Effect on insulation / stable temps on sleeping patterns.

[LaCurandera]

Hi, 

This might be a REALLY stupid question, but I've always lived in houses that were (relatively) much cooler at night, warmed in the day through heating/solar gain. Going to a hotel etc and having a 19/20C temp in the room overnight has affected sleep, preferring it cooler.

Our scheme is probably not passive, but it's planned on being better insulated and thought about than any house I've stayed in, so I was wonder if those that have moved from a traditional house to one with much more stable temps and how it's affected them / time to adjust. Has anyone got graphs of their house temp over a 24hr cycle at different points in the year?

As, I guess it's stupid to open windows to cool overnight, defeats the object!
 

[ProDave]

We like a cool bedroom, which is why no heating at all upstairs works for us.  Even at this time of year we occasionally open a window to cool the bedroom a bit.

[LaCurandera]

Sounds much better. I think I'm still in the "old" mindset of rads etc everywhere.

Have you got it installed, and off, or did you model it enough to know you don't need it?

[ProDave]

I took the general consensus that in a near passive house, heating upstairs was not needed.  My backup was I installed an electric point in each bedroom for an electric panel heater.  I never bought any heaters and the points have not been used.

 

We keep the bedroom door shut to stop too much heat getting in from downstairs.  If ever the bedroom gets a bit cool, just open the door and and let some heat up the stairwell into the room.

[Jilly]

Same here, but a bungalow, we rarely heat the bedrooms. 

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, LaCurandera said:

Has anyone got graphs of their house temp over a 24hr cycle at different points in the year?

Yes, but not sure it will help much as it is my house, not yours.

Do you have trouble sleeping usually, have you thought of a cheap sleep monitor, it may show that you don't actually have a problem.

 

Follow the red line.  Scale is on the right.

[LaCurandera]

Thanks @SteamyTea!

[Conor]

It's much nicer. Our upstairs is a constant 18/19c. If the heating is on it'll rise to 20c before switching off. You just adjust your bedware to suit the temps. Don't miss cool bedrooms in the slightest. Summer douvet all year round 😀

[Kelvin]

On 29/11/2022 at 17:21, LaCurandera said:

Sounds much better. I think I'm still in the "old" mindset of rads etc everywhere.

Have you got it installed, and off, or did you model it enough to know you don't need it?

Sure but did you often have the rads turned on in the bedrooms and if you did how high. The ideal temp for a bedroom is between 16^oC-19^oC according to research. A well insulated well built house will achieve that in the bedrooms with little heat input which you can gain from heating in the living areas. Like others we’ve planned no rads upstairs. Like ProDave I’ll put in electric points for panel heaters just in case. 

[jonM]

1 hour ago, Conor said:

It's much nicer. Our upstairs is a constant 18/19c. If the heating is on it'll rise to 20c before switching off. You just adjust your bedware to suit the temps. Don't miss cool bedrooms in the slightest. Summer douvet all year round 😀

Same here. We have radiators upstairs and can make some adjustments to temperature with the trv in each bedroom. If it get too hot in summer, we vent the house overnight to keep it cool. In the winter the bedroom trv will either be half on or fully on. Mechanical ventilation in a passive house is also important and I think it it more likely that poor ventilation in the hotel affected your sleep as much or more than the temperature. 

 

Radiators an airtight build and mechanical ventilation gives you options to have individual bedrooms warm or cool throughout the year.

[Ferdinand]

I may have missed what standard you intend to build your fabric too. 

 

In a near passive house temperatures should fluctuate slowly (eg cool down in 24hrs by 0.5C with all heat sources off) but if heat gets soaked in over a number of days (either by you running the heating or by prolonged hot weather) it can be a devil to cool down. Which is why we spend a lot of time here discussing strategies.

 

Most people do some things, and make provision to do other things easily in the future (fitted for but not with - see the Navy Destroyers which are now getting land attack missiles they have not had before because the Russkies are getting tetchy, or the Aircraft Carriers and the catapults that they have provision for, ish, but will not be fitted for 10 or 20 years.).

 

Then there are various after-market fixes you can apply if you got it a little wrong and find out later.

 

My house is not near passive so it fluctuates more. I have some good things like electric UFH in the bathroom  upstairs and a shower rad in the shower downstairs, and rads in all the rooms upstairs. I don't use the ufh upstairs at the mo as I am using the downstairs (which is gas powered) rather than the lecky one upstairs which costs more per amount of hot water.

 

Examples of what people do are from the minor - fit a towel rad that may be used more extensively for a heat boost if needed (in a near passive house), or fit a plug socket and bit of wood in the wall where they can eg retrofit a 200w loft type heater in a bedroom later , up to fitting an unused circuit of their ufh.

 

An example of an after market fix if eg oh-bugger-the-big-sexy-windows-cause-too-much-heat-and-SWMBO-is-unhappy-that-hubby-has-turned-into-a-moaning-lobster could be solar blocking external film on the windows.

 

You need to do enough contingency planning such that you are satisfied you can allow for the future.

 

And document it so the next owner knows when you have moved or popped your clogs.

 

Ferdinand

[Ferdinand]

On 29/11/2022 at 17:21, LaCurandera said:

Sounds much better. I think I'm still in the "old" mindset of rads etc everywhere.

Have you got it installed, and off, or did you model it enough to know you don't need it?

 

You learn until you are satisfied you know enough, then use your skill and judgement to make a suitable estimate of where your best option lies 🙂.