As autumn progresses, we are watching the thermometer with interest to see how the house responds to the falling temperature outside.
During September (with no heating on) the thermometer fell gradually from 23 degrees C to 20.5 degrees C. And there it has remained without any fluctuation during the whole of October. I started to think there was something wrong with the thermometer so took the thermometer reading 22 degrees C in the attic and put it in the kitchen - where it continued to read 22 degrees C for some time (days / weeks).
As the house depends mainly on its occupants and our cooking / showers / use of electrical items etc. to keep it warm, we thought that going away for 6 days at the end of October would have a significant effect. But no, on opening the front door it was much as before. The second thermometer is reading 19 degrees C, and the first thermometer still says 20.5 degrees C. Either way, if the house needs no heating in October to stay at 20 degrees C give or take 1 degree, I'm happy with that!
The heat stored in the brickwork is acting like a storage heater and keeping the air temperature up at around 20 degrees C. At some point we will have to put the heating on to prevent the temperature from dropping below this - but when?
The other nice thing about coming home to this house is the air quality - we leave the ventilation system on a low setting so there is a constant trickle of fresh air coming in. When we get home after a holiday, it doesn't smell as if it has been shut up for a week. (Before the refurb, it was very noticeable on returning from holidays that the house had not been ventilated adequately while we were away.)
