Modern house or old stone house?

[tonshun]

I'm currently renting a 20 year old Pavilon modern style house. However, i've always dreamed of living in a stone longere style house. I do however, like both styles so i'm currently viewing both styles of houses. I have read so many conflicting articles that say a new house is cheaper to heat and then other articles that say an old one is cheaper as thick walls keep heat in etc. Then another article will say stone walls lose heat quickly and don't keep it! So, if they were of similar size, which is cheaper to heat? I'd be very interested in hearing from those that live in new and old styles and how they find their heating costs or from anyone that knows more on the subject than me! Thanks in advance.

[James]

Hi,

  I think that with any house new or old it depends on how much insulation there is. Insulation is the key to keeping the heat in and double glazed windows. I am in the prosess of renovating a old 6 metre by 7 metre school room that I am turning into a living room and entrance hall. Our house is built in stone and the walls are about 2 feet thick (600mm) It must be over 100 years old.

  It was cold with no central heating in. The tempoary living room was warm last winter with the woodburner.  With an electric convector heater in the kitchen it was warm and heated up quickly as the walls are all insulated even the interior walls. The rooms in the old house had already been plasterboarded in polystyrene backed insulated plasterboard, and only with 30mm of insulation on the back The mice like polystyrene backed plasterboard apparently, we have had no problems so far.

Our house even with no heating on feels warmer in than other peoples houses.

I have installed oil fired central heating last spring as my retired grandparents feel the cold terribly. I have no idea as to how much it will cost to heat as it will end up having 13 radiators in, 9 being modern steel rads from Bricomarche and 4 being old cast iron rads for the school room.

Tanked gas central heating may be cheaper than oil (I dont know) but I was able to buy an oil boiler, oil tank and 2 cast iron rads from a friend very cheaply, so went for that.  I was a plumber and Gorgi registered gas installer in the UK.

Insulation is the thing in any house. Insulate walls, loft spaces and under ground floor suspended wood floors.

How do you find your rented house, warm/cold?  James.

[Val_2]

I live in a longère which is over 350 years old. We never ever use more than one corde of wood each winter and although we have electric heating as a secondary source of heating,we very rarely use it as it does not get below freezing here very often due to the gulf stream and being by the sea. However, we have probably gone overboard in the roof insulation and all the exterior walls are fully insulated too which means that after a couple of days of having a stove going from about 3pm, the house walls remain pretty warm for weeks on end. Double glazing also keeps the warmth in and we have plasterboard ceilings below the floor- boards BUT I do keep the velux window on the landing on the open vent to allow air to circulate and we do open the doors and windows during the day for a while to refresh the interior. Having a porch also helps to stop cold coming and  heat escaping and good fitting doors and windows. My neighbours in the new HLM pavillions are always moaning in winter about how cold and draughty their homes are compared to ours and the high electricity bills they receive due to only having this heating and no working chimneys. The construction these days of modern houses has never been so energy conscious but there are many very cheaply built properties about which have cut back on insulation and good quality joinery which does affect the heat kept in and the more the property had spent on it during construction, usually the better and more efficient the heating will be. The choice is yours but remember that old properties are constantly needing maintenance compared to new houses but you cannot beat the character of an old place at the end of the day and think about all the previous folks who lived there before you.

[PossumGirl]

Our house is a stone, village house between 150 and 200 years old.  When we came to see it the first time in December, no one was living in it and the heat wasn't on. It didn't feel all that cold.  Last winter we were very, very comfortable and the only room that was ever cold or difficult to heat was our bedroom, which has only a brick outside wall as opposed to a stone wall.  We are in the process of putting Actis on the wall then a doubled-inner wall. With the new double-glazed windows, my guess is we will be very comfortable with that taken care of.

We don't like things too warm and during the day keep the thermostat set at 17, putting it up to 19 while we watch television at night, then back to 17 for sleeping and up to 19 again from around 5:30 am to 8:00, so we can take our showers comfortably.  Last winter we filled our oil tank once in September, then again in January.  We didn't use up all of the second tank of oil and have only just topped it up.  We have 12 radiators, 8 of them cast iron and four modern ones.  I prefer the cast iron.

PG