Heating and insulation upgrade - options

WicklowTiger

Hi all

Apologies if this post is in the wrong place, mods if it belongs elsewhere please feel free to move...
I bought a 4 bed detached dormer bungalow 4 years ago. It's approx 1,800 sq ft. Originally built in the early 1990's, double-glazed windows and standard insulation as far as I know at the time. Heating is an oil boiler, installed a year or two after the house was built. There's also a back boiler in the sitting room (open fire).

House is not warm in the winter even with heating on a number of hours. Now I realise to do everything necessary to bring the house up to standard will cost a significant sum, so I'm trying to assess what changes will bring about the best returns. I guess the old boiler must be approaching its end of life as it is there over 20 years. Not certain that radiators in place are suitably sized for the rooms they are in (some rooms warm, others not, radiators equally hot.) Insulation needs doing, some roof spaces though not easily accessible.

Also, solar is an attractive concept for near constant hot water.

Would really appreciate any input from people as to what to do! Thanks in advance

Sleeper12

You'll never really get a return on solar though I'm sure others will disagree on this. Don't mind the 7 year return, its closer to 15 & at that stage you'll be looking at upgrading the panels. Solar should be the last thing on your list as its sort of a luxury item. There is solar to generate electricity & it has a much quicker return but thats for another thread.

The heating system might benefit from a power flush, boiler service (by someone that understands oil boilers) & balancing. By changing old type rads to modern convector rads of the same size you can get up to a third more output.

Long term I'd be looking at insulating the house itself. Attic first. You'll save most money for money invested by doing the attic. My house is 60s built. A few years back I insulated the walls with 100mm insulation. Gas prices go up each year so I can't say I've noticed any difference in my bills but I can't stress enough that the comfort levels from before & after are light years apart.

WicklowTiger

Thanks for that Sleeper12, appreciate the advice

Wearb

I am with Sleeper on Solar. Its only usefully used to meet building regs.
What sort of printouts have you been getting on your annual boiler service?
Insulation is always the best way to go. Having you heating on for just a few hours in winter isn't going to do much to heat the place. It would be better to leave it on for long periods with proper controls for each zone. If you don't have zones and controls, then that would be my suggested starting point then insulation and then maybe a boiler upgrade. Boiler upgrade would depend on which boiler you have and its condition and your annual oil usage.

MicktheMan

WicklowTiger wrote: »

Would really appreciate any input from people as to what to do! Thanks in advance

Forget solar thermal.

Your house is a dormer so suspect v.poor airtightness (dormers are notorious for this). This is no.1 to address. Research airtightness and ventilation. Note, adding insulation won't address this form of heat loss.

By all means improve the efficiency of the heating system you have as suggested above but the heat loss of the house should get prioritised, otherwise the symptoms are being addressed and not the cause.

WicklowTiger

Wearb wrote: »

I am with Sleeper on Solar. Its only usefully used to meet building regs.
What sort of printouts have you been getting on your annual boiler service?
Insulation is always the best way to go. Having you heating on for just a few hours in winter isn't going to do much to heat the place. It would be better to leave it on for long periods with proper controls for each zone. If you don't have zones and controls, then that would be my suggested starting point then insulation and then maybe a boiler upgrade. Boiler upgrade would depend on which boiler you have and its condition and your annual oil usage.

Thanks for the input. Will look into boiler controls further. As regards boiler service, have to admit we've not been the best in this regard. As regards the heat in the house, it actually doesn't bother us that much most of the time (we must have become acclimatised!) but visitors always mention that the house is cold!

WicklowTiger

MicktheMan wrote: »

Forget solar thermal.

Your house is a dormer so suspect v.poor airtightness (dormers are notorious for this). This is no.1 to address. Research airtightness and ventilation. Note, adding insulation won't address this form of heat loss.

By all means improve the efficiency of the heating system you have as suggested above but the heat loss of the house should get prioritised, otherwise the symptoms are being addressed and not the cause.

Will look into airtightness. Starting to sound like this might get expensive (I've looked at some other threads on here on this topic.) What I'm hoping to achieve is small-ish changes implemented over the course of a number of years that will gradually improve the situation over time. Don't know how realistic this is but financially it is probably the only way of doing it.

WicklowTiger

Hi all. OK I've done a little bit of investigating. While I appreciate the points raised with regard to air-tightness, it looks like this is going to get expensive and quickly. So if that's not going to be possible, I'm looking for any suggestions.

I think I have two main issues as regards insulation:

1. Ceilings - probably less than 40% of the ceiling space in the upstairs of the house is accessible attic space. That part I can obviously get in to insulate. But the rest is sloped roof that can't be more than 5 or 6 inches thick I reckon from ceiling to roof tile. I'd prefer not to tear down the ceilings but I'm starting to think it's probably the only way! Some of the sloped roof is accessible via crawl spaces, that would represent maybe half or slightly more than that, - in these areas there is no ceiling.

2. Crawl spaces. For the most part, the walls which in these seem to be insulated to some degree (house is 25 years old so insulation standards applicable at the time.) However, they've insulated the floor as well. So I guess the main exposure here would be the entrance doors - maybe some airtight seals on these and insulation to the back of the doors would help?

Any input appreciated