Heating rooms

I live alone in a 4 bedroom house,. All the rooms are heated and at the moment they are on all day and night. I have lung problems and can’t handle the cold. Besides, I have heard that it’s not good to just a couple of rooms , due to ensuing damp problems in the other rooms.

Parky, I run an Ebac dehumidifier all the time, in winter, to keep the unused rooms dry. It's just astounding how much water it collects. I only use the central heating in the coldest months, and have the TRVs in those rooms on low.

Do you have a frost setting on your radiator thermostat. I think that should do. Either that or very low.

I, too, mainly just heat the rooms I use, but I go round the house, once a week and as I vacuum each room, I turn the radiator on afterwards, then turn them off in the same order when I’m finished.

Same here, - mould if I don't heat the rooms at all. So I just leave the thermostats turned low on each radiator in rooms which are not much used.
I've managed not to put the central heating on yet this season.
Just a little electric fire in the living room so far.

Primrose53

Do you have a frost setting on your radiator thermostat. I think that should do. Either that or very low.

Yes, have thermostats fitted on al, radiators and set on frost or 1.

Make sure the rooms are aired sometimes too.

Airing is so important. And never put washing to dry there either.

Once mould gets into the walls it's difficult to get rid of so best to clear condensation from windows and keep some heat on in unused rooms.

I live in a three storey Victorian house 1874 built I don’t have any central heating so I just heat the one room I mainly use
I do get some damp but try to open a window in the rooms I don’t use and keep the doors shut
Nothing much else I can do

My MIL had pots of crystals which apparently absorbed damp in rooms she didn't use, before she had double glazing and central heating.

We are in a 3 bed semi, just the two of us, and we have always kept all the doors open. The radiators all have thermostatic valves, set low in the bedrooms. I tend to think that an all over, evened out temperature is beneficial to us, but maybe not to everyones taste.

I keep radiators on low.
Keeps damp at bay.

I have been monitoring costs of things for about 18 months.
It is possible, almost definite, I have a different heating system to most people. Dont think I will go into detail.
I dont know what to call it, but there is a heat setting I put on 50 or 55. Oil. I have had the heating on overnight for 8 weeks. On in most of rooms, now all.

Cost has been low enough for me.
If you would like more detail, you can DM me.

Hetty58

Parky, I run an Ebac dehumidifier all the time, in winter, to keep the unused rooms dry. It's just astounding how much water it collects. I only use the central heating in the coldest months, and have the TRVs in those rooms on low.

Does that work out very costly in electric costs?

Thank you all for your tips. No frost setting on ours. Still umming and aahring what to do.

If you decide not to heat unused rooms it is really important to open windows as often as you can, rooms need fresh air - especially rooms that are not in use.

We have a big house and use all the downstairs rooms but not many upstairs. We have thermostatic radiator valves on all our radiators and those in unused rooms are ser at 1. In occupied rooms they are set at 3..

Hot air rised so heat in downstairs room will go through the ceiling and warm the rooms above them, unless, of course, you have 12 inches of insulation on the floor of upstairs rooms instead of carpet.

I had a relative who rarely had the heating on and lived mainly downstairs. When he went into a care home, I found all the clothes in the wardrobe of one bedroom were formed into a solid block by the growth of mould in the cupboard. I had to wear protective clothing, a mask and spread dust sheets on the floor in order to take them out stuff them into bags, seal them and take them to the tip.

I live on my own in a 3 bedroom house and the staircase is in the living room. I have all of the bedrooms upstairs timed to come on a very low setting and I leave the doors open so that the heat from downstairs rises. I have never had a problem with mould or dampness and until the recent energy crisis, my bills have always been very low.

If the T is minus overnight it is cheaper even now to have the heating on very low overnight than to deal with burst pipes.

I too leave doors open to allow air to pass freely between rooms , and the rads in unused bedrooms turned down very low (not off altogether) as I hate the musty smell and damp feel of shut off rooms even if they are not actually damp.

thermostats on low in rooms I don`t use, those rooms need to be dry and not cold and damp.Rooms I use are set on the comfortable safety temperatures for older people

Humidity needs to be prevented as it permeates through a house. I don`t dry washing indoors and I use a humidifier after sleeping, the human body breathes out a lot of moisture during the night

Moisture plus cold leads to mould.

just to explain, warm air can hold much more moisture than cold air. If the air in a room is cold then the air holds much less moisture and the excess condenses on cold surfaces, like windows, walls and wardrobes. Mould spores are everywhere but held at bay, until they get the ideal conditions to reproduce. The ideal condions are cold and moisture. Take one away and there will be no mould problem

We have a lovely attic en-suite bedroom which we hardly ever go in. I check it once a week, that's about all. Last year when we were all holding off putting on heating until it was freezing, we turned off those radiators, consequently the wallpapered walls where the join was lifted ! It's an old Edwardian house and everywhere was paperedand then painted over and we had painted over all that too. It was soo upsetting seeing the splits. We did remedy it though. But that taught us that this year radiators will go on low up there. Currently adding this to the post with no heating on ! Brrrr

Last year we had condensation damp and asked for advice from the housing manager. He said that we should run our heating for half an hour in the morning and the same in the evening and make sure we open the windows for a few minutes everyday. Fingers crossed it will work this winter.

Old houses need to breathe so air circulation is vital to avoid mould and other nasties.

I wipe the condensation down on windows that need it every morning throughout the cold weather, and all the rooms are heated throughout the day, but not at night resulting in condensation in the morning.

But there is zero mould etc anywhere.

I do remember the frost and ice on the inside of windows when I was a child.
It made lovely patterns.