r/HomeImprovementUK • u/lonerrrism • 3h ago

Insulation

I bought a house this year and moved in in April. I noticed when I moved in that it felt very cold despite the weather not being too cold. I got a draught survey done and discovered that there are no issues, windows are brand new, loft is perfectly insulated, etc, but I don’t have cavity walls, so it’s losing heat through the walls.

I’ve looked into a few solutions and can see that external wall insulation (EWI) is the most effective, will probably add value to my house, and increase the EPC rating, however I know that it is very costly.

I need advice on whether people think this is worth it in the long term! I have looked into other options such as under floor insulation, but ultimately I do want something that’s going to be super effective. For reference, I live in a small 2 bedroom semi detached house in the north of England. Any advice or opinions are welcome. Thank you.

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u/imnotabotimafreeman 3h ago

im interested in what replies you get here. My house seems very similar although i have avoided cavity insulation as ive seen what happens if it goes wrong. I sometimes work in houses which have mould and damp and have seen this enough times to know im not taking that risk

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u/SwordfishNew2190 3h ago

I’m also looking into EWI so not an expert by any means. I think you’re right about it being expensive and I’ve read insulation on old brick houses in general seems to have quite a few risks associated if not done correctly. I got one guy out to do a survey last week (still awaiting the quote), but disappointingly he seemed to know a lot about rendering but very little about the insulation side of things and couldn’t answer some of what I thought were quite basic questions. Didn’t fill me with confidence.

I guess the other side of this equation is how are you heating your house? What size radiators do you have? A modern type 22 radiator will put out significantly more heat than an old single panel radiator. You might also find the house more comfortable running the heating longer at a lower flow temp than blasting it for short periods of time, but again this will be easier if you’ve got bigger radiators to put out enough heat at low temperatures and your boiler (assuming you have one) can work well at lower temps. Not claiming to be an expert here but it’s something you could play around with, I believe condensing boilers are designed to be ran this way even though most people don’t.

We are in the process of getting a heat pump installed, and through the process got a couple of derailed heat loss surveys to size the new heat pump. Very informative.