Vocal Voices

I do a bit of volunteer work on Tuesdays in what was an old Victorian school. During this cold spell they have had to keep the heating on 24hrs to keep the cold out. Today it decided it needed a rest and within half an hour of it going off it was nearly as cold inside as out. The place might have CH and double glazing but the walls seem to suck the cold in.

Ah well, now I am home I am having to use my CH instead of theirs - damn!

That sounds like our old house!
We had double glazing and a whole new central heating system installed but it was never warm in there. I always remember in Winter I'd get warm walking to and from the school with the lads and wouldn't want to take my coat off when I got home.

High ceilings, old plaster - it does seem to hold the cold.

Certainly what it was like in this house. Took years to get enough insulation in but, still, it takes 3 days to get over the thermal inertia of such a large amount of stone when it's cold. With all the insulation now, though, it holds the heat for a while.

Jo, our old 'tween-the-wars semi was like that. The old Vulcan heater screamed like a jet engine trying to warm the place up from cold, but Cromwell and Suff have it with the old school.

High ceilings, thick plaster and feet thick solid stone walls acting as the best heat-sink ever invented. They had to shut up shop because of H&S temperature regs - mind you it was damned cold.

Our last house was a pig to heat, as it was Victorian. CH full blast, woodstove blazing, and yet it was always chilly

Yep 2 foot thick walls to the street and garden, nearly 3 feet thick between the houses.

In the end we had to put Insulated plasterboard on all the internal walls to try and keep the heat in. That and buy a 32 kw wood burning CH boiler. The boiler is hard to keep down under 80c when it's been on for a day and the house is warm. Overkill was the only way to keep the house warm. When the huge cast iron radiators are running at 70C to 80C it does tend to warm the house. But in the UK would be classed as a H&S issue.