Insulating the UK’s solid wall housing stock.

[Sasaferrato]

I've got an 1850s rab (stone/clay/stone) house with 2-ft thickish walls which even though in Cornwall was bitter in winter when I got here. The rooms were too small for baton-type insulation so I've put up insulating wallpaper. Only cost a couple of hundred quid and relatively easy to do once you've got the hang of it.

Fair amount of wool loft insulation plus secondary glazing (only a couple of houses with wood sash windows left in the road) using magnetic strips. Again pretty cheap although getting the measurements right was hard because all the windows are different sizes and a bit wonky.

Not sure how effective objectively but it's certainly taken the chill off. Conservatory warms the rest of the house up for most of the time, with wood-fired Rayburn heating for four-five months in winter and a 1-kW electrical fan heater upstairs when it's particularly cold.

Certainly wouldn't be good enough for a lot of people who seem to like 20 C all year round but I grew up in uninsulated house with coal fire, and get a headache in proper centrally heated houses anyway

When I were the lad, the living room was the only room heated. You had ice on the inside of the bedroom window in the Winter.

 

[Elpenor]

Have to admit I always struggle in my parents house as my Dad won’t open any windows and the heating is always on. It’s quite energy efficient too I’d assume being a fairly recent build.

 

[teuchter]

When I were the lad, the living room was the only room heated. You had ice on the inside of the bedroom window in the Winter.

Ice on the inside of (early double-glazed!) bedroom windows when I were a lad too

 

[Riklet]

District heating would be a big help IMO. Could be generated relatively greenly too. switiching to electric heating is a massive con if every house is still responsible for their own heat.

Centralised heating and innovative insulation solutions are the way to go. I am still a bit sceptical of cavity wall insulation btw..heard it can lead to damp and cold bridging.

 

[two sheds]

When I were the lad, the living room was the only room heated. You had ice on the inside of the bedroom window in the Winter.

Yep same here - my sis says she remembers one year that the cold water tank which was in her room froze over

 

[Elpenor]

District heating would be a big help IMO. Could be generated relatively greenly too. switiching to electric heating is a massive con if every house is still responsible for their own heat.

Centralised heating and innovative insulation solutions are the way to go. I am still a bit sceptical of cavity wall insulation btw..heard it can lead to damp and cold bridging.

Cranbrook residents locked into district heating system - Vision Group for Sidmouth

There are some good projects happening at the new town of Cranbrook: E-bikes coming to Cranbrook and Honiton stations However, good design is not one of them: Getting housing design right And certain things need to be got right before too many new houses are built: Cranbrook expansion plans...

visionforsidmouth.org

It’s been tried local to me at a newly built town. The results don’t appear to be popular but not sure whether it’s due to a poor implementation or the residents not understanding how it is meant to work.

 

[two sheds]

Ground Elder 's housing association has chosen really well on this, ground source heat pumps shared between several houses.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Yep same here - my sis says she remembers one year that the cold water tank which was in her room froze over

This is probably why our generation can get dressed in twenty seconds.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Cranbrook residents locked into district heating system - Vision Group for Sidmouth

There are some good projects happening at the new town of Cranbrook: E-bikes coming to Cranbrook and Honiton stations However, good design is not one of them: Getting housing design right And certain things need to be got right before too many new houses are built: Cranbrook expansion plans...

visionforsidmouth.org

It’s been tried local to me at a newly built town. The results don’t appear to be popular but not sure whether it’s due to a poor implementation or the residents not understanding how it is meant to work.

IIRC Battersea Power station powered a district heat scheme back in the day.

 

[WouldBe]

When I were the lad, the living room was the only room heated. You had ice on the inside of the bedroom window in the Winter.

Dad keeps telling me that in '63 when I was born there was ice on the inside of the dining room wall.

 

[two sheds]

You tell young people that now .... they won't believe you

 

[teuchter]

There are quite a few problems with district heating even though it can initially seem attractive. My understanding is that there's only really a strong case for it if it's using heat energy that would otherwise be wasted - for example, implemented near to a power station.

 

[Elpenor]

I’m under 40 and lived for 5 years in a studio flat with French door sized single glazed windows and no central heating. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience.

 

[two sheds]

that's the point where you start burning the furniture

 

[WouldBe]

that's the point where you start burning the furniture

My gran did that in the war and smashed up the grandfather clock.

 

[two sheds]

aww shame - but yeh if there's nothing else and it's fucking freezing

 

[alex_]

Dad keeps telling me that in '63 when I was born there was ice on the inside of the dining room wall.

Cor your igloo had a dining room

 

[Dogsauce]

In the gf’s previous flat the central heating (some kind of heat exchanger fed off a building system) was broken all the time I was there (about two years). It really didn’t matter as it was never cold, modern stuff can be quite well done. It had that aluminium panel type material on the outside but not one that has been flagged up as a fire risk. We’d have the electric towel rail on in the bathroom occasionally, that would be enough for 50 sq m. Being single aspect probably also helped. A lot of new build flats will be of a similar standard.

 

[Dogsauce]

My mum always keeps the top bit of the window open in their house year round for ventilation or something. It kind of doesn’t matter that the walls aren’t well insulated. They did get cavity wall insulation done when I was young but on one side of the house (a 1950s bungalow) the drill popped through the outside wall as it was only one brick thick with render on the outside.

My bedroom was on an extension to the side, on the end of the radiator system, and also built outside of the main wall (one that was proper thickness and able to have foam insulation in it). And usually with the top bit of the window open. Consequently I’m quite used to being cold, something my other half who grew up about 1200 kilometres further south is less tolerant of.

 

[what]

Quite a lot of this was made explicit at Grenfell - which after all was an external insulation scheme. Of course the main issue there was fire safety but the enquiry has made it pretty clear the very low standard of workmanship, quality control, checking, building regs enforcement and so on that prevails in the building industry in this country. I find it a bit frustrating that much of the coverage of Grenfell enquiry is aimed at finding individuals to blame, or identifiying specific companies as villains. But the bigger picture it's revealing is the general culture in the building industry of just generally dong things badly. How you change that is of course not easy. But really it's that culture that is a major part of why we are failing to get our older housing stock

This describes the problems in the construction for the last 20 to 25 years perfectly

 

[alex_]

This describes the problems in the construction for the last 20 to 25 years perfectly

And to be honest - spending 50 billion quid to badly insulate every home in the country, and presumably trash how they all look too is not that great an idea