free) and some electoral storage system…I’m told the annual heating bill is less than 500 and for that I can work from home in my boxers for the day if I like.

Small price to pay for comfort and it’s not that we are too stingy..Insulation does not cost much and I’ve been in 250k Dublin apartments built just a year ago that would freeze ya

scottledeuce

Wertz wrote: »

Yeah we get mainly maritime air here when it's cold, so it's both cold and damp. Worked with a guy from the eastern Ukraine a few years back...he was telling us about winters being 20 below, but that it still didn't "feel" as cold as 0 degree typical Irish winters day, and that's before you add in any windchill.

Construction methods don't do us any favours either...old houses especially.
I grew up in houses with no central heating so the cold doesn't really bother me, the heating only goes on when it's really needed.
Have to laugh when I hear people giving out about the cold when they're dresssed for summer and sitting in the house with radiators hopping off the walls...

I'll give some credit to that here, I used to be really surprised going to University and seeing it's -5 and I didnt think there was any need for a jacket leaving the house.

On your second point maybe living in cold Irish places has done me some favors as my housemate here always wears a heavy top and well people do seem to dress up a lot warmer than me outside……

Or maybe we just like the cold?

Latchy

Maybe the Nordics get their Oil and Gas supply cheaply from the Russians ?

Wertz

No I hate the cold when it really goes down, probably just that my idea of cold and someone who's lived with CH all their lives are different.

On the point about Irish houses being colder, even newly built, the problem again is damp air...it takes a fair bit more heat energy to heat the air inside the house, so it both takes longer to heat up the space and costs more...and since we for the most part still live in houses with poor insulation and draughts, the heat disipates rapidly once it's turned off.

kowloon

Living with some Englandians at the moment and the radiator in my room is switched off and the windows open, feckers can't hack anything below 30C, they'd all die of exposure if they got locked out of the house for an evening.
They can suck on my nether regions if they think I'll be paying an equal share of their 24/7 heating bill.

civis_liberalis

scottledeuce wrote: »

I don’t think the Irish pay any more than they do here...In fact less I think.

Ireland has the 2nd highest energy prices in Europe as far as I know.

whatdoicare

My home is only 10 years old and I'm roasting most days! Even now, I've no heating on and I hate fires (have bad asthma) so, no fire on either. If I turn on the dryer in the house, I have to wear a t-shirt it's so warm! I really hate the cold but since moving in here I'm never aware of it. I lived in an apartment before this and I was frozen all the time! I believe it 100% depends on how well insulated a house is.

jester77

We're just thick skinned

Wertz

whatdoicare wrote: »

My home is only 10 years old and I'm roasting most days! Even now, I've no heating on and I hate fires (have bad asthma) so, no fire on either. If I turn on the dryer in the house, I have to wear a t-shirt it's so warm! I really hate the cold but since moving in here I'm never aware of it. I lived in an apartment before this and I was frozen all the time! I believe it 100% depends on how well insulated a house is.

Sounds like you have a timberframe house. They're definitely a lot, lot warmer than the traditional block/concrete/plaster built home...

whatdoicare

Wertz wrote: »

Sounds like you have a timberframe house. They're definitely a lot, lot warmer than the traditional block/concrete/plaster built home...

I assume it is warmer, my home place is concrete and even though we had CH, I remember being cold alot.

thereitisgone

I moved to Finland couple years ago bought a house 2 years ago. Oil for heating is little bit more than the price in Ireland, it was about 67 cent a litre a month ago when i refilled. Last year it cost about 1500 euros to heat the house and supply hot water and that was keeping the house at a constant 23, 24 degree heat all winter even when it was minus 15 outside, and this is a 1970`s house with no new fangled modern insulation. In Finland the heating is on very very low all the time which might sound expensive but it never has to heat a cold house which saves a lot.

I'm fairly freezin right now.. We're thinkin of movin at end of December so just gonna not get oil I'd say.

Duvets ftw.

Wertz

thereitisgone wrote: »

In Finland the heating is on very very low all the time which might sound expensive but it never has to heat a cold house which saves a lot.

Saves quite a bit on burst pipes too.

scottledeuce

Mousey- wrote: »

its too doo with humidity.......dampness in the air = cold.....

finland is freezing so you get no dampness ...

and they know how to build a fire properly

I got dug in on this and found a few facts. The below is relevant to me but I guess it says Ireland's climate isnt really all that damp in comparison

Finland

The average annual relative humidity is 79.9% and average monthly relative humidity ranges from 64% in May, June to 91% in December.

http://www.climatetemp.info/finland/

Ireland

The average annual relative humidity is 83.0% and average monthly relative humidity ranges from 76% in June to 87% in January, November & December.

http://www.climatetemp.info/ireland/

Although I definately do agree homes in Ireland are more damp but I think It's more to do with the style of heating...
"Throw the heat on for an hour in the morning and when I get home form work"

I lost the link but from what I read the best way to reduce dampness is to keep a home constantly heated to some degree...Geothermal ftw
so maybe it does come back to a badly built/insulated issue.



Also, apparently dampness in the home can double the risk of asthma.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1333688.stm

scottledeuce

thereitisgone wrote: »

I moved to Finland couple years ago bought a house 2 years ago. Oil for heating is little bit more than the price in Ireland, it was about 67 cent a litre a month ago when i refilled. Last year it cost about 1500 euros to heat the house and supply hot water and that was keeping the house at a constant 23, 24 degree heat all winter even when it was minus 15 outside, and this is a 1970`s house with no new fangled modern insulation. In Finland the heating is on very very low all the time which might sound expensive but it never has to heat a cold house which saves a lot.

+1 on the heating all day.

Was told by an Irish guy living here the only time he gets a cold of flu these days is when he goes home for a week or two..

Hopefully christmas turns out as fun as I hope does

LeoGilly

I was on a youth exchange in Norway a few years ago. We were staying in a school and we were of course constantly messing out in the snow. So in the evenings we'd put are wet clothes on the radiators like you'd do in ireland. However the next morning we found most of our tracksuit bottoms had melted the rads were so hot!

rubadub

scottledeuce wrote: »

Either way its 21.5 degrees in my bedroom at the moment and this is fairly constant day and night, also I just seen that room temperature is defined as being in the range of 20°c (68°F) to 25°C (77°F) so has it just been me living with people who love the cold all these years????

21.5 would be way too warm for me.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_temperature

For human comfort, desirable room temperature greatly depends on individual needs and various other factors. According to the West Midlands Public Health Observatory (UK)[1], 21 °C (70 °F) is the recommended living room temperature, whereas 18 °C (64 °F) for bedroom temperature.

time42play

I once tried keeping the heating on all day (very cold Jan / Feb) a few years ago. The 400 euro bill that followed from Bord Gais convinced me that I can't afford comfort, which is why some days I'll spend a good bit of time tucked under the duvet trying to get warm. Then I visit relations in New England and they have such lovely warm (INSULATED) houses!!

Osgoodisgood

I'm surprised that the real culprit behind the mystery of the cold Irish house hasn't been named and shamed yet. So I'll be happy to do it now.

It's the Irish mammy running around behind us opening up the shagging windows in the middle of winter! Every time I see the Ma-in-law doing this and then announcing that we need "fresh" air it makes my goddam head explode. Yesterday I was lying in bed, smothering with a crappy cold I caught getting drenched while attempting to use the public transport system so inefficient that the Sudanese use CIE as an example of what not to do, when my wife opened up the bedroom windows and announced that the air was too "stale". So I killed her. And I think any right-minded judge is likely to rule in favour of my defence of justifiable homicide.

BraziliaNZ

I ran a thread like this before. Yeah Germans, Scandis etc have always had this complaint about Irish houses. I spent a winter in Alberta, Canada once, and even when it was -35c outside you could still walk around the house in your underwear. And that was in a crappy old house. Their heating systems are designed to keep it the same temp all the time.
It must be to do with how our houses are built. Those Scandihomes that someone mentioned before sound like the way forward.

BraziliaNZ

Osgoodisgood wrote: »

smothering with a crappy cold I caught getting drenched while attempting to use the public transport system

FYI - You don't catch the cold virus from getting wet or being cold, so leave our transport system alone

Osgoodisgood

Osgoodisgood wrote: »

I'm surprised that the real culprit behind the mystery of the cold Irish house hasn't been named and shamed yet. So I'll be happy to do it now.

It's the Irish mammy running around behind us opening up the shagging windows in the middle of winter! Every time I see the Ma-in-law doing this and then announcing that we need "fresh" air it makes my goddam head explode. Yesterday I was lying in bed, smothering with a crappy cold I caught getting drenched while attempting to use the public transport system so inefficient that the Sudanese use CIE as an example of what not to do, when my wife opened up the bedroom windows and announced that the air was too "stale". So I killed her. And I think any right-minded judge is likely to rule in favour of my defence of justifiable homicide.

I installed a MHRV (mechanical heat recovery ventillation) system, the missus still insists on "airing" the house. :mad: :mad:

It's the mentality that if the air doesn't have an icy blast behind it, it ain't fresh!
Same can be said for heating, We have underfloor heating (& good insulation) - perfect constant 20C day and night, but because there isn't a fire singing your hair! "it's cold!" :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

BraziliaNZ

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

FYI - You don't catch the cold virus from getting wet or being cold, so leave our transport system alone

But the rapid changes in temperature between inside and outside, make you more likely to catch one & sitting in a confined space with a load of sneezing prople doesn't help either!

Sofiztikated

Prolly to do with the fact Irish houses are very badly built, barely insulated, and desperate heating systems installed. It then costs an absolute fortune to retrofit all this.

And who said timberframe was warmer, my arse it is.

Lived in both, and looking at a new house now. The new house is just finished, completely bare, and when I walked into it, it was warmer than the last timberframe we lived in!

time42play

What about these lovely vents in every room so the cold air can keep coming in? I've been given out to many times for covering up the one in my bedroom. Sorry but it's freezing out there, the wind is blasting in through the feckin thing, and I'm already cold enough.

herya

time42play wrote: »

What about these lovely vents in every room so the cold air can keep coming in? I've been given out to many times for covering up the one in my bedroom. Sorry but it's freezing out there, the wind is blasting in through the feckin thing, and I'm already cold enough.

You can grow mold on the walls though if your flat/house is dampish

Fireplaces FTW!

time42play

time42play wrote: »

What about these lovely vents in every room so the cold air can keep coming in? I've been given out to many times for covering up the one in my bedroom. Sorry but it's freezing out there, the wind is blasting in through the feckin thing, and I'm already cold enough.

Fit a duffuser plate to the vent on the outside, get a plece of rigid material about 1 1/2 times the size of the vent and screw it to the outside of the vent but space it about 2-3cm away from the wall, this will stop the wind blasting through.

Mr.David

Heatings for pussies.

Sure we're hardy bucks like. Bitta shmokin', bitta fightin.........

......bitta shmokin'.....

......sur you'd be mad as a bag o shpiders with the heatin on.....:cool: