Bigger Supplies Needed.

Would I be correct in assuming that you put insulation inside the walls? Not possible in my house without ripping out the high skirting boards, dado rails, picture rails, and cornices!

Internal insulation - i.e. Insulation on the inner faces of external walls (as distinct from inside the wall cavity), yes. And yes it was a lot of disruption. In our case much of the original lime plasterwork had perished and the joinery had seen better days so stripping back to brick/joists was on the cards anyway. Yes we lost the original plaster cornice ... but I was able to reinstate them with modern reproduction fibrous ones which don't look at all out of place. The new skirting boards are just as tall as the 1910 originals (you do have to shop around for them though). And insulation under the downstairs floors, and under the roof, and 0.8U value windows.

External insulation would probably have been a lot easier, cheaper and technically better (keeping the thermal mass inside), but as it was a stone built house in a conservation area that option wasn't open to us.

I guess the point I was making, is that it is possible and still a lot less disruption (and cost) than demolishing and rebuilding. There's actually quite a lot of renovation going on - bathrooms and kitchens seem to be stripped out completely every couple of decades (or so it seems), it's not uncommon in older housing to get walls and ceilings re-skimmed before redecorating - if the 'norm' became adding insulation whenever the opportunity arose (e.g. when the walls were bare anyway, or add insulation backed plasterboard rather than just skimming) some significant improvement could be done with relative ease. It needs to be done to a plan though - a bit pointless adding little bits of internal insulation if next step was proper external insulation.

   - Andy.

I think part of the problem is that there is not a one size fits all solution to this  - at best there may be 'cookie cutter' recipes for certain types of building on mono-cutlure housing estates.
Clearly you are capable to organise/oversee what is in effect your own bespoke design, as I suspect many on here might be, but that will not be the typical householder, at least not without a lot of support (given the number of heating timers out there whose owners cannot work out how to program them, there is quite a lot  missing at the bottom of the understanding ladder in many cases ).

This lack of understanding seems pervasive, and it is very telling that  it can be quite tricky getting an accurate energy rating assessment done on any building that is a bit non-standard - even the folk who have  been on the course seem unable to articulate what is happening  beyond 'computer says no!'

For a generation, maybe more, adding heating has only meant installing radiators and a gas pipe, and making a hole for the flue in a place that does not violate the rules reproduced on the back page of the makers instructions. Considerable upping of the game will be needed to avoid a lot of wasted effort.

Mike.

(proud owner of a recent extension where the really well insulated ceiling stops at the inside blockworks, so  there is gap between the cavity insulation and the ceiling - result a melted outline stripe on the flat roof in winter and cold tops to all the walls. doh!  - had I been around that would not have happened, but it did.)

Or we could keep warm by gluing our hands together.

www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Insulate-Britain-protesters-face-court-alleged-injunction-breach.html

Yup - spot on! (well not quite organise/oversee so much as just get on and do - I'm really no manager, but amounts to the same in this case)

I rather liked J.F.Kennedy's attitude to difficult problems: "“We choose to go to the Moon,” Kennedy said. “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills"

   - Andy.

AJJewsbury said:

Yes we lost the original plaster cornice ... but I was able to reinstate them with modern reproduction fibrous ones which don't look at all out of place.

We have the great good fortune to live within running distance of a proper craftsman. He has done the downstairs loo and what we think was the original kitchen.

I guess that once they are painted, nobody knows what they are made of.

AJJewsbury said:

Yes we lost the original plaster cornice ... but I was able to reinstate them with modern reproduction fibrous ones which don't look at all out of place.

We have the great good fortune to live within running distance of a proper craftsman. He has done the downstairs loo and what we think was the original kitchen.

I guess that once they are painted, nobody knows what they are made of.