I live in a 3 bed semi made from Yorkshire stone.

We have been in the house coming up for 3 years and when we first moved in, this was the only room in the house that had those polystyrene tiles on the walls and ceiling. We took them down because of the fire risk etc.

Our 18 month old son is now sleeps in the room, last winter we put an oil filled radiator on at night to keep it warm, but we don’t really want to have to do that if we can help it.

Last night the house was at 20 degrees and by this morning the avg room temp dropped to 17, however in his room it had dropped to 14, and it wasn’t really that cold last night.

The room is on the North West corner of the house and exposed to prevailing winds etc. It has PVC double glazed window, and theres about 30 cm of loft insulation above.

I’m thinking about adding even more insulation in to the loft over the area, but what else can I do, apart from cavity wall insulation. I really don’t want to go down that route after hearing so many horror stories etc.

Any advice?

Ta

Eh by gum. When I were a lad, we had to scrape ice off the inside of the windows in the morning….

14C isn’t exactly cold, is it?

Insulate the inside of the room Kingspan Plasterboard I think you can just stick this to the walls and skim the joins.

I say I think because there may be condensation issues that affect the way you can install it. You would of cource have a room a couple of inches narrower.

you could try using insulated plaster board, would mean complete redecoration.

best check with a specialist though.

I might well look at insulated plasterboard, as it wouldnt be too expensive being a box room, the only downside would be that part of the ceiling is sloped and curved in to the rafters.

Can you cavity insulate the external walls just for that room or is it a bit pointless?

underfloor heating for just that room ? it is cheap to run once its in.

We have the same problem and just stick with the oil filled electric radiator – can’t say we’ve noticed a significant change in our electricity bill so I don’t think it uses as much power as you might expect.

Clubber – Yep might be the best solution then we can switch the heating off most of the time and only use the wood burning stove and oil filled radiator in his room.

more blankets or thicker gro-bag with a vest?

I may be wrong, but i believe that too hot a room is worse than too cool? If your house is made from thick stone then i would imagine there is a minimum temp it will get to (perhaps a bit like a cave)?

We have the identical problem too – the girls’ bedroom is on the gable end and hits prevailing winds head on in our exposed location.

We just have a small radiator and a timer so it switches on for a couple of hours overnight but off and cooled before they wake up.

And no, 14deg isn’t cold but depending on the child and bedding, it can be too cold. For example, our little Izzi is permanently on the move, even in her sleep and always throws her bedsheets off (even if we go in and put them back on when we go to bed, they are soon off again) and she sometimes even takes her PJ bottoms off (we *think* she is doing this in her sleep). I think 14deg is a bit too cold for a small child like that personally. We only try to keep the room at 18deg though – not silly hot but okay when she is being a late night stripper.

18 months is getting a bit too old for a Grobag I think – once they start moving, they can be dangerous – especially when the child grows out of the cot which won’t be too far off for the OP…

our little Izzi is permanently on the move, even in her sleep and always throws her bedsheets off

DreamPod/SleepPod

At 14 degrees Jnr FD is just about ok in is sleeping bag with vest etc. However last night the outside temp was around 8 degrees. If we have a winter like last one god knows how much further it will drop.

We have tried getting him out of the sleeping bag but within half an hour of being asleep no covers are left on him!

Its obviously always been a very cold room, hence the attempt at insulation in the past.

Think I will just stick with the termostatic radiator for now at about 17 degrees.

I had this problem with my study, as the house is old enough not to have cavity walls, I went for the putting a frame in and then fitting foil backed plasterboard to the frame, the room is far warmer now.

GrahamS – Member
our little Izzi is permanently on the move, even in her sleep and always throws her bedsheets off
DreamPod/SleepPod

She is long out of those – she could take them off when she was about 14 months.

Sounds like you need to add some zipties 😆

Once you’ve got the walls sorted, you could have a look at the windows. Almost all the homes in Spain have some kind of unobtrusive window shutter which are great at keeping out the cold too. I’m playing with figures at the moment and have come out with a u value of less than 0,7w/m2k (these need verifying). They provide all the benefits improved glazing with non of the drawbacks and as they keep the warmth in and the light out, you might just get to stay in bed for a little longer too.

What are the horror stories regarding CWI?

Sounds like you need to add some zipties

It does cross my mind. 🙂

Once you’ve got the walls sorted, you could have a look at the windows.

Blackout blinds do a good job of keeping the cold out too – the cold is very noticeable when we open ours of a morning.

Blackout blinds do a good job of keeping the cold out too – the cold is very noticeable when we open ours of a morning.

There’s an added risk condensation and/or breakage if the blinds are on the inside though, isn’t there? Or, if not, they’re not providing the same level of insulation, are they?
An old report, but the physics hasn’t changed I don’t think.

I am sure there is, but they are much cheaper than external shutters. And they don’t make you feel like you live in a Borstal.

I am sure there is, but they are much cheaper than external shutters. And they don’t make you feel like you live in a Borstal.

Personally I don’t think that the external shutters are that expensive, maybe you were looking in the wrong places. Which borstal did you go to (mine had bars and not shutters) and how is a hidden (when rolled) external shutter any different from a black out blind?
I guess I’m just used to them after my time in Spain, I find houses here look very strange without them.

Our blackout blind cost £35 online (made to measure) and I fitted it myself in about 30 minutes without the need for any big external ladders that I don’t even own 😉

Excellent price if it keeps you happy and services your needs, but I’d be looking for better insulation and less risk of condensation damage. 😉

It does me fine. We have one in our bedroom too.

Sorry.

😉

No need to apologise.

On the subject of blackout curtains/blinds, we got one of these recently:

£20 from http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002B55BNI
It just suckers onto the window and makes it proper dark (and warmer). Recommended, especially if you travel a lot with the kids.

Yep we have one of them too goes with us where ever we stop over! In the summer we had that on the window, then blackout blind, then curtains.

Now just blackout blind and curtains.

It’s actually up in our room at the moment, cos the missus is on night shift 😀