Semi Detached House losing heat through dividing wall

pzer

hi
living in a new semi-detached house, built circa 2009. the house is well insulated around the two houses, no attic insulation in house next door. House next door not finished, concrete floors and plastered walls. outside walls insulated but attic isnt in that house. Our house heats up slowly and when heat is off the heat disappears very quickly, we are asssuming its getting sucked next door through the concrete wall.
Is there any cheap options to fix this? The house next door might not have someone in it ever, onto builder but not getting any help. The house next door is open so we have access to that.
Is there anything i can do to fix this? i know we can use insulated slabs on our side or next door but that will cost 000's (got quote). Any ideas?

MicktheMan

pzer wrote: »

we are asssuming its getting sucked next door through the concrete wall.

You sure? There very well may be other reasons why your house is difficult to heat eg airtightness weaknesses.

pzer

MicktheMan wrote: »

You sure? There very well may be other reasons why your house is difficult to heat eg airtightness weaknesses.

Not a professional so cant be 100% on that. I had an insulation engineer out to look at the house and he pointed at that as the reason, he is the one who quoted the 000's for slabbing wall between houses.

MicktheMan

pzer wrote: »

I had an insulation engineer out to look at the house and he pointed at that as the reason, he is the one who quoted the 000's for slabbing wall between houses.

What is an "insulation engineer" and what qualifications has he? What tests did he do on the house to determine the main heat loss mechanism(s)? Was he just an insulation company sales rep with a fancy title?

Before spending 000's, have a proper heat loss survey done including an air tightness test and then you will know where to spend and what to do.

pzer

MicktheMan wrote: »

What is an "insulation engineer" and what qualifications has he? What tests did he do on the house to determine the main heat loss mechanism(s)? Was he just an insulation company sales rep with a fancy title?

Before spending 000's, have a proper heat loss survey done including an air tightness test and then you will know where to spend and what to do.

I gave him title of insulation engineer, he is from from an insulation company. He checked the attic levels of insulation, took look at the windows\doors, and looked at the insulation levels in the wall using the esb meter and tv box outside to see into the walls. All his checks were visual, no tools or anything like that. He was fairly pragmatic with me and didnt put on any big sale push, said he thinks its next door that is the issue and if there was someone living there then this wouldnt be issue. He only gave me the pricing as i asked for some suggestions.

shane0007

There is a company near The Poitin Still pub on the Naas Road that hires thermal image cameras out per day for €50. It might be worth hiring one for a day and have the heating on and look at where the losses are through the camera. At least it would give you an accurate prognosis. By looking through the windows of next door at the party wall with the camera this will be exact.

MicktheMan

shane0007 wrote: »

By looking through the windows of next door at the party wall with the camera this will be exact.

No it wont as TI cameras cant "see" through glass.

Problem with TI cameras in untrained hands is that the wrong conclusions are often drawn and the real anomolies are often missed.

shane0007

MicktheMan wrote: »

No it wont as TI cameras cant "see" through glass.

Problem with TI cameras in untrained hands is that the wrong conclusions are often drawn and the real anomolies are often missed.

I did not know that.
I might also add that I am in no way trained in the use of TI cameras but have used them to find leaks in concrete floors. Have played around with them on the outside of the house.

JohnnieK

If it's just a party wall between you and the other house, the house is unoccupied then it may as well be an external wall.

deandean

OP if I wanted to see if there is a problem with the dividing wall I would get a surface thermometer, you can get contact ones or noncontact ones, but make sure it is a surface probe and not one for sticking into things.

Firstly on a cold day and with your house at an even temperature all over, measure the inside temperature of your external walls. This will give you a reference temperature for (hopefully) well insulated walls.

Then take the surface temperature on your side of the dividing wall in all the rooms.

If the surface temperature of the dividing wall is more than a couple of degrees below the internal temperature of your external walls, then you have a problem with lack of insulation on your dividing wall.

If both sets of temperatures are similar, i.e. within a degree or so, then you have to look elsewhere for your problem.

I wouldn't recommend that you use a thermal imaging camera, you really need to be trained and know what you are looking at in order to get any benefit from one of those.

Best of luck, it must be unpleasant to have an unoccupied house like that next door.