Vents in walls? Draft/cold problems Help and information on all topics relating to your central heating, air conditioning and ventilation issues.

[davsas]

Hi,
i have seen other posts that mentions these, but dont really answer my question.

I have a 3 bed house, which has cavity walls, in all rooms there are fixed grills which are in side and out.

We have 2 problems with the house, first the house is very cold, the heating cant even the house to full temp, i set the thermostat to 30 degrees, but the house will never go above 21 degrees.

Also, the walls are very cold, some so cold that they have wet on them in the mornings, and when i painted them, it took over a week for the cold bits of the wall to dry!

Second, is the is always a draft in the house, i have tracted this down to the vents. The ones in the main room are not too bad, but there is one in the gas cupboard that when you put your hand in fromt of it, is just like being out side.

So, can i fill these vents/holes in the gas cupboard, or will it cause problems, and im looking at getting the cavity filled, will this stop the cold walls?

thanks in advance for your help.

[Perry525]

Lets start by saying that whoever designed your house was mad.
The vents fitted high on the walls let all the warm air out and, let cold air in.
People just do not need that amount of ventilation!
They certainly do not need the horrendous heating bills implied by your blog.
OK, so we need to breath, but not that much.
The classic recommendation is that the total air in a house should be replaced every two hours but, that takes no account of the number of people in the house, the size of house and what they are doing.
I am in the room of around 216 cubic metres sitting down doing very little, there could be sixty in here dancing needing a lot of ventilation.
With the windows sealed and doors closed there is zero ventilation but it will take me a long time to use up the oxygen in here.
I would suggest blocking all but one vent on both sides to reduce ventilation/heat loss.
You can monitor the conditions in the rooms to ensure the remaining ventilation is adequate, to remove smells and avoid condensation.
Check out my blog in damp/condensation.