its not about heating you home up,its about keeping the heat from escaping

By ‘dot and dab’ I presume you mean the constitution method of sticking the plasterboard to the outside brickwork., often called dry lining.
An expensive method would be to have the outside walls re lined with thermal plasterboard, but not practical as it would be a big undertaking.
I’d look at getting thermal linings for your curtains, making sure there are no gaps around the windows and using draught excluders at the bottom of the doors.
The ceiling should not be covered with anything such as tiles, I doubt if they’re sold now, they were a fire hazard. Carpets with a good quality thick underlay should stop heat escaping and feel warmer.

*construction

insulate the loft/roof space?

My loft is well insulated. I don't have cavity walls, so there is nothing can be done there.
BUT -I do have to have the house re-rendered in the next months. ATM its pebble dash. I have a quote for top spec rendering as the bricks are very porous ones and need to breathe. but is there any additional coating that can be made that's particularly insulating?

We moved into this new development 12 years ago. I quite agree OP. I think that’s why we’re toasty. No heating needed here yet and I’m still walking around barefoot.

we did several things, husband was a structural engineer. One room in a house was single skinned and with an uninsulated floor over a garage. Beyond freezing. He put wall studs up and created an inner skin and we put down a good carpet over floor insulation. Big improvement

Another house was single skin brick, he had another skin put over the outside with an air gap in between. Increased the loft insulation and we eventually bought better carpets

Basic things make a difference, loft insulation, insulating the gaps around doors, even cardboard under a carpet, door curtains, I put clingfilm on windows when we were skint and had metal frames with single glazed windows

I have also seen insulating wallpaper

Like urmstongran, I am very glad that I decided to move into my highly insulated new build three years ago.

Karmalady, if you can find the time, can you tell me a bit more about this, that you wrote?

"Another house was single skin brick, he had another skin put over the outside with an air gap in between"

If you don’t want major construction work (that you probably won’t get your money back on, but would make you warmer) .
Then it’s

Double or triple glazing.
Fraught proofing external doors
Thick underlay and then carpet on floors
Heavy curtains will help
I would think that heavy wallpaper has got to help on the walls,
Don’t touch ceilings as you have loft insulation.
Leave heating on low 24 hours a day and boost when necessary.

No steps are ‘cheap’ but they will make your life more comfortable.

And of course wear layers of warm clothing and keep moving about, go out each day to warm places, garden centres are good to wander around in and get a cheap cup of tea. Or just a brisk walk.

wyllow that was 1982, the house was single skin and rendered and was bitterly cold with damp on the main bedroom wall ie rain had penetrated that wall. It is difficult to remember all the details and I do remember that it was not cheap

I found this site, explains well what we had done

energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/solid-wall-insulation/

one house was double skinned and had a cavity wall, that was when many were getting foam pumped in which went hard and later caused its own damp problems. We had foam granules blown in as they could be sucked out if there had been problems

We had our roof insulated and the outside rendered, some ot was pebble dash and it wasn’t that cheap but definitely worth it. Had a chap come round with some gadget to check where the heat lose was in our house and the only bit was in the kitchen.

ATM wish I had the problem of heat escaping. Boiler not working so no heat or hot water since Sunday. Worcester Bosch engineer arriving tomorrow between 7.00am and 6.00pm!

If you are going to render, suggest you check out some of the renders from Germany and the Netherlands as there are some fairly new and super-efficient products out there now.
My daughter has done a lot of research and picked one out for her own home.

I’m surprised how much difference floor insulation makes. We have a wood floor (new build) and base has lots of insulation with hardboard floor, then wood on top. Very effective, hard floor not cold or noisy, and room retains heat, but also have wall insulation + double glazing.
I think with older build houses you need expert advice in order not to cause damp/mould problems.

Quokka

ATM wish I had the problem of heat escaping. Boiler not working so no heat or hot water since Sunday. Worcester Bosch engineer arriving tomorrow between 7.00am and 6.00pm!

Call them today towards the end of the day and they will give you a better estimate as their engineers will be allocated (at least that's what I was once told).
Good luck.

karmalady - we lived in a house with a cold kitchen (extension). We had internal wall insulation exactly as described on your link. It lost a few inches of space internally but made such a difference to warmth - also condensation.

omg I am so glad to read that notspaghetti

I think people have to weigh up cost v payback time wrt comfort. Some would want to move before getting the money`s worth and in that case, spend the gov grants on actual heat and basic visible insulation.

EPC is not the whole story as they cannot delve behind walls and into cavities etc. Our last house, purpose built eco house, was designed by energy saving trust in collab with a well known university (prototype small development), yet the moving epc was lower than it really was in fact. If you are going to move then visible accessible insulation is best for epc inspectors

Thank you NotSpag

Check that your loft hatch is also insulated. We were told that you can lose up to 10% of your heat through an uninsulated hatch even if the rest of the loft is insulated.

For most people though, there's only so much you can do to make your existing house as energy efficient as possible. And dare I suggest that if you're struggling to make ends meet and pay your existing energy bills, then you definitely won't have the money to do things like replacing windows or add extra insulation. For many, it's a catch-22 situation.

Dry line your internal walls. We have done this to three of our bedrooms. We got a builder in to line the walls with insulation backed plasterboard. made no end of difference. It was just fixed to the existing wall surface and skimmed over.

It is a job that can be done room by room over several years so that the cost is spread.

You can get foil backed plastic underlay for laminate floors. I see no reason why that should not be put on a floor and carpet underlay and carpet but back on top of it instead of laamonate.

Make sure that any radiators on outside walls have aluminium foil behind them to reflect heat back into the room. You can get rolls of foam backed foil in any DIY store and it is not expensive, and it is easier to handle than kitchen foil. Cut it with scissors and stick it on with double sided sellotape.

Another tip is close the curtains once it gets dark - so many people I know think that because they have double glazing they needn’t bother!

Some very good and apt posts above. I used to have triple glazing in the eco house, was truly effective but now have double glazing and is ok but not that effective. If I was paying to have new then it would be triple glazing every time

Tubes of flannel, filled with rice, for all the window sill and closed exterior doors. Works to keeping cold air outside.