Improve heating in a large bedroom.

S

STEINER

Registered User
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Hi,

Am looking for ideas to warm a chilly main bedroom.

Bedroom was always coldest room in the place even with central heating on for an hour or more.I think its just a combo of a large room, inadequate radiator, insufficient insulation and large windows.The radiator is working ok, nice and hot and once you get into bed everything is fine!

some points.

GFCH

Havn't measured size yet but a large bedroom.

One single radiator about 3.5 feet long.

Don't know what way room faces but it gets all the sun during day.

One external wall nearly half of which is glazing.2 double glazed windows, one about 4 feet by 3 feet, other one very big about 7 feet high by 8 feet.

Internal wall 1 is concrete and has built in wardrobe covering it.

Internal wall 2 is concrete and neighbours are on the other side.

Internal wall 3 is hollow/plasterboard.

External wall is brick on exterior and hollow/plasterboard on interior, its over a foot in thickness going by the window ledge. I don't know if there is any insulation in it.

Ceiling is plastered, there is a roof void rather than an attic with no access to the roof void.

Roof is not slated or tiled, duplex apartment has a metal/cladding type roof.I don't think roof is insulated at all, ceiling was opened a few years back for another issue ( not leaking!), I looked in and took lots of pix, underside of roof was metal, no insulation visible anywhere.

Bedroom is directly over living room, both are same size with identical glazing, but living room has a double rad and a single rad, effectively 200% more rad than bedroom and its very cosy down there.

I probably have a number of options.

Replace existing rad with a double one and/or add another one.

Try to improve insulation in room, maybe a false ceiling under the existing one.

Maybe have insulation beads or whatever pumped into roof void and external wall.

Improve insulation re the glazing in some way.

I don't want to just stick an electric heater in, prefer something long-term, but I don't want to pay 5k or anything.

Any ideas or advice on a good solution?
 
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  1. get plumber to check your boiler and check rads (this should be done yearly(or 2 y) as a precaution/ check efficiency
  2. windows what age?
  3. windows and the way they are fitted could be your main problem
  4. have you heavy curtains for when the sun goes down?
  5. externally insulate - wall 1 (if it has a cavity even better)
  6. inspect wall 3 - maybe externally insulate (as above)
  7. remove access size section of roof, inspect and then consider ways to insulate
  8. you haven't mentioned whether there are draughts?
  9. or the house ages?
  10. insulate roof
  11. as a last resort after dealing with your heat loss - consider the extra rad but
  12. first insulate and ensure heating system is effective
really you should cionsider getting someone in with BER AND architectural experience. best of luck
 

thanks for advice
 
If the sun is heating the room all day and the radiators are heating the room all night then it would appear that the issue is not heating but heat retention.

I would say this is an insulation issue.

You say the windows are double glazed and the only external wall is well insulated, so I would suspect it is the roof. Especially as the room below (with presumably a similar wall configuration) is warmer.

The advice that has been given is good, and very thorough, but the easiest and cheapest solution would probably be to insulate the attic yourself, without the need for anybody charging professional fees.
 
If your apartment was built 6 years ago it should have fairly decent insulation. You should get the roof space opened and see if there is insulation. I'd be looking at getting a solicitor involved if I were you asap You may just about be within statute of limitations for contracts - in which case the original contractor may have to address the issue.
 
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