So if we generally have our bedroom/upstairs cooler than living areas, why don’t we insulate between ground and first floor to keep the heat where we want it rather than letting it float up to where we don’t really want it?

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I don’t think you’d pass current building regs without insulating between floors. Preferably with something that claims to provide an acoustic barrier as well (it’s just slightly denser rockwool as far as I can tell). of course this only applies to new work.

So…… we don’t we? well, we do.

we have, but its a “new build”.

rockwool between the joists.

Why not heat downstairs, and have the heating very, very low or off upstairs, so that upstairs is only getting the 2nd hand heat from downstairs?

Similar overall effect and reduction of heating bill, without having to install extra insulation.

Dave

Tun off the heaters upstairs.

Turn up the heaters downstairs (or light the woodburner).

Sit downstairs all toasty all evening, open doors, let heat rise, go to bed. The woodburner kicks out enough heat to keep the house from getting too cold the next morning and the heating doesnt go on untill the next afternoon.

A very old house with barely any roof insulation.

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/In-your-home/Roofs-floors-walls-and-windows/Floor-insulation
But there’s no point in doing anything internally if you’re going to lose heat to the exterior through crap loft, cavity wall or window insulation.
http://www.action21.co.uk/existing_buildings.html
About 2/3 down this page you’ll find a u-value table that will give you an idea of where you should be regarding insulation and stuff.
http://www.theyellowhouse.org.uk/themes/insula.html#in11

But there’s no point in doing anything internally if you’re going to lose heat to the exterior through crap loft, cavity wall or window insulation.

Agreed. We got one of those energy trust survey things when we bought our house. The main recommendation on it, and the reason our house scored poorly, was lack of cavity wall insulation.

Of course, we don’t actually have cavity walls… but that doesn’t seem to matter. 🙄

On new builds if using engineered joists and a 22 mm board you dont need to insulate between floors. Theory is whole house is insulated on the external walls! Insulation in party walls and floors can cause failure on acoustic testing! This is of cousre no help on an old house, but do you really want to either rip ceilings down or floors up for a very negligible gain??

The answer is to live in an upside down house. Kitchen dining and living room upstairs and bedrooms and bathroom downstairs. Cool bedrooms and warm living rooms because heat rises.