Hi,
I moved into a three storey Victorian semi six months ago. In the last few weeks of Summer sun the house was toasty. It got a bit cooler in Autumn but has been absolutely freezing since winter set in.
We have twenty, single-glazed sash windows. I have temporarily put secondary glazing film on the windows as they are very draughty. That has made an improvement, but not enough! The ground floor has a suspended timber floor with approximately 2' of space underneath except for a small area in the middle of the house where there is a cellar. It may be my imagination but the cellar seems to be one of the warmest parts of the house..... None of the reception or bedrooms have carpets - sanded floorboards throughout. It looks like previous attempts have been made with silicone to seal the gaps between the floorboards but this appears to have disintegrated, presumably due to the movement of the timber throughout the year. From peering between the gaps between the floorboards there appears to be no insulation between floorboards and the ceiling of the room below (or bare earth in the case of the ground floor). Both reception and bedrooms have fireplaces; most have a 'flap' on the fireplace to close the flue, those that don't I have temporarily blocked with a pillow in a bin bag with a bit of kitchen waste pipe at the side to provide ventilation.
I realise this house will never be as energy efficient as a modern house but I desperately need to improve its heat retention. Where am I likely to be losing the most heat and what can I do about it? I can't afford to replace the windows. Does anyone have experience of the relative merits of secondary glazing units versus the brush pile draughtproofing that you get from the likes of Reddiseals? What about the floors? What's the best thing to seal the gaps between the floorboards? Would insulation under the floorboards provide a significant difference compared to merely sealing between them? Anything else I should look at?
Many thanks!
Paul