Independant heat for one room in the house

Sep 29, 2013 26 Replies

It's not really like me to advocate moderation in many things (!) but you ~may~ find that the floor insulation makes enough of a difference to resolve things, so I would try that first. We put 3 inches of celotex under the living room floor and (though a minor issue) some insulated plasterboard on the north facing external wall (minor because it was the

27mm thermaline plus and was mostly chosen to level up to the coving - a dirty great window covers 75% of that wall, so little effect likely). At the same time, we fitted new radiators (probably no big effect, just better looking and physically smaller). This together instantly made it the warmest room in the house. Anyway, my conclusion is that the underfloor insulation made the biggest difference. I don't know if it's the insulating properties or the draught proofing effect, but I suspect the latter is more important, so it's likely that thinner celotex would be as effective. I've just put 200mm of loft insulation under the dining room floor (from beneath) but can't tell if it's had much effect as it hasn't really been cold enough yet.

In a previous work location, theoretically a properly heated building, poor maintenance and crap design meant that the winters were cold. A single IR lamp somewhere behind me changed my comfort dramatically. This was a high-ceilinged room something like 15 by 25 metres and often me being the only occupant.

I am not usually particularly cold-sensitive but I needed something. In other offices in the same building, the so-common under-desk fan heaters were widespread. Indeed, in the same office, when others were in, that was universal.

The joists are 2 * 4 so we will only be putting 4" of Celotex in there.

This should do the draught proofing and insulation without the ventilation problems you get if you try to encase the joists.

Probably also replace the floor boards with chipboard as we are likely to damage some of the boards when lifting them, and this also further reduces draughts.

So we shall see if this improves things.

Not enough room under the joists to do anything from below unless we find a very able small child.

Cheers

Dave R

The future is fracked gas, too cheap to meter. No need for thermostats, just open a window.

A colleague told me of a large US research institute built just before the 1970s oil crisis, in which the air conditioning worked by having chilled air piped to each room, where it was heated by gas if required by the thermostat setting.

-- Richard

not after the government have taxed the crap out of it..

Extending the cables was what i was thinking of when i made the suggestion, or use wireless keyboard and meece if the range is within limits (i have a cheapie wireless moose and keyboard from lidl that works on a computer in the living room with the keyboard upstairs, the GF uses a plug in illuminated keyboard nowadays, and the dongle for the wireless keyboard has been left plugged in,

She still hasn't figured out why every so often her computer starts up a conversation with her, and that it's always when i am upstairs, and the convo stops when she calls me down to see :)

Water cool it then, using a small domestic radiator instead of the car style matrix rad with a large fan on it to shed the heat,

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