Winter. Is. Here. In one week, the temperature has dropped, Halloween is over, and it won’t be long till the Christmas adverts start appearing on the telly. With the plunge in temperature, your thermostats might start being cranked up, your fires turned on, and woolly socks making their debut.
However, is your home efficiently keeping the heat in and cold out? With many of the terraced houses in London built in the Victorian era, some renovations may need to be considered to make your home as energy efficient as possible and set you and your family up for the winter months and years to come.
Terraced homes work well for keeping heat in on the sides of your property. Sash windows and large open loft spaces do the opposite. There are ways round both.
Heat rises, and Independent Living puts the loss through an uninsulated roof at 25% of the heat you generate. We install loft conversions, and the roof above them is where we most often find the problem. A lot of people do not realise their roof needs re-slating and re-nailing. Every gap is a route for heat to leave, so it is worth having it checked.
If your roof is in tip top condition, maybe think about reinsulating. Materials have updated with time, becoming both environmentally friendly and a lot more effective. Wood wool, sheep wool and recycled paper and plastic fibres are all now used. NU Projects’ contractors will indicate which material is well suited for your home.
Heat can also escape through the gaps between your window frame and glass. Place your hand at different places around your window and see if you feel a slight draft coming in. Window sealing can decrease in effectiveness with age, wear and tear allowing hot air to escape. Draught proofing strips solve it. Plastic ones cost very little and work. Metal ones cost more and last several seasons longer.
Boilers! Boilers are that one piece of equipment in the house that you don’t really think about but in reality can make you lose or save a lot of money! New boilers like condensing boilers are expensive, yes. But, the yearly saving benefits means you will gain your money back from your old rusty money-spender very quickly. Condensing boilers recover the wasted heat from vaporisation and turn it into more heat, therefore being highly efficient.
And finally, fireplaces. An open, unused Victorian chimney is an uncapped hole in the roof, and it costs you heat every day of the winter. A chimney balloon is a cushion you fit inside the vent, and it stops the cold air coming into the house. Take it out before you light the fire. It will not do any harm, but it will disintegrate and cannot be used again.
That should solve the frosty toes and set the house up for the winter ahead. Call NU Projects on 020 7731 6841, tell us what needs doing, or read about our in-house heating and ventilation team.
Published 7 November 2018. Written by the NU Projects studio, edited since for house style and accuracy.