Effect of cold on the body

[Oldgreybeard]

Our house has dropped to 16C near floor level and 19C at head height so one for OGB; does a high differential between top and bottom signify anything about house insulation?

Probably mostly due to a higher heat loss rate through the floor. Houses in the UK didn't start to have any insulation under floors until around 20 years ago and suspended ground floors are ventilated so very cold air can flow freely under them. Solid floors are a bit better, as the ground rarely drops below about 8°C to 10°C in the UK, so although colder than the room temperature the heat loss rate will be a bit lower.

We have 300mm of foam insulation under our floor to mitigate this heat loss, combined with underfloor heating it does make the house seem subjectively warmer than it really is. I think we've evolved to expect our feet to be cooler, so when we're standing on a floor at around 22° or more we tend not to feel a cooler room temperature. Just a guess, but this is one of two things we noticed when we moved in here, that our feet always felt a lot warmer. The other thing was that standing in front of a window in cold weather feels weird, as there very little radiated body heat going out through the glazing.

[Countrypaul]

Our house has dropped to 16C near floor level and 19C at head height so one for OGB; does a high differential between top and bottom signify anything about house insulation?

Probably mostly due to a higher heat loss rate through the floor. Houses in the UK didn't start to have any insulation under floors until around 20 years ago and suspended ground floors are ventilated so very cold air can flow freely under them. Solid floors are a bit better, as the ground rarely drops below about 8°C to 10°C in the UK, so although colder than the room temperature the heat loss rate will be a bit lower.

We have 300mm of foam insulation under our floor to mitigate this heat loss, combined with underfloor heating it does make the house seem subjectively warmer than it really is. I think we've evolved to expect our feet to be cooler, so when we're standing on a floor at around 22° or more we tend not to feel a cooler room temperature. Just a guess, but this is one of two things we noticed when we moved in here, that our feet always felt a lot warmer. The other thing was that standing in front of a window in cold weather feels weird, as there very little radiated body heat going out through the glazing.

Another factor could be as simple as the type of heating you are using. If you have metal radiators on the wall rather than UFH the floor will recieve very little direct warming so would be expected to be the coolest part of the room since the heat from the radiators will generaly rise.

[openspaceman]

That makes sense as the house is 1862 build and up until about 1968, I think, had suspended floors. Since then they are all solid and my guess is they simply infilled and then screeded before laying parquet floors.

Heating is by a single wood stove, although gas fired central heating is installed it has not been run for a few years.

Not much scope for insulating the floor, I should have ripped it all up 40 years ago and insulated plus laid underfloor pipes but the house will be gutted and extended when I go so probably not worth doing now.The attached house is now three times bigger after two enlargements.

[GarethC]

I think that this is a harmful and damaging article. It gives the impression that 10 degrees is harmful, and doesn't adequately qualify the message by considering what attire would make it less so. Many readers will simply conclude that they have to heat their homes to an unnecessarily high degree.

What would have been more helpful, would be if the article had assumed a practical amount of warm attire (say thermals, jumpers and slippers), and then tested how cold a room could go before negative effects set in. I suspect it wouldn't have been 10 degrees, but it would be well below 18.

I've got a bee in my bonnet about 16 degrees being a reasonable temp for most healthy people if they dress warmly inside. And that would lop lots off the average heating bill.

[Oldgreybeard]

That makes sense as the house is 1862 build and up until about 1968, I think, had suspended floors. Since then they are all solid and my guess is they simply infilled and then screeded before laying parquet floors.

Heating is by a single wood stove, although gas fired central heating is installed it has not been run for a few years.

Not much scope for insulating the floor, I should have ripped it all up 40 years ago and insulated plus laid underfloor pipes but the house will be gutted and extended when I go so probably not worth doing now.The attached house is now three times bigger after two enlargements.

Floor insulation does seem to make a big difference, although even with insulation under a solid floor there is still a surprising amount of heat loss. I worked out that with our floor slab at 22.5°C, and the ground beneath at 8°C, even with 300mm of foam insulation underneath it we are still losing a bit over 100W into the ground. Doesn't sound like much, but given we heat the whole house with just a few hundred watts in cold weather it's a significant heat loss as a percentage.

[Mr Gus]

offtopic, but connected, & if it stops a few folk buying xmas crap when at a loss as what to do.

Orvis plaid flannel shirts thru to xxl for around £14.99 if you know anyone going to uk costco.
chest pockets, & handwarmers concealed along the side seam.

Comfy, cosy, a smidgen of smooth fleece for sleeves & neck wearing one righr now, seeing as winter enere kick is not limited just to the forum this winter.

American site specs...
https://www.costco.com/orvis-men%e2%80% ... 45609.html
my cut off swing tag label says "pinestreet plaid"
Nice warm layering, good brand name, fairly heavyweight by todays standards.

(big neck, broad shoulders, xxl for me, fits well)
Orvis are a 5% pre tax back to environmental causes company with a good outdoors / fly fishing association.

Sitting here unheated at 16c in shirt & T & shorts having been a few hours in sub 13c ..comfortable!
Good work / leisure "tinkering attire"

Ive bought two for wear n' wash foresight & will be getting a few more now theyve been tested.

[AE-NMidlands]

I think that this is a harmful and damaging article. It gives the impression that 10 degrees is harmful, and doesn't adequately qualify the message by considering what attire would make it less so. Many readers will simply conclude that they have to heat their homes to an unnecessarily high degree.

What would have been more helpful, would be if the article had assumed a practical amount of warm attire (say thermals, jumpers and slippers), and then tested how cold a room could go before negative effects set in. I suspect it wouldn't have been 10 degrees, but it would be well below 18.

I've got a bee in my bonnet about 16 degrees being a reasonable temp for most healthy people if they dress warmly inside. And that would lop lots off the average heating bill.

+1 from me too. How many people nowadays routinely wear a vest in winter?
Given that - apart from draughts/air leakage - heat loss is a function of temperature difference (varies with mechanism, I know) then not trying to heat a house up to 25 degrees will save loads of energy, of course the first few degrees downwards from a high setting will save the most...
A

[Mr Gus]

16c is my living room temp, as OGB says "ok dressed properly if relatively healthy" go lower in a sedentary tv garbage binge & yes you'll feel it.

Or, go to bed decent thin polartec blanket (my airline spare) if its just a sheet on a cold mattress, otherwise fleece underblanket & a couple of low wattage electric blanket hours, tv on a tablet / book, less than heating a room all night.


Look at how the Nepalese & Chinese families dress at altitude in the home, ..it makes sense.
Plenty of big polartec fleeces for all seasons & layering, craghopper do good fleece (acceptable price point & plenty of sales, ...their winter lined trousers I sent my daughter o school in, they didn't object as they didn't catch on! ..happier kid standing round for buses & cold classes.

Schools demands for sh** attire is part of the reason for this country's lack of understanding as to seasonal dressing & lack of quality from the rise of mataland, h&m type cheap tat clothing.
My daughters lowe alpine school fleece was 3rd hand when she got it.. it lived on after she finished with it, she got 3 years growth from it.

Give craghoppers a contract for school trousers & see the value through longevity when it comes to new & used uniform "school shops" which proliferate these days rather than the overpriced but sh** school suppliers (who doubtless give a kickback to schools) to get away with the "trash with a school badge" parents are funnelled towards.

[AE-NMidlands]

16c is my living room temp, as OGB says "ok dressed properly if relatively healthy" go lower in a sedentary tv garbage binge & yes you'll feel it.

we don't go that far! Our house has (C/H was designed for) a background temp of 16 deg C but with point sources of heat - gas fires - in the rooms where we sit in the cool evenings. The house stat governs whether the heating comes on though...

When I was at work SWMBO was aware that the thermostat was set too low for her comfort during the day, but didn't tell me until afterwards. Our programmable thermostat is easily over-ridden /tweaked upwards so it's not difficult to warm the house up a bit or turn on the fire if you are sitting quietly.
Usually there is something needing doing, so putting on an anorak and going outside for some exercise - or just doing the vacuuming - soon gets you warm!
A

[Oldgreybeard]

Our living room is sitting at close to the same temperature as our hall right now, 22.1°C. That's because of my little experiment with running the heating from excess PV yesterday, it stuffed a bit more heat into the floor than we really need, despite the freezing temperature last night. It's forecast to be cold again to night, but I doubt the heating will come on. The main problem from my experiment seems to be that I've got the floor slab thermal storage out of sync with the changes in the weather. I think I'll stick to just using the off-peak heating, once things have settled down.