Keeping Houses Warm

I'm trying to think of ways we can keep our house (and especially our bedroom as its the coldest room in the house) warm. And I'm looking for more ideas if anyone has any...

We were looking at a heat pump last year but it was just out of our budget range. So we will probably get that done in a couple of years most likely.

In the mean time we have a gas heater (built in one) in the living room and one up the hallway. We don't use the hallway one as it doesn't have a flue (however that is spelt) so it stinks something fierce if you use it. So the living room one is on low pretty much all day now and it keeps the living area (lounge, dining and kitchen) warm but the rest of the house is freezing.

We only have insul fluff crap in the ceiling which is probably half our problem as it basically does nothing to keep the heat in. So we are in the process of getting pink batts in the ceiling. We are buying it a bale at a time as we can't afford the cost of getting it all at once.

Daniels room has a small oil heater which is on low all day which keeps his room at about 15-16 degrees which isn't too bad. He has lots of nice blankies which he loves so he's snuggly.

I've replaced all the curtains to ones that have thermal backing. We also have black out shades behind the curtains (the roll down ones) which is good as its an extra layer to keep heat in the bedrooms.

We have a dvs system in the ceiling but honestly notice no difference if its on or not. Last winter we did a test of keeping it on for a week and then turning it off for a week. It was exactly the same temp wise in our house

Even with all this half the house is cold and I'm sick of it.

I can't have the gas heater on full all day because its freaking expensive and will only add moisture to the air.

What else can I do?

(sorry thats really long lol)

Night store heaters :) We have one of those in our hallway.
I use a combination of my gas heater and my fireplace.

i would contact the dvs people and talk to them about it. my sister got one and noticed no difference either so rang them and they came out and found a problem...and now it works properly...

Yeah we are looking at getting one of those wall heaters for each of the bedrooms. They are by econoheat if you want to look them up. The other thing would be to look at underfloor insulation (depending on the type of house you have) we couldn't afford to do it all at once but DH spent the last 2 winters buying a $100 worth and doing bits here and there and now all the bedrooms and the bathroom and hallway are done and its made a huge difference to the back of the house.
I would also get DVS to come and have a look at the system and see what is wrong with it as it should make a difference.

They are about $180 to buy and really cheap to run.
The DVS system should dry your house out which would make your gas heater work more efficiently though even if your roof space is cold.

I do know DVS can put a heater in your ceiling space which can be pushed thru to the rooms when its on - not too sure if it works or how good it is though

I think there's a site, Better Homes, or the EECA (I think) that have subsidies available for homes older than 1970 and more subsidies available if you have certain income levels, a CSC and certain medical conditions affected by cold/damp conditions - they may be able to help you out with the cost of the insulation? Our house has insulation in the roof that isn't laid properly and that's it, and we have our freestanding gas heater on high at night with the whole house shut off except the lounge and bedroom, just to get it to a livable temperature. We run a dehumidifier 24/7 to deal with the moisture - we get about 10L per day.

If you have wooden windows, buy some sealing foam from Bunnings and tape it around the windows (you can't see it). We did that and its made a huge difference to heat escaping and cold air coming in.

When you use your gas, put a bowl of water out. It traps the smell if your worried about it.

Most places have subsidies, but a lot of low-income families don't qualify, you actually have to basically live on a benefit to qualify

We got ours all for free cause Josh has a CSC and hes still dependant on us. you can get up to 40% subsidy if not. Does anyone have allergies in your family? that helps too.

What kind of roof do you have? Tin or Tiles? Is there building paper up there as well as the batts? Building paper can make a huge difference. I'd get the DVS looked at, we didn't notice any difference when we got one in our old house, and they came and did something with it and changed the filter and it made a huge difference.