Home Energy Assessment

S class said:

Was it worth 850 euro to get this information ?

Information like this can be found for free if you do a web search.

Finding draughts and plugging any gaps is not that difficult.
A night light candle slowly moved around doors, windows, skirting boards, floor boards etc will find the smallest of draughts.

The candle flame will flicker in response to tiny amounts of air flow.

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S class said:

Is this for the cold rooms only ?
Is the heat on for longer in the warmer rooms ?
Do the radiators in the cold rooms feel as hot, top and bottom as the ones in the warmer rooms.

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SomethingWhere said:

Were you thinking it was a central heating problem?

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S class said:

In this very cold period 2 hours is a very short heating time.
The fabric of your house will be at a very low temperature and will not get much chance of gaining a lot of heat in 2 hours.

Think of your house as a very large heat battery. 2 hours of heat charging time will not charge it up to any significant heat level.

Your C2 rated house can only maintain a heating charge if it has actually been given a reasonable heating charge in the first place.

In the 2 hours you are basically heating the air in the room and adding a few degrees of heat to the building fabric.

When you turn off the heating the building fabric then cools the air back down to its temperature.

Your house is probably a lot better performing than you are thinking at the moment.

There might be a lack of insulation in the colder rooms or a draught problem.

Are the radiators in these rooms roughly the same size to room area ratio as in the warmer rooms ?

I would be inclined to check out any problems in the two cold rooms rather than spending 850 euro getting the whole house examined.

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SomethingWhere said:

I bought a C2 detached house a few months ago. It was built in 2001 and is heated with a gas boiler. It has attic and wall cavity insulation but it is very cold.

I know its freezing outside right now, but some rooms can get to a comfortable enough temperature (18/20 degrees) but other rooms struggle to get above 15 even with the heating on for 2 hours or so. I also feel the house gets cold very quickly - which is surprising given that it has insulation added. Last night, most rooms dropped 6 degrees in temperature until 7am.

I am starting to go a bit mad. First, I think that the wall cavity insulation was not done correctly, or not done at all on certain walls (some walls have no clear marks of pumping holes - although it pebble dash so its hard to see). I then think its the windows/doors that are the problem. Then I think that the heating systems is not setup correctly (even though all rads are roasting to touch).

I want to do an assessment to tell me what is what. My questions are:

1. Should I get a Home Energy Assessment or a Heat Pump Assessment?
2. Are these tests actually checking the walls/windows for the actual heat loss, or do they just give an estimate based on the year of construction, known upgrades, etc?
3. Do they do it by room; so they can tell exactly why one room holds heat better than an other room (i.e., the wall in one room has cavity insulation, while the other one does not - or that a specific window is a problem)?

I just don't want a generic report like BER that is based on assumptions. I want specific reports by room and exactly why heat is being lost.

Could someone please help guide me on this?

Thanks!

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