Heating and room temp.

Lorcan

Lorcan

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So for those who don't already know -

1 - My central heating system is ancient, it's not an exaggeration to say it was probably installed when my parents were born.
2 - The windows are single glazed.
3 - At least one window (the kitchen) and my front door are not airtight.
4 - The thermostat is downstairs, and downstairs is open plan.
5 - This means the ancient boiler has to work with a thermostat that's essentially useless.

So, I'm in a quandary, trying to keep the goblins relatively warm, not helped by the fact I don't like heat and prefer the cold, lol. I vape in my room with the window open and the door closed, vapour isn't like smoke and I wouldn't smoke in the house but I'd prefer the door stay closed for that reason alone, plus with the window open it makes the rest of the house too cold.

If I turn the heating up, I feel like I'm cooking myself. Turn it on for longer, and it doesn't stay warm enough upstairs. Back to 16C in their room after less than a couple of hours, and it can't be set to turn on and off automatically. Like I said, it's ancient.

So. Do I turn it up, bearing in mind the thermostat's in a room that's going to stay at least a couple of degrees colder than upstairs no matter how often the heating is on? Or do I just keep going downstairs and manually switch it back on again? Which I don't mind, to some extent, except a goblin's belly is never full and The Human just went downstairs.
 
We have a thermostat downstairs in the hall and a thermostat upstairs on the landing. Downstairs is set to around 23C and upstairs (where the pigs are) is set to around 18C as we spend most time downstairs. So far we’ve just been switching the heating on as and when we need it and it switches off when it reaches these temperatures. We have been keeping the door to the pigs room closed with the dehumidifier running and it’s been retaining its heat and the pigs room is the warmest (and smallest) room in the house. Personally, I would switch the heating on and off manually as and when you need it unless you want it to come on whilst you’re asleep. We haven’t been having our heating on overnight and the pigs have been fine. We may of course need to reassess when it gets colder
 
I can have it come on when I'm asleep (and it's definitely needed overnight) but I'm limited to setting two time periods and no more. So what I've been doing during the day is manually moving that dial to on/off, and leaving it to turn by itself overnight. Downstairs is set to 20, and honestly I'm not even convinced it's working, feels more like it kicks in and out at regular intervals until it hits Off again.

I'm rarely downstairs unless it's for food, fluids, washing machine, heating or the front door. Otherwise I'm upstairs too because I might prefer the cold but the air temp is nowhere close to 20 even with the boiler on.
 
Old heating systems can be a real problem. I have night storage heaters which are approx 28 years old and are NOT very efficient. Like @Lorcan I also have draughty single glazed windows. (These are due to be replaced but the work has been delayed and delayed. Was 'definitely' going to begin last Autumn but won't happen until next year now.) I'm on Economy 7 so the heaters come on overnight, which means it's nice and warm first thing in the morning but by the evening it's cold again. The theory is that you can adjust the controls to release the stored heat throughout the day - but it doesn't actually work :no: .

The only advantage is that I can vary the temperature in each room, so I can at least keep the piggies' room at a comfortable temperature for them (and for me as I spend quite a bit of time in there.)
 
We have a similar quandary with the nursery; having the heating on a lot or overnight is not an option, but we can't have the baby sleeping in the cold, and that room is easily the coldest in the house.

Our solution, which has been working well so far, is a small oil-filled radiator with a thermostat on a timer plug. They're quite cheap and we're going to do the same for our room, maybe the living room for the pigs (although the temperature in that room is the best in the house year-round, seemingly).

I think you can also get draft excluders that kind of clip on to the bottom of doors, but I may be misremembering that one?
 
The homeowner (who is not my direct landlord, thankfully) is a mean tightfisted (and obnoxious) man. Never met him, most of the street haven't met him and can't stand him, my landlord's usual handymen have never met him and can't stand him and the neighbours that have met him, they can't stand him either and told him that to his face :)) Can't pretend I'm not grateful.

The chances of the windows getting replaced is slim to none, I've already had problems with two of them (the kitchen window, and the one in my bedroom leaks around the bottom panes if the rain and wind are right). I wish the radiators had thermostats because it'd make my life much easier. I'd be screwed on Economy 7, it's hard enough heating this house as is and it's hardly big. Not quite a two up two down but it's the closest analogue.

The draught excluder wouldn't work for the front door unfortunately @poggle, it's not the bottom of the door that's problematic. The draught hits from the letterbox, but mostly from the side frame. Using a heater in their room isn't really an option either unfortunately, there's not the space to leave one running and still have access to open and close the door.

If I could get the downstairs temp reasonable, it'd be fair, but I can't. So instead the heating comes on for about 90 minutes twice overnight. I don't mind continuing with that, but daytime's got issues.
 
I have storage heaters,though ive had two replaced with quantum storage heaters.That are much more managable.you can titrate the times that are needed to come on.In the bedrooms i have panel heaters which i will not use.The guinea pig room seems to maintain at 15 degrees .Most of the piggies are okay with this.Its the skinny pigs I'm more concerned about.so i use snugglesafe pads for those piggies.put lots of hay in there wooden houses,they seem to be wandering around as usual.it is difficult.
 
If you can’t work out a curtain rail, I’d even consider a lot of command strips and a baton with a curtain pole attached to that. So long as it’s not mad heavy it will hold I’m sure. I have a fantastic velvet curtain from Dunelm pretty cheap that made a ridiculous difference to a previously draughty window.
 
If I can close over the inner door (it makes for a small internal porch) it's not so bad but the bigger problem is the side frame. It's that badly covered that you can see through the gap. The problem with the inner door and even the kitchen doors is there really isn't a better place in the house to dry large items - jeans, hoodies, towels, fleece. My bedroom door isn't an option, the bathroom door is a slide door so it's not an option, and I'm...funny...about drying something over the goblins door.

I also have no curtains. The only ones in the house are in the living room and they aren't mine, and they can't be moved. I could maybe see about getting a duvet (with no cover) in that window frame somehow. The frames are relatively deep so it wouldn't have to be hung on the wall, if that makes sense. In the frame, not over the frame.
 
What about heat pads in the cage? Your heating issues seem really difficult to solve for the room as a whole, but if you gave them some heat pads they should be able to keep themselves cosy even if the room is on the chilly side.
 
Yup, but it doesn't fix the air temp issue, which drops considerably unless the heating is on, and the Snugglesafes can only do so much.
 
Put a portable oil filled radiator in the room, maybe? They're pretty safe and don't use too much power, but can stop the chill. You could put it next to the cage so they get the good of it.

Also, could you hang blankets on the window at night to cut down the draught?

Maybe rig a blanket over the top of the cage to trap warm air for them? You would need to make sure air could still get in at the sides.

People successfully keep guinea pigs in garages and sheds, which will be much colder, so maybe some of the tricks people use in that situation would help.
 
As I said before, radiators aren't an option, not unless they're incredibly tiny. There just isn't the room for them.

Hanging a quilt will be an option once I work out some way of getting them to stay attached.

There's already a blanket. And if they were the furry kind I'd be happier to leave it at that, but they aren't.

Finally, the heat in their room dropped to 16° last night, just a couple of hours after the heating switching off and with their door closed to keep the chill from the main house out. People might leave their guinea pigs outside in colder temps than that, but I won't leave the skinnies in that temp in the house, not if I can help it.
 
You do get very tiny oil filled radiators, we have a couple of teeny ones. And they are surprisingly good at keeping a space warm even if they are tiny. If you can somehow screen off that area of the room then they will do an even better job of keeping it warm. Perhaps you could get something like the frames that are used to put net on fruit bushes in the garden, put them round the cage with some fleece on them, and put the radiator inside? You would have to leave a gap for air to circulate but it might do pretty well to keep the warm air trapped in the cage area.

Edit to add, and these little radiators have their own thermostats, so they will switch off if the room is already warm enough, they won't overheat the pigs if you get the setting right.
 
DSC_0799.webp

This is the room + cage. The problem with a portable radiator is, there's enough room to open and close the door, but there's not enough room to safely close the door with a radiator inside. Too easy for it to topple over trying to open the door again afterwards. I'm not as worried about them overheating the room as I am about leaving one in there in the first place.
 
Oh, I misunderstood, I thought the cage was in the open plan area.

What about an electric blanket under the fleece? Basically underfloor heating for the pigs.
 
Cheekypigs said:
Oh, I misunderstood, I thought the cage was in the open plan area.

What about an electric blanket under the fleece? Basically underfloor heating for the pigs.
Click to expand...

Maybe, although I'm not sure about the cables or...whatever they're called.

VickiA said:
How about one of those shed or greenhouse heaters that look like a pole. My mum and dad used to use one in an external building and it was quite efficient.

Dimplex ECOT1FT Wall-Mounted Tubular Heater 40W 408 x 81mm
Click to expand...

Do they need to be hung, or can they stand somewhat freely, do you know?
 
I'm not sure about that specific model but I've seen similar tube heaters with little feet that can sit on the floor. You can also get guards to put on them to stop anything coming in contact with the heating surface.
 
Here is one that has little feet and I'm sure I've seen these screwed to a board to give them stability but still allow them to be portable. There are mesh guards being advertised on the same page.
 
It's hard to tell in the photo, but there's a small ledge along the wall on the long side of the cage. I think it's waste water pipes, or something similar anyway, I think the bathroom used to be bigger than it currently is and they've kept the pipes and just covered it. Thing is if I could find something that will just "sit", that might be the place to do it. Means I don't have to worry about accidentally knocking it over, for a start.
 
I reckon if you measure carefully you could get one to go along the wall but on the floor to the right of the boys cage - it would plug in ok and be away from the boys - those type of greenhouse heaters get hot but I think you can hand touch them so not boiling hot and the boys couldn’t get to it. Also it would heat where you want it as heat rises( and you don’t need to heat the ceiling )be out of the way. Could be worth thinking about
 
Or if that waste water pipe enclosure is wood you could fix a heater to that being mindful of the pipe underneath 😬
 
That's a good point actually. How far would it have to be set from the cage? The base is just tarp.
 
I was just trying to find that out …apparently some have a cut off at 15C so that wouldn’t be of use
 
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