Basic Improvements:

Most people are probably aware of these, but I did a checklist of all the following to ensure that I had already attended to each point:

• hot water cylinder lagging: many new cylinders come with tanks pre-lagged; as mine already does. If not, I would have to fit lagging around it. The lagging jacket only costs appx EUR30.
• gaps around windows and doors: should all be sealed to prevent cold air from entering the house in an uncontrolled fashion. I have noticed that some air is escaping around the front door, which requires a new set of door seals and even possibly change the existing wooden door for a pvc style door to match the windows.
• windows should be double glazed, which mine are. But I am giving consideration to triple glazing also, because windows will still lose more heat than surrounding walls. This would, of course, by expensive to install.
• check and maintain the boiler at regular intervals. Again quite obvious but boilers should be checked once a year, so I will be asking my agent to give it a service once the winter months are over.
• use zoned heating systems and don't heat zones where there is zero occupancy. There is no point heating the upstairs of the house all day if no one is using it.
• wear more clothes, use less heat! Really obvious one which most of us no longer follow. In winter time we should think about wearing extra layers of clothing, rather than keep adjusting the heating thermostat upwards! That's how our parents coped.

Specific Improvements - Radiators:

Without the benefit of a heat loss reading for each room, I decided to see what other improvements I could make to the house in order to take more advantage of the heat available. Firstly I decided to fit radiator reflector panels to all external walls where a radiator is attached. The idea is to reflect the heat away from the external wall and thus more heat is available to heat the air within. The panels are branded 'Novitherm' and can be cut to size with a scissors. 

They also come with a sticky doubled sided tape, so that one side is peeled off and placed around the panel and the other side adheres to the wall. In practise this was a bit fiddly to do, and often required a lot of cutting and pasting together of discarded sections. The 20 panel pack cost EUR95, but I have seen them on offer on EBAY for as little as GBP40. Determining whether the panels actually work will be difficult and is dependant on any number of factors, such as the outside temperature, number of people in the room, clothing, boiler temperature and so on. Also important to note is that the panel must be well sealed to the wall; not only does it reflects heat from the front but it also needs to trap a small volume of heat between the panel and wall to provide a heat barrier. If in doubt use a branded glue such as Evo Stick to glue the panel to the wall, if it does not adhere with the supplied tape.

Specific Improvements - Thermostatic Radiator Valve:

Another often overlooked item, particularly where there is a larger zone control in operation. The radiator valve can be set to a precise value in the appropriate room, then once the temperature is reached the flow to the radiator is restricted, as if you physically closed the valve yourself. The benefit here is that should an individual room within a zone heat up before another room, then the heat could be turned off in that room sooner. That means that the boiler has less work to do because more hot water is available for longer, as it is not circulating through as many radiators as before and thus stays warmer for longer.

So to get the benefit from this, we should only install these in rooms where the required temperature is reached sooner than other rooms. Also, they would not be fitted in rooms where the zone thermostat is located so as not to interfere with each other.

Specific Improvements - Ceiling Draft Reduction:

A second angle of attack is my ceiling, or more precisely where the ceiling membrane has been compromised. Most houses with down lighters, like mine, will have a heat loss into the hole which has been made in the ceiling. So there could be options here to improve the heat retention. There is little point in putting large quantities of attic insulation in place only to have to keep the insulation clear whenever a down light is present. Building regulations in the UK state that insulation should be run in continuous fashion to prevent cold spots, and that often goes against the manufacturer's recommendations that insulation be kept clear of down lights to avoid build up of heat and the potential for fire. So what can be done?

I found a website that sells insulation support boxes for ceiling lights, as shown here. This is fitted from above and covers each down light. The boxes themselves are sized to fit snugly between the roof trusses, allowing ample room at the top and sides of the box for heat dissipation. You can also fit a transformer in here if you are using low voltage systems. Once the box is installed you can lay further insulation over the top of the box in order to prevent cool air getting through from the colder attic space above. But at EUR17 per box that's more that the replacement down light and bulb cost combined. I wonder if I could make up something similar myself?

More information to follow, at a later update.