[Closed] Heating the house when working from home

If you can spend your time in one room, Id look to heat that for the day rather than run the CH for longer.
Keep the door closed, and seal any draughts at the windows.

Also, dont sit still for too long - you will feel cold even in a relatively warm air temp. Get up, move around for 5 mins, go to the kitchen, make a coffee or soup.

I just heat my office - I have a little convector heater. The kids get home at about 3:30 so the central heating goes on then if it's chilly.

If I turn the 2nd pc on in the office the two together are normally enough to keep it warmish.

Let me point you in the direction of this thread...

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/recommendations-for-a-recommended-2nd-heat-source-for-my-living-room

Some very stylish suggestions here 🙂

Get a turbo trainer !

Properly insulate your house and keep the CH on.

We never switch ours off, just drop the thermostat to 15 when out/night.

I have a night storage heater in my office which seems a cost effective way of doing it.

Make a claim against your TaxCode for it.

"Make a claim against your TaxCode for it."

...and then sort out your house insurance as your using your home as an office.

bikebouy - Member
Make a claim against your TaxCode for it.

I'll go with the electric heater, I thought it would the best option I've never been sure about the efficiency of maintaining a constant heat versus having the CH working hard to get up to temp at 4pm.

Properly insulate your house and keep the CH on.

Easier said than done if you have solid walls. I think that Cheers Drive has two options:

1. During the day, turn all the radiators down in the house except the office - then the CH is just heating the office. It might mean that the office becomes too hot v. quickly, so a solution could be a wireless thermostat you would take in there, shutting off the boiler when the office is up to temp.

2. Have a small heater just for the office. An oil radiator is relatively efficient, certainly better than a convector heater.

Either will be better than heating the whole house.

...The house is 1930s btw and looses heat pretty quickly despite the loft being insulated to the latest regs.

How much insulation do you have in the loft ? The latest regs are pretty weak, 270mm if I remember right ?

I work for a specialist insulation company that treats solid walled and stone buildings.

We normally put 600mm in loft spaces, laid in a 3 layer lattice pattern to avoid gaps.

Sealing all the holes through to the loft (for pipes and wiring) first to isolate the loft totally, then installing the layered insulation.

600mm! That's a lot, think I have about 20-30cm in mine (1890's terraced house). Can't help but think the solid walls at the front loose more than the roof, so wouldn't put any more up there (waits to be proved wrong).

I work in a south facing room, wear more clothes, run around a bit and just stick the heating on for the odd burst. Our default thermostat is 13 degs and I'm too tight to stick it on for more than a few hours a day beyond that. I need no more encouragement to visit the kettle in the kitchen. And where there's a kitchen, there are snacks.

Hi,

If you are working in one room.
You could use an electric oil heater with a thermostat.
If you keep the doors closed etc will not be on all the time, stick it beside you/your desk.
16-17oC is usually high enough and on the lowest power setting.

This worked well for me when I didn't want the heating on a lot.

Footflaps, your right (in a way)

If you have solid Walls, they will lose more than what will be lost through the loft space.
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However, if you are not going to have the solid Walls insulated, does it not make sense to do the best you can in the other areas that are cheap and easy to treat ??

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Edit- plus, if you have suspended wood floors downstairs, that is a massive heat loss if not insulated.
Loads of gaps and holes, and only 18/22 mm of wood between the inside of the house, and outside air.

And where there's a kitchen, there are snacks.

stever + 1 pretty much. Also I quite often like to go for a afternoon nap for an hour or so and that warms me up. 😳

... I quite often like to go for a afternoon nap for an hour or so and that warms me up.

Just off to do that now !

Working from home? "Afternoon nap" you say?

600mm! That's a lot, think I have about 20-30cm in mine (1890's terraced house). Can't help but think the solid walls at the front loose more than the roof, so wouldn't put any more up there (waits to be proved wrong).

You're not wrong. It's the first 100mm of insulation that does the work, after that you're very much into the law of diminishing returns.

As a guide - 250mm mineral loft insulation gives a U-value of about 0.16, whereas a solid wall has a U-value of 2.1. So even a modestly insulated loft is much more energy efficient than your walls.

put some helly base layers on...

600mm does sound crazy. I'm sure mine is 270mm, it made a huge difference when it was laid last year to replace the 50mm!

Make sure you are wearing a jumper, slippers and a hat. I always do this is I'm home alone before the heating goes on and it really works

"600mm does sound crazy. I'm sure mine is 270mm, it made a huge difference when it was laid last year to replace the 50mm!"

50 to 270mm makes an appreciable difference - reducing U-value from around 1 to 0.16. 270 to 600mm doesn't, as all you get is 0.16 to around 0.08.

Footflaps, your right (in a way)

If you have solid Walls, they will lose more than what will be lost through the loft space.
.
However, if you are not going to have the solid Walls insulated, does it not make sense to do the best you can in the other areas that are cheap and easy to treat ??

.
Edit- plus, if you have suspended wood floors downstairs, that is a massive heat loss if not insulated.
Loads of gaps and holes, and only 18/22 mm of wood between the inside of the house, and outside air.

Any tips on what to do about Suspended Floors? Often thought about doing something, but it's hard to get to them and I'd worry about blocking airflow and then having all the joists rot. Thick carpets / rugs on top of them seem like a good start....

[i]Make sure you are wearing a jumper, slippers and a hat.[/i]

and make sure the web cam is off for skype calls...

Random question,

Would a well insulated loft have any detrimental effect on your roof?

"Any tips on what to do about Suspended Floors? Often thought about doing something, but it's hard to get to them and I'd worry about blocking airflow and then having all the joists rot. Thick carpets / rugs on top of them seem like a good start.... "

We took the floorboards up and insulated to the depth of the joists with rigid insulation boards. The airbricks are left unblocked so fresh air still circulates under the house and stops the joists getting damp.

It's expensive and disruptive though...

I find that if I buy one bag less of cocaine each month, I can justify keeping the heating on for longer in winter without feeling guilty about the added cost.

Gosh, some of you lot are proper tight! Spending thousands on push bikes and then wandering around your cold house wrapped up like Sir Edmund Hilary to save a few quid on heating? What about all the extra washing you have to do because of wearing more clothing? Does that not use energy? Or do you wash them down the river with the other old fishwives?

😉

Which is the general problem with insulating old houses, you can make it work but it costs a fortune which you wont recoupe unless you stay for over 10 years.

my plan when the really cold weather hits is to work from wetherspoons for an hour a day, which should get things done - it's just a 5 min walk, cheap coffee, free wifi, and my local one isn't skuzzy

Can't say the thought of taking all the joists up really appeals!

Was thinking about possible stapling some of the foil backed foam sheet stuff to the underside of the joists - but not found a volunteer to crawl around under my joists yet - ideally need half starved Victorian Chimney sweep but apparently they're hard to come by these days 🙁

"Was thinking about possible stapling some of the foil backed foam sheet stuff to the underside of the joists - but not found a volunteer to crawl around under my joists yet"

We only took the floorboards up because there's no access otherwise. If you have crawling space you could fit insulation from underneath. One method is to use ordinary loft blanket and hold it up with chicken wire stapled to the bottom of the joists.

All you have to do now is find a suitable urchin...

the technical answer is dont leave your Ch on all day i ve been doing experiments this autumn and you use about 25- 30% more gas than you would if you have it set on a timer for shorter periods.
to heat one rom if the room is less than 30% of the property floor space dont use a gas fire or ch use a second heat source. be sure you measure the true costs though i d heat via ch for a week measuring and noting the units each day and then do the same for the secondary heat source.
i have a customer who swears by oil stlye single rads but cant see the benifit as leccy is dear in those quantities..

Footflaps, email me : nealglover@gmail.com

Can give you some info on effectively insulating under your floors.

There are loads of things to consider, more than happy to give some pointers.
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We do this sort of thing every day, and like everything, there are ways to make the job easier.

I'll place a Wanted ad on here for 'Small urchin required to crawl in under-joist floor space to fit insulation to underside of joists. Some gruel and limitless flogging provided. No payment if urchin is eaten by monsters / rats or gets stuck. Owner must remove stuck urchin before it starts to smell.'

We've got thermostatic rad valves, so I could turn off all the radiators apart from the ones in my office and then switch the boiler onto constant.

In practice, I just get cold.

..
50 to 270mm makes an appreciable difference - reducing U-value from around 1 to 0.16. 270 to 600mm doesn't, as [b]all you get is 0.16 to around 0.08.[/b]

Agreed, it's not a straight line graph. Doubling the depth does not half the U-Value.
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It does still make a difference, and as it cheap then it makes sense to do it properly.
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Our aim it to meet (or better) the "target" U-Values not just to settle for the minimum.
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At 270mm you are just up to the Minimum Recommended U-Value.
And at 600mm we beat the target U-Value of 0.1 so I'm happy with that.

Loft Insulation at Ceiling Level

Minimum U = 0.16 W/m2k

(down to a target of 0.10 W/m2k)

"It does still make a difference, and as it cheap then it makes sense to do it properly."

It might make sense if you're building a passivhaus but for the rest of us, it's never going to make a noticeable difference. If you have walls with a U-value of 2.1, then worrying about your loft being 0.16 or 0.1 is pretty academic.

"Make a claim against your TaxCode for it."

...and then sort out your house insurance as your using your home as an office.

...I'll place a Wanted ad on here for 'Small urchin required to crawl in under-joist floor space to fit insulation to underside of joists. Some gruel and limitless flogging provided. No payment if urchin is eaten by monsters / rats or gets stuck. Owner must remove stuck urchin before it starts to smell.'

That sounds jus like the ad I replied to to get my job 😀

...It might make sense if you're building a passivhaus but for the rest of us, it's never going to make a noticeable difference. If you have walls with a U-value of 2.1, then worrying about your loft being 0.16 or 0.1 is pretty academic.

I suppose you are right, although at "Buy 1 Roll get Three Free" then why not ???
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We routinely put 150mm of kingspan and plasterboard on external Walls, insulate under floors to between 200 and 300mm, and insluate loft areas to 600mm. All with particular attention to Air tightness and Moisture control
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So I suppose we do work to a different standard than most, and have different targets.
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Although the aim is the same.

I suppose you are right, although at "Buy 1 Roll get Three Free" then why not ???

In fairness, whilst I think it's a little bit pointless, it's not an expensive mistake..

The wider issue is this: nearly half of the houses here in Bristol are solid-wall. Insulating those with just 50mm foam-backed plasterboard would make an enormous improvement to thermal efficiency - say from 2.1 down to around 0.5. Yet this would not comply with building regs! External insulation is difficult when we're talking rows of terraced houses in conservation areas.

I'd rather see lots of houses getting modest insulation measures than just a few houses get the full monty.

If you have walls with a U-value of 2.1, then worrying about your loft being 0.16 or 0.1 is pretty academic.

Older stock will be removed.

No reason why old stock can't be significantly improved - some Victorian houses have been retrofitted to passivhaus standards. It's also much less wasteful than knocking down and re-building.

[quote=ransos]..The wider issue is this: nearly half of the houses here in Bristol are solid-wall. Insulating those with just 50mm foam-backed plasterboard would make an enormous improvement to thermal efficiency - say from 2.1 down to around 0.5. Yet this would not comply with building regs! External insulation is difficult when we're talking rows of terraced houses in conservation areas.
I'd rather see lots of houses getting modest insulation measures than just a few houses get the full monty.

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Couldn't agree more.
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Our company is a social enterprise, set up to try and help reduce fuel poverty, and regularly talk to city councils and energy companies regarding these exact points.
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Our customers who pay for the "Rolls Royce" treatment on their houses, help to pay for those that can't afford to fund it themselves.

.No reason why old stock can't be significantly improved - some Victorian houses have been retrofitted to passivhaus standards. It's also much less wasteful than knocking down and re-building.

This is exactly what we aim for.

No reason why old stock can't be significantly improved - some Victorian houses have been retrofitted to passivhaus standards

Here's two for starters:

http://m.bdonline.co.uk/technical/haringey-passiv-terrace-retrofit-by-anne-thorne-architects/5015446.article
http://tcn.uk.com/blogs/entry/Passivhaus-retrofit

Cheers. 😀

Interesting articles.

Great articles!

Not working at home at the moment but I just wear thick shocks jumper and a hat. cheep cheep like the budgie.