Vaillant ashp (my battle with).

[zoothorn]

37 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

Great news.

Hi Nick, pretty bloody amazing eh. I played the patient game, polite, then just a bit of 'foot on the gas' at the end. But a hundred calls over 5 years, took a toll.

 

Still freezing cold in the cottage mind, I skoot down to "Onoff's cabin" by the stream of a cold evening. Ace.

 

Cheers, Zoot

[Nickfromwales]

43 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

Still freezing cold in the cottage mind

I think this is grounds for a new super-thread, to take us into 2030 mate.

 

Get your pencil sharpener out and lets do this shit.  

[zoothorn]

On 09/02/2026 at 22:28, Nickfromwales said:

I think this is grounds for a new super-thread, to take us into 2030 mate.

 

Get your pencil sharpener out and lets do this shit.  

Actually, I'll part take that back. I now get a bit of warmth evident in the main old room, enough to take the nip away nothing more (& the new extension 2 rooms can get some warmth in, 2/3rds as much as they could I'd surmise if their 3 new walls in each of the rooms, one above the other, weren't attatched to one side of the cottage/ a stonecold slate wall acting like a big "cold radiator" into these 2 newbuild rooms)

 

The main room has two huge rads in you see. And this new monobloc, so the installer told me, can output higher temp rads.

 

Only way I can get my adjacent kitchen & bathroom warm, is by knocking this 80's extension down & rebuilding. Even with their 1 small rad going at a higher temp, I still see my breath on cold days, need a fan heater on full blast just to be useable. Never ever warm, just bearable.

 

But the noise abatement!! And knowing no indoor box unit will kick off overnight! And I get my only cupboard back too with this thing got rid of. I never need to say the two wretched words -hydraulic unit- ever ever again! Woohoo!

 

 

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

6 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

Actually, I'll part take that back. I now get a bit of warmth evident in the main old room, enough to take the nip away nothing more (& the new extension 2 rooms can get some warmth in, 2/3rds as much as they could I'd surmise if their 3 new walls in each of the rooms, one above the other, weren't attatched to one side of the cottage/ a stonecold slate wall acting like a big "cold radiator" into these 2 newbuild rooms)

 

The main room has two huge rads in you see. And this new monobloc, so the installer told me, can output higher temp rads.

 

Only way I can get my adjacent kitchen & bathroom warm, is by knocking this 80's extension down & rebuilding. Even with their 1 small rad going at a higher temp, I still see my breath on cold days, need a fan heater on full blast just to be useable. Never ever warm, just bearable.

 

But the noise abatement!! And knowing no indoor box unit will kick off overnight! And I get my only cupboard back too with this thing got rid of. I never need to say the two wretched words -hydraulic unit- ever ever again! Woohoo!

 

 

 

 

Have you just tried turning up the flow temp by a few degrees?

[zoothorn]

39 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Have you just tried turning up the flow temp by a few degrees?

Hi Nick,

 

The rads get fairly hot now, so it's not a case of turning up (if you mean in order to make the two cold 80's extention rooms I mention, warm). You simply cannot get these rooms warm, with so much cold getting into them. Certainly not with a single small'ish heatpump rad in. You'd either need about 5x as many rads in (obvs not practical). Even with a fan heater on, once the air gets 4' away.. it's cold air!! Honestly these two 80's rooms, are really that bad. Only solution.. is rebuilding. Which I can't possibly afford.
 

Right now, in my main room, it's 2 big rads are on, & they're pretty hot too. But despite this (an improvement to before) my legs & feet are -very- cold, & I can just see my breath. I can only use this sittingroom with an electric blanket under me butt & a hottie on my back.. thick hat on, scarf, & coat on. But even so like right now I'm still mainly cold, just my butt & back aren't. Toasted plums, anyone?

 

Zoot
 

I just stick it out until summer tbh!

 

 

Edited yesterday at 13:58 by zoothorn

[Nickfromwales]

1 minute ago, zoothorn said:

Which I can't possibly afford.

How about some basic sealing up with foam etc? Gaps letting cold air in are killer, same with the window and that can be a couple of £10 to apply self adhesive B&Q draught proofing strips etc.

 

Also these radiator fans seem to work well moving heat around. 

Link

[SteamyTea]

Are you still running like a normal heating system i.e. turning it off at night and when you are out.

[zoothorn]

2 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

How about some basic sealing up with foam etc? Gaps letting cold air in are killer, same with the window and that can be a couple of £10 to apply self adhesive B&Q draught proofing strips etc.

 

Also these radiator fans seem to work well moving heat around. 

Link

Haven't seen those before, but I wouldn't expect them to do anything tbh. They may for about a foot.. but then it turns into cold air.
 

Having done all I can to seal gaps, & thick curtains, making a total of zero difference.. it's very evident that with such colossal cold coming up from the floor (chiefly the main culprit being the biggest surface area), in from the sides via 3ft thick stone walls acting like cold rads, behind the warm rads (kinda effectively cancelling the warm rads out).. & cold air coming down from the loft directly onto room ceiling edges all around the room, I can't make any headway into subduing the cold.

 

The only way to make -some positive difference-, & you just know this is a fact from living here, is excavating floor/ insulation/ underfloor heating. But the cost of both that, & the running cost of the 6x5m underloor area, warm enough to feel it (you're still battling the 4x cold walls' injecting cold into the room so you'd need double any normal room's output from such a system).. would be hugely expensive for me.

 

I do though have a relatively direct path from the cylinder -so my installer said- down only 2m below to the "entry point" of such an underfloor heating element. But I just know it'll only be partially successful. Without insulating the walls & ceiling-which are both simply n/a plans without huge expense themselves, & downsizing the room significantly, and losing much character too- it's just not really worth banking on the UFH idea, unless 100% sure it'll make a significant improvement. I just know it won't.
 

I have a friend locally who did just this, same type of freezing slate stone cottage main room, same almost totally innefective 9kW stove wasting money in the hearth: he laid floor insulation & UFH & you can barely tell the difference before & after. Huge outlay, for minimal gain.

 

Unlike him, I do have the heating system that could 'power' the UFH idea in my one main room though. So i have mulled the idea. But then 20mins in my £500 'Onoff' cabin down near my stream & I'm toasty-warm.. I think what's the bloomin point. £500 Cabin laughs at the £125k cottage!

[zoothorn]

My feet are so cold being in main room this afternoon I'm just about to go to bed 5:15pm/ under thick duvet/ leccy blanket on... only way I can warm up! Still with thick hat + scarf on! 

Edited yesterday at 17:25 by zoothorn

[-rick-]

I'm a bit surprised an installer would install a system if it wasn't able to heat your home. What are the specs of the new system?

 

15 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

Having done all I can to seal gaps

 

You've put effort in here but you say that you can still feel cold air. Do you think this is because cold air is still coming through gaps you can't seal or because air is cooling down on the cold wall and causing air movement within the room?

 

If you think it's air coming from outside the room then there is still work to do there, what issues are there that prevent more sealing?

 

An uninsulated but relatively sealed room should still be able to be warmed.

 

25 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Are you still running like a normal heating system i.e. turning it off at night and when you are out.

 

8 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

3ft thick stone walls acting like cold rads

 

Others experience on here with similar walls is that once you get them up to temperature they can be relatively good at keeping the heat in. It just takes a lot of energy to get them up to temp. If you are running your system in an on-off manner you will never get enough energy into the walls and they will always be cold and suck the heat out of the room.

 

So, assuming you are currently running in an on off fashion, a good experiment to run is to leave the heating on 24/7 for maybe 2 weeks and see if it slowly brings the rooms up to temp. (obviously requires relatively good air sealing).

[zoothorn]

@-rick- I'm absolutely not moaning about the heatpump not doing what it's meant to. I was only moaning about my cottage. Absolutely not about the system. I never expected it to be able to heat here. Despite what the sales pitch was, from the govt scheme chap at my door SO eager to install one "you'll be so warm with it". No I wouldn't, I just knew. If my 9kW stove can't get my main room warm, 2 medium warm heatpump rads.. is next to useless. As they proove to be, in this cottage. Completely useless.
 

But as I had a mouse-infested rusty cylinder before, & no CH at all, how can I say "no thanks" when the system he was so eager to give away includes a new cylinder? That's all I knew would be useful, the medium warm rads being merely useless additions. May even add some house value having a CH system installed, should I be forced to sell up, with unsuspecting buyers viewing it in the summer. I'd have been daft to say thanks, but no thanks, you see.
 

As Ive said before, I had no intention that it would be able to warm my cottage. It doesn't whatsoever, as I knew when it was being installed, because it simply can't. 
 

I am though lucky to have 1 room which -can- be warmed by it, reasonably if not nicely-comfortably.. my bedroom. Which is within a 2021 new build (2-room one above the other) extension. Thing is, during the evenings, it's the one room you don't tend to be in. But the 4/5ths of the house, remain unbearably cold. Despite everything that I can affordably do. Plugging up gaps, thick curtains, double glazing, even adding some celotex to the inside made no noticeable difference. 
 

The installer, who fitted it originally, didn't want to go ahead, because he knew medium-warm-only-rads, typical for a Heatpump system, are a hopeless fit in a stone cold cottage like mine.. an utter waste of time. But I had to beg him to relent. To get a new cylinder foc (& the possibly of some warmth in a newbuild bedroom too, as a bonus). That's a grand right there, & I'm on a low budget. 

 

Thanks, Zoot

 

Edited yesterday at 20:13 by zoothorn

[Gone West]

15 hours ago, zoothorn said:

The only way to make -some positive difference

Is to have a sufficiently large enough heater. The walls in our place are 600mm to 700mm thick stone and when we first moved in we had our 30kW oil fired Aga heating on all the time, in the Spring, to dry it out and warm it up. The house didn't feel comfortable for a long time as the heat was drying the fabric of the building. @SteamyTea explained how much energy is required to do this, and it was substantial. We now have a house that is 23C all the time. You can warm the house up, but it requires a lot of constant expensive heating to do so, and it has to be maintained. Trying to heat one room for a few hours, in your type of house, is pointless.

[-rick-]

14 hours ago, zoothorn said:

@-rick- I'm absolutely not moaning about the heatpump not doing what it's meant to. I was only moaning about my cottage. 

 

If the heatpump is working as expected then I'm glad. Last thing you want is to be worrying about that on top of other things.

 

It does sound like the cold home is really getting to you. I fully understand how annoying the cold feet feeling is. Now the heatpump noise has been solved maybe it's time to have another run at making things more comfortable? Maybe not for this year but to have a plan for next year (rather than spending a lot of energy now to dry the place out, next year plan to not let it cool down in the first place).

 

If you have done enough sealing to avoid major drafts internally then it should be possible to keep the place warmer than it is. Maybe you can't get it to cosy, but I suspect you can do better than seeing your own breath inside and if the the main space can be got to a higher temp then then bedroom should be cosy.

 

Failing that, maybe working out how to divide the spaces a bit better so the bedroom can be kept cosy without spending a load of money on heating areas with no impact as it does sound like the worst of all worlds ATM with the heating on a lot but not a lot of impact.

[-rick-]

2 hours ago, Gone West said:

Is to have a sufficiently large enough heater. The walls in our place are 600mm to 700mm thick stone and when we first moved in we had our 30kW oil fired Aga heating on all the time, in the Spring, to dry it out and warm it up. The house didn't feel comfortable for a long time as the heat was drying the fabric of the building. @SteamyTea explained how much energy is required to do this, and it was substantial. We now have a house that is 23C all the time. You can warm the house up, but it requires a lot of constant expensive heating to do so, and it has to be maintained. Trying to heat one room for a few hours, in your type of house, is pointless.

 

Now you have the place to temp, what is you heating demand now?

[zoothorn]

6 minutes ago, -rick- said:

 

If the heatpump is working as expected then I'm glad. Last thing you want is to be worrying about that on top of other things.

 

It does sound like the cold home is really getting to you. I fully understand how annoying the cold feet feeling is. Now the heatpump noise has been solved maybe it's time to have another run at making things more comfortable? Maybe not for this year but to have a plan for next year (rather than spending a lot of energy now to dry the place out, next year plan to not let it cool down in the first place).

 

If you have done enough sealing to avoid major drafts internally then it should be possible to keep the place warmer than it is. Maybe you can't get it to cosy, but I suspect you can do better than seeing your own breath inside and if the the main space can be got to a higher temp then then bedroom should be cosy.

 

Failing that, maybe working out how to divide the spaces a bit better so the bedroom can be kept cosy without spending a load of money on heating areas with no impact as it does sound like the worst of all worlds ATM with the heating on a lot but not a lot of impact.

Hi again Rick,

 

really appreciate your input/ suggestions.

Honestly, it's simply not a game I can possibly win here. Bar one room that is (actually two: I have a workshop room under my bedroom, 2021 extension, which CAN get warm even with 1 of the 4 walls an original stone.. but neither do I need, nor want heat in there: it dries my timber work out, so prefer this 1 rad out of the 12 in the house, off: just a fan heater to inject a bit of heat in, when I work, otherwise rad is off).

 

If you came you'd understand. It's just one of those houses, like that freezing room you recall as a child for eg, always deathly cold.. my main 3 rooms, sit'room/ kitchen/ bathroom unfortunately all have this trait. 2 beds directly above, I don't use, much the same.

 

It's simply lack of insulation. In my 3 main rooms: nothing under the floor, & nothing in the stone walls (bar a token gesture 1" rigid insulation in kitchen/ bathroom walls: ie next to nil). Sit'room has nothing in very low 6'3" ceiling too, just the two cold bedrooms above it. Basically, I have none at all. And whole cottage is just whacked down on -cold- clay too. I also have some damp upwards in the stone walls (not enough to mean odour- just black mould on lowest 1', a bugger to scrub off.. so I now just don't/ let that win too). Plus a stream -very- close & lower than cottage, likely aiding the cold ingress to the floor too. So it's no wonder I sit with the 2 sitroom huge rads on, now quite hot, but can still see my breath & cold feet, face, hands. It's like David & Goliath: I don't expect a small ammount of heat, to win over a massive ammount of cold. It's not physically possible. 
 

Thanks, Zoot

[Gone West]

5 hours ago, -rick- said:

 

Now you have the place to temp, what is you heating demand now?

I can't say accurately. All I know is between 22/1/22 and 4/12/25 we used roughly 10800 litres of oil which works out at an average around 7.6 litres a day for hot water and heating using the old Aga which is around 70% efficient. Plan to replace the Aga with a new condensing oil boiler this year.

Edited 5 hours ago by Gone West
Fingers not working properly.

[Dillsue]

5 hours ago, zoothorn said:

 I don't expect a small ammount of heat, to win over a massive ammount of cold. It's not physically possible

It likely will, but needs time. As others have suggested you'll need to leave the heating on continuously for probably weeks to warm up what's likely to be 10s or 100s of tons of stone. Only then will you start to feel warm without the walls soaking up all the heat.

 

A quick Google search suggests your walls U values are unlikely to be significantly different to an uninsulated brick cavity wall but the advantage the cavity wall has is that it doesn't have the thermal capacitance of your walls so will heat up quicker.

 

When we first switched our heat pump on last September it took a few days of continuous heating before the temperature stabilised. That's in a reasonably well insulated house but we have alot of masonry inside the the house including an old brick chimney breast. It all takes time to warm up.

[-rick-]

This is a bit of a long one, please bear with me.

 

5 hours ago, zoothorn said:

Honestly, it's simply not a game I can possibly win here.

...

It's simply lack of insulation. 

 

My point is that even with zero insulation a 9kw heat pump should be capable of making the space warm enough that you can't see your breath as long as you don't have huge drafts*. It might not be economical and it might not be cosy warm, but it should be possible. Doing what you are doing now is likely not economical either which is why I suggest you take a fresh look.

 

I went back and had a quick look at your posting history here to try and understand a little more about your situation. There is quite a lot so I'm afraid I only sampled it and I'm probably still missing a lot it  However, I didn't come across a time when you tried just leaving the heatpump (or the stove) on continuously for a long stretch (more than a week maybe a lot more) to see if the building can actually get warm.

 

This is what I suggest trying. Doing it at this time of year will likely take an age and a lot of electricity which is why I suggested maybe make a plan for the end of summer to give it a proper trial. My thought is to set a target internal temp of say 17/18C. Colder than most people are comfortable in, but much better than what you have now (must be below 10C to see your breath). Set your ASHP to target that, make sure the ashp thermometer is in the coldest room and leave the ASHP on. Importantly, set this up before the internal temperature drops that low, that way you aren't paying to warm the space up from cold, you've let the summer heat do that.

 

If you don't have a smart meter, get one, that way you can monitor the energy usage. (I saw one post from you saying you don't like apps, etc, thats fine, just look at the little screen you get with a smart meter every day and write the usage down). At least initially in autumn the heatpump should have no trouble keeping up and you should be able to track how much it's costing and compare to what you are spending now to be cold. How much is that btw?

 

Because the heatpump will be trying to keep the coldest room warm, other rooms will likely be hotter, so adjust the TRVs on the rads to prevent overheating, but importantly make sure the TRVs are set so that every room in the house is targeting at least the set point of the ASHP. One cold room might spoil the experiment.

 

Some context for what I'm suggesting:

 

This winter I've been running a bit of an experiment myself. I got a new heating system controller and have been trying different ways of doing my heating. I live in a fairly modern (2006) flat so nothing like your situation but the walls only have 60mm of polystyrene insulation (maybe equivalent to 45mm PIR), some fairly terrible leaky aluminium windows and woefully inadequate radiators in some areas. Because of this in the past I've focused my efforts keeping the room I spend most of my time in warm with the other rooms getting whatever heat they can from the radiators but not actively trying to keep them warm.

 

Since I got the new controller, I've been experimenting trying to keep the whole flat warm. I started with various variations of heating system on while I'm awake, off when I'm asleep. Overall this didn't work too well. Overnight the rooms cooled down and the next day the boiler had to work continuously for hours to bring the temperature back up again (insufficient radiators limiting boiler output) and even then this only worked in the water temp was set high.

 

I've now switched to leaving the heating on 24/7, with a setback temp overnight. Initially, I didn't want to do this due to the noise from the boiler disturbing my sleep and wanting to monitor when the boiler is on to keep track of things. Despite others on here reporting how well this worked for them, it has still surprised me how well it's worked here. My boiler has gone from being on at high water temperatures continuously for hours just to bring the temp back up to barely coming on at all during the day and when it does the water temperature is generally much lower. I don't want to speak too soon about bills as I don't have a smart meter and I've not been tracking the meter as closely as I should (next bill due in a week) but my impression of how things are going since I switched to this system is that the amount of gas I'm burning has siginificantly reduced from what it was heating the whole flat (not sure about compared to just heating one room) and comfort level has massively increased.

 

So in summary I think it's well worth you running a similar experiment.

 

* I know you feel drafts from the ceiling area near the external walls. If this is indeed external air then it is likely the main issue that needs fixing and without fixing it you will be cold. But it's not clear to me that this is external air or whether its internal air moving to the walls, cooling and cycling back. If it's internal air then maintaining the internal temp should allivate the draft as the masonary walls come up to temp. (It does mean the limited insulation in those walls isn't doing much but that shouldn't stop you building warmth inside, just influences how much it costs).

[zoothorn]

@-rick- Many thanks indeed for all that. Generous with your time & thinking.

 

I've had the HP (heatpump) set to 17*C & on continuously, all winter. Until I got the new one fitted, which outputs higher temp in the rads (for whatever reason) but only goes on evenings & mornings, since the installer set it to. And which I was sure I set it to, beforehand. Tbh It's so complicated that Ive no idea why it was on continuously beforehand, & not now.

 

Still the mainroom is -just- see your breath cold, most of the time. Uncomfortable. When I used to put the stove on, I was sitting on a cold sofa still, at 10:45pm. Still with hat & scarf on. Sometimes even then still see8n* my breath. Infuriatingly the sofa is only 1m from the damn thing. I had to load so much wood in, so often, that I got through two big baskets of logs each mere 4-1/2 hour stint (for eg 6pm- 10:30pm).. plus.. had to run it so high/ flat out continuously, in order to get room up to say 12*C from 2*C.. that I warped the internal metal removeble bits within the stove. Bought new ones at great cost, warped those too. A french top brand stove too. So I refuse to waste so much effort & money, when the sofa's still cold at 10:45pm. No point whatsoever, to putting on the stove.

 

If a 9kW stove can't heat the room, there's no way on god's earth, two rads will. And it's proven, they don't. They just can't be expected to.. in this house. In your house, yes. In other often cold houses, yes to a degree/ likely in time. With mine.. not a hope, in hell. 
 

There are no draughts. I stuffed those up within 6 months of being here. I have excluders + a huge thick curtain across the front door.. which leads to a porch (not directly outside). And across other door to kitchen. Thick curtain too. No draught is ever evident. The cold 'pouring down from loft onto perimeter of sittingroom ceiling' is approx 2" wide. It isn't direct cold air, because there's a ceiling stopping it. But it's coldness nevertheless. It is a gap between the rooms' outer walls above (the walls corresponding to the outer 'shell' of the main room below them) & the poor studwork & plasterboard outer layer. Above these awful walls, is cold loft air. So cold loft air sits in a  2" wide ring, going around 6x5m of the rectanglular shape of the main shell of the cottage, on the edges of the ceiling. But no direct draught, just cold ingress.
 

To remedy this, I'd have to rip out all the plasterboard walls from the 2 bedrooms. Put insulation in this gap. Redo. In other words, a full renovation of 2 rooms. Which I'd already patched up & renovated aesthetically anyway. 
 

Alot of work, to fix just 2" of a perimeter cold ingress, which may only make a tiny bit of difference. That is, considering jus5 how much MORE cold, is coming UP from the floor, & IN from the walls, & also in from the whole 6x5m floor area sitting onto0 o& the sitt8ngroom. This floor, is about 2" thick itself. The bedrooms.. freezing cold, due to their walls having a 2x4m layer of loft air behind each one. 
 

So the only sensible way forward, if there's any at all, is addressing the floor. Now, I know what a -proper- floor can be, sat upon the 'bedrock' of clay I have here. Because my workshop, is a newbuild room, in fact 3 ft lower than the sittingroom. I put the insulation in, with caberfloor ontop. Although I can't compare directly to the adjacent sittingroom, they do share 1 stone wall between. I can tell how much this floor retains the heat, I can just sense it. But it has 3x newbuild walls + a rockwool insulated ceiling. So 8 cannot tell how much the warmth that I sense is due to the floor. It may be hugely significantly affecting/ retaining the heat mor3 than the walls. But it may be the walls doing the heat retaining job, & the floor far less.

 

So I can only make a --gamble-- as to whether excavating my sittingroom floor/ doing it properly/ with UFHeating too (doing away with the 2 big rads: these I could sell to help pay for the job, which I'd have to do myself).

 

With my skills & knowledge, making such a huge gamble (really it's the logistics: of removal of item/ storage/ the massive dust of excavation/ skipping: rather than the cost) is kinda a step too far, for me to judge whether it's worth trying it. My "waters" say it might -just- be beneficial though, with the UFH idea addition. My friend over the hill, didn't lay UFH, he just excavated/ added celotex/ floorboards ontop. Little gained there as I said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ProDave]

5 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

The cold 'pouring down from loft onto perimeter of sittingroom ceiling' is approx 2" wide. It isn't direct cold air, because there's a ceiling stopping it. But it's coldness nevertheless. It is a gap between the rooms' outer walls above (the walls corresponding to the outer 'shell' of the main room below them) & the poor studwork & plasterboard outer layer. Above these awful walls, is cold loft air. So cold loft air sits in a  2" wide ring, going around 6x5m of the rectanglular shape of the main shell of the cottage, on the edges of the ceiling. But no direct draught, just cold ingress.

You have just described the classic "plasterboard tent"

[zoothorn]

1 minute ago, ProDave said:

You have just described the classic "plasterboard tent"

Well that's terrific. I mean that you can comprehend what I'm trying to describe. Which is very tricky, & takes far too many words.

 

Thanks to anyone who reads & considers what I describe, I mean that. Appreciated.

 

I really need one of you guys around, just for 1/2 hour, & I could show you what a coldass sh1tshow pickle I have to contend with here!

 

Actually there's a YouTube(r) I might do a thread on, whom I've told about BuildHub & how fantastic/ invaluable it's been for me. This chap + wifey bought a far worse-state old stone cottage than mine, in cotswolds, 18months ago, but with many similarities to mine here in wales. Including their lowly-amateur level skills, as mine remain.
 

They're about to dig up their main sittingroom floor.. so I'm eagerly waiting & watching how. Maybe it'll be the incentive for me, esp if they go UFH.

 

But I digress. Zoot

[-rick-]

26 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

I've had the HP (heatpump) set to 17*C & on continuously, all winter.

 

I'm sorry I missed that. In which case changes needed.

 

26 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

Until I got the new one fitted, which outputs higher temp in the rads (for whatever reason) but only goes on evenings & mornings, since the installer set it to. And which I was sure I set it to, beforehand. Tbh It's so complicated that Ive no idea why it was on continuously beforehand, & not now.

 

Do you notice much difference in comfort with the new setup?

 

26 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

To remedy this, I'd have to rip out all the plasterboard walls from the 2 bedrooms. Put insulation in this gap. Redo. In other words, a full renovation of 2 rooms. Which I'd already patched up & renovated aesthetically anyway. 
 

Alot of work, to fix just 2" of a perimeter cold ingress,

 

I think if I was in your position I'd want to attack this before attacking the floor. It's much less work and you've said you don't use the rooms much so tearing into them should be less disruptive than the floor. It should be cheaper too and you might be able to use the opportunity to stuff insulation under the floor of the bedrooms. Result might be that those two rooms become much easier to heat. You could move your living room area up there and be warm while then considering what to do downstairs and stopping the cold from coming down the walls will likely help downstairs also.

 

Edit to add, I think I saw you said you think the void behind the plasterboard/PIR is 4". If so, filling that with mineral wool (replacing the PIR) brings you up to pretty modern insulation standards. It's also something you can do one or two sheets of plasterboard at a time limiting mess and that feeling of risk in tearing the place up to make a change.

Edited 3 hours ago by -rick-

[Big Jimbo]

My own thoughts are, if you do indeed have a plasterboard tent, as @ProDave has suggested.  on the upstairs near to the ceiling, i would drill some 10mm holes all around the top and bottom of the plasterboard. All around the whole room. Buy a few cans of squirty foam, and using the holes, foam up around the whole, top and bottom edge. While i appreciate that there would be no insulation behind the rest of the plasterboard in those area, the effect would be that the air in those areas would heat up through the plasterboard, but as it would be a sealed area, the heat would not be wind washed away. The holes would be easy to make good, with a bit of scrim, and filler.  I am willing to stand corrected, but i bet that would make the upstairs rooms a lot warmer. Could do the same downstairs if that is the same. Plasterboard on dabs etc.

[Big Jimbo]

Plasterboard on dot and dabs is fine if @nod is doing it, but you seldom see it done well. Hence the tent eh @ProDave

[-rick-]

2 minutes ago, Big Jimbo said:

Plasterboard on dot and dabs is fine if @nod is doing it, but you seldom see it done well. Hence the tent eh @ProDave

 

Don't believe there are any dabs involved here.

 

Solid wall all over (relevant area). Upstairs has a inner framed wall with 25mm pir + airgap before the solid wall.