Knocking the chill off..........

It almost certainly isn't - trouble is, there is nowhere physically available to mount another radiator. Since we got Hive installed, we run the heating to various thermostat settings depending on time of day etc, and this has helped as the house never gets properly cold anymore (it used to be heating on a timer only), but this problem with the cold in the kitchen remains.

 

That would obscure either the light switches on one side, or part of the living room on the other - if into the kitchen, it would foul the fridge; the variance in height between the two floors would also be a problem I think. Nice looking door, but I seriously doubt it would work in this awkward shaped, and somewhat snug, place. Don't be fooled by my drawing - this isn't a large property.

 

I doubt it would be an issue - we would have to ask, but our landlady is about the best you could ask for, and I think we are viewed in a similar light by her as we look after the place as if it were our own. The sticking point would be where the extra rad would go as there is nil free wall space.

Not tried one, but not adverse to doing so - my understanding of them is that they are radiant heat only, so they heat you as oppposed to the room? I imagine that placing one of them in the kitchen would have the same downsides that we had with the oil filled rad last year (suffice to say that if you swung a cat in my kitchen you would hit every wall!)

My concern with the tubular heaters is that there isn't enough headroom for them under the cupboards? I know they don't get all that hot, but any amount of heat in an enclosed area with combustible materials....... I am many things, but unsafe is not one of them.

I am now wondering about a ceramic heater - put it on the wall between the living room and the kitchen (on the left as you go from the living room into the kitchen), and then run a long extension cable inside conduit to make it look tidier? These heaters are most often less than 1kw so we are well within the safe zone for extension cables, particularly as it would be hidden away so there would be no change of anything else ever being plugged into it?

 

It might be suitable for a central heating rad, but it would have to be virtually flat to avoid problems with the door. I also have no idea how we would get the central heating pipes across to that wall, as they come down on the other side of the kitchen behind the fridge. Thinking more about putting a heater there, I am not so sure that it would resolve the problem, as the cold draught comes through at floor level, so whilst I might get a warmer kitchen, there will still be a draught there.

There is a plinth heater on the cupboard next to the fridge - it works, but hasn't been used in years, and is one of those fan style heaters that take it as their personal aim in life to run away with your electric bill.

I wonder if I could run a loop of central heating pipes along the back of the cuboards, simply for the pipes to radiate a bit of heat? they wouldn't even have to be copper, poly would do as they would never be seen?

 

On the right hand side as you walk into the kitchen, there is two central heating pipes that run down through the ceiling to almost floor level, before going through the wall to feed the radiator on the other side - on the sketch below, the blue arrow shows where the pipes run, and the red oblong on the other side of the wall represents the radiator.



Funny enough, as you were posting I was looking at finned pipe, but the cost is pretty horrendous - and I am not sure that it wouldn't be overkill, as I am not looking to actually 'heat' the room, rather to merely warm up the air that is below the cupboards a bit so that it is not cold.

I am wondering if I snaked a loop of poly pipe under the cabinets and tapped into the flow and return pipes for that rad, if that would be enough? Of course, the question is, would that loop fill & flow if installed in a parallel fashion? (thinking of it as an electrical circuit)

 

Smoke matches is a good idea @ricky101, thanks - I must admit I hadn't thought of them to help me find where the draught is coming from.

I have had another look this morning, and one of the cuboards does have a back to it (doh!) so I cannot see behind it at all. We will be having a new kitchen tap installed shortly - one of those tap come shower type thingys that you can use to spray stuff off - that is going to require us to be clearing out the cupboards around the sink, so a perfect opportunity to clear a bit more and see if we can't find the source with some smoke matches. Our water meter is outside, but only just, and I am pretty sure that the pipe after the meter to the house runs inside some sort of conduit or pipe - I am tempted to drop a smoke match into its cavity and see if it makes its way into the house....

I have solved the hole around the drain last year with the expanding foam - apparently Bodgit and Scarper installed the drain pipe as it had J-cloths stuffed into the hole around the pipe. Gut feeling with me says water pipes, maybe gas, but more likely to be water? The dishwasher is ported into the U-bend for the sink, and the washing machine lives in our outhouse which is on the other side of the alley by the back door, so I know for sure that there is only one drain going out

The walls are cavity walls, but are not plasterboarded - it is simply plaster on brick on the inside skin, and the cavity 'should' be full of insulation material as it was done only a few years back.

Ceiling fan would be a non-starter as the ceilings in this house are remarkably low (I can easily touch them just standing up); don't fancy a quick hair cut whilst I am making tea