Advice on home heating and/or ventilation

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#2229767 2-May-2019 21:21

I've read that heat transfer is mostly useful from fireplaces, as the loss in the ceiling cavity is quite high. If you push 23 degree air from a heat pump into a 17 degree room with a degree of loss in the ceiling cavity you need a lot of volume to warm the room, whereas 60 degree air from a fire the volume is much lower.

Blurtie

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#2229950 3-May-2019 09:25

Yes, I've also read somewhere that heat transfer kits are only useful/effective if you have a high output heat source such as a fireplace.. We don't have one and don't fancy putting one in our place either so I haven't really considered it. Happy to be corrected.

Thanks for your "real world" example with costs Wheelbarrow01, much appreciated. We're not too keen on the idea of pumping insulation into our walls, have heard too many nightmare stories and I don't think our house is suitable for that method anyway. As I've said previously, we do intend on renovating the bedrooms at some stage - i.e. full strip out and insulating; but the time and inconvenience factor is a pretty big turn off right now.

In relation to underfloor insulation and ground sheet - I do want to do this, but the limited clearance and none access has led me think it would be too difficult or not possible. Anyone been in the same situation and able to tell me otherwise?

To answer another question above, no I don't think this is our 'forever home', but we do plan on being here for at least 4 or 5 years. Possibly even longer. So do want to make it as comfortable as possible in the meantime.

FWIW - we had no condensation issues last night; and our lounge/kitchen/dining room still had some residual warmth this morning that didn't require any heating.. But then again i see the overnight low in chch was a balmy 10C..

Blurtie

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#2230783 4-May-2019 12:54

So does anyone have any suggestions/comments for underfloor insulation and whether or not it would be possible in my situation?

I do think our sub floor is causing most of our dampness issues, so would like to hear if anyone has been able to lay a ground sheet with minimal clearance..

timmmay

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#2230790 4-May-2019 13:12

How much is minimal? You need to be able to get a person in their to lay it, and anchor it or tape it to piles. I had it done under my house, they got to most of it which made a big difference.

Blurtie

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#2230802 4-May-2019 13:19

Well part of the issue is we don't have internal access to the underfloor. No exposed floor boards in the house so will be a pain to do..

Looking through the vents in our foundations and there would be less than 30cm I'm guessing..

timmmay

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#2230803 4-May-2019 13:21

Then it would be a major exercise to put down a ground sheet or under floor insulation. You'd possible have to take the whole floor up. I'd only do it if you had a huge amount of damp coming up.

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Blurtie

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#2230809 4-May-2019 14:03

Thanks. Yes I thought as much.. We don't have a massive damp problem, but there is a residual smell/odour that I'm attributing to the sub floor..

Guess it only leaves me with insulating walls and/or double glazing, or the original ducted heat pump system (or indendent heat pumps in each room - but not entirely a big fan of this). Seems like a split consensus from the responses so far.

Blurtie

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#2478042 6-May-2020 17:13

So wow! It's a been a whole year already, so I just thought I'd post an update for those interested.

In the end we decided to renovate our two large east facing bedrooms and insulate the walls - both bedrooms had 2 external walls each and share an internal wall. These rooms practically hadn't been touched since the house was built, apart from a lick or paint or two, although they did have the cheap plastic inserts on the windows as 'double glazing'. We did this as we wanted to build in some storage space to these rooms - for anyone who owns/rents a similarly aged property of this era, storage space wasn't really a consideration at all when they built these houses!

I did the demoing myself and saw first hand why heat retention in these rooms were non-existent. After taking down the lathe and plaster, you could literally see the outside world through the gaps/holes in external weather boards! We also found some plant life had been growing in between the external weather board and lathe/plaster too.

To my surprise, by just insulating these rooms it has changed the whole dynamic of our house. As the rooms are east facing, they used to be the coldest rooms in the evenings/mornings as it wouldn't retain any heat at all. But now, the heat retention on this side of our house is 100x better. I've just been running a dehumidifier in a small hallway off the bedrooms for a few hours per night prior to bedtime (this supplements whatever passive heating we get during the day), this usually keeps the rooms up around 18-20 degrees. Over the past few cold frosty nights here in Christchurch where it has dropped to as low as 0 on some nights, the rooms haven't dropped any lower than 16 degrees overnight at all, that's without using a heater as well!

We did explore insulating the underfloor during the renovation, only to confirm that it was not possible due to limited space/access.

All in all, we're pretty happy with the result and it basically cost us the same as we budgeted in the OP.

Next project will be to try and work out how to better distribute the heat we gain from the western side of our house (which gets good passive heating) to these rooms. I don't think a heat transfer kit would be suitable, but happy to hear any suggestions..

Kickinbac

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#2478130 6-May-2020 19:24

Thanks for the update, it’s great to hear it was successful. I did a similar thing in my 60’s house and the improvement was well worth the effort and cost.
Rather than trying to transfer heat, you may find it better to heat the rooms directly now that they retain heat better. Maybe an oil heater with a thermostat. Thinking along the lines that installing a transfer kit might cost say $800 where an oil heater at say $100 leaves $700 to spend on power over time.

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#2478195 6-May-2020 20:47

We had a similar lack of space under the house and as part of our reno removed TONNES of soil from under house and put down plastic sheeting (on my belly with a scraper, hand trowel and flatish container). That made a massive difference to our house in terms of damp/smell of “old house”.

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jandal160165

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#2478197 6-May-2020 20:50

double glazing is rubbish....

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#2478229 6-May-2020 21:41

jandal160165:
double glazing is rubbish....

Why?

We’ve started getting double glazing retro fitted into the existing timber windows in our 1935 bungalow.
It’s made a huge difference in the rooms we’ve done.
In the summer rooms didn’t get anywhere near as hot as they did previously and they stayed much warmer now that we’re moving into winter.
Also the noise levels from outside are much lower now when the windows are closed and no condensation.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Mehrts

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#2478237 6-May-2020 21:58

jandal160165:
double glazing is rubbish....

Care to back that up with some personal experience? Or explain why this is your humble opinion?

The only "downside" to double glazing is the cost, but that's a moot point based on the positives it provides to a house.

tdgeek

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#2478355 7-May-2020 06:46

jonathan18:

It's clearly a matter of preference, but I really dislike retrofitted PVC and (especially) aluminium windows in a house where they so clearly don't match the age/design of the house. The worst is replacing wooden double-hung windows in an old villa with aluminium casement windows.

Agree, BUT...

We had a 1940's house, character style. Sash windows, etc. Down the living room, 2nd bedroom side I had two large windows put in, so as you say, out od step with the style. Ranchslider too :-) French Door too! When we double glazed with new made to fit windows, they had a cross something option. On the top sash windows and on the smaller windows part of the big windows they have inside the two double glaze panes, a vertical and horizontal white metal strip. It took the windows to an older classic look, looked super good. IMHO you can retain the character using this method.

Blurtie

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#2478436 7-May-2020 09:11

Kickinbac: Thanks for the update, it’s great to hear it was successful. I did a similar thing in my 60’s house and the improvement was well worth the effort and cost.
Rather than trying to transfer heat, you may find it better to heat the rooms directly now that they retain heat better. Maybe an oil heater with a thermostat. Thinking along the lines that installing a transfer kit might cost say $800 where an oil heater at say $100 leaves $700 to spend on power over time.

Yes, we already have a few oil column heaters that we can use to heat those rooms, but I get what you're saying in relation to costs.. Guess I just wanted to try and figure out a way I could redistribute the free passive heating we get on one side of the house to the other - but this might not be possible to do it cheaply..

@jonherries I did seriously think about doing that, but when I had a look at the space and thought about the amount of work required, combined with our tight timeline for the renos (obviously renos take longer than you anticipate and my partner had already had enough by then) - this idea was quickly shelved.

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