House oriented North-South. How do I warm the northern bedrooms?

I have a cinder block house, oriented North-South. It's 14x50 with a 10-degree lean-to metal roof facing West. I had no control in how it was built. The main bedroom is on the south side and is quite nice in the winter. However, my kids are on the north end and their rooms are ice boxes. So much that they refuse to sleep in there after Thanksgiving. The cinder blocks stay cold no matter how warm the air is inside. How can I transfer some warmth to the other end of such a long building?

This reminds me of heat the person not the space.

Using micro-heaters:

https://permies.com/t/131936/cut-electric-heat-bill-microheaters

https://richsoil.com/electric-heat.jsp

The only other solution I can think of is open the curtain in the afternoon to take advantage of the suns warms.

This is an area I have worked in, I may be able to help.
But I have a lot of questions first.
- Is the floor on a slab or stumps?
- do your windows have pelmets?
- have you sealed all draughts?
- Is the ceiling insulated?
- What heating do you usein the house?
- Could the external walls in those bedrooms have a wardrobe built on them?
- Could those same walls have an insulating blanket fitted to them?
- Can the roof sheets be removed and the insulation improved?

John has asked so great question which the answer might help other folks make some suggestion.

Other than the micro-heaters, sleeping bags made for sub-zero weather might help.

Years ago when I had a newborn, the electricity went out during a snow storm.

I put my toddler son, myself and the newborn in a sleeping bag to stay warm.

In addition of JCDs questions: Do you own the house; how big in the kids’ bedroom; do you have access to the attic?

A basic first step is to hang quilts, heavy lined drapes, or similar on the walls.  

Consider setting a box fan in the doorway of the bedroom blowing into it.

If you do have access to the attic, add insulation above the bedroom. Also consider duct work from a warm Area of the house to the bedroom with a fan to push the warm air.

If you do own the house, and have the funds, the best solution for me would be to add exterior walls around the bedroom with insulation….keeping the concrete block mass inside. This approach is greatly impacted by your roof overhang.

 As a retired designer of passive solar and highly energy efficient homes, remodelings, and additions, I have to commend the posts so far.  This is a smart group ;O).  What i can add is maybe a bit of prioritization.   We don't know what climate you are in......only that it gets cold.  In the long run, insulation on the outside of the block, and in the attic, would be ideal, but interior insulation would be good as well, since thermal mass in that location doesn't really do much that is effective, and might even extend summer overheating, from west wall sun exposure, which might be mitigated with plantings/shading or even sun reflective paint..  For now, you need to make the walls not fell so cold. So, as was already recommended, do what they used to do in stone castles, and hang cloth or blankets over the walls, to present a warmer surface and reduce radiant heat losses from the people and objects in the room.  Raising the average temperatures of the exposed surfaces, is roughly 40% more effective than raising the temperature of the room air.  Of course, seal any noticeable air leaks, too. Then leave the door open and use a box/floor fan to draw cold air out of the room, so that warm air will flow in through the top of the doorway. Having the fan blow out of the room (besides not creating a cooling breeze in the room) will work with the natural air flow instead of again it.  Of course, warmer bedding is always a good thing.  Get the kids involved in figuring out and solving their own problem, too.

Anne Miller wrote:This reminds me of heat the person not the space.

I use an electric mattress warmer. I turn it on about 30 min before I plan on going to bed, and that way I'm getting into a warm bed. I have a wool comforter, so normally I'm fine once the timer runs out at the 1 hour mark, but if I wake up in the night cold, I can always push the button again.

I also make *sure* I pull the covers right down in the morning so that the mattress and blankets "air" or "dry". During our really damp weather, I turn on the dehumidifier and point its outflow at the bed. A dry bed will feel much warmer and warm up much faster. Ecosystem is everything!

I guess a few details are required. I'm in central Utah, at 5,500 ft elevation. I own the house. It was built without a vapor barrier between the foundation and the blocks, much to my dismay. The north wall isn't just cold, it's damp. It was originally built to be a workshop on the family farm. The floor is suspended 2 ft above the ground and is just plywood. There is no attic. The ceiling is 10 ft high. We use a propane furnace right now, but will be installing a mini-split in a couple weeks.

Meran,

Insulating the perimeter of the house would be quite easy - most of new European houses have some rigid insulation attached on the outside and then plastered. It's not elegant as double wythe wall with insulation cavity or using insulative blocks (aerated concrete or Porotherm) but it's easy and cheap.
The more troublesome is the lack of any barrier preventing the water penetration of concrete. Digging under foundation footers and insulating/water proof it a piece at a time is rather not feasible. I think in your case it would be good to at least dig around the perimeter of the foundation, paint it with some waterproofing compound and potentially install drains and fill with gravel.

Meran Moore, that response was great.
- A vapour barrier can be retro installed slowly.
- Underfloor insulation can be aded
- I think the moisture on the northern wall can be stopped with insulation as discussed
- I asked about taking the roof off a sheet at a time to insulate, is that possible?

Christobel, I wonder if instead of scraping out the mortar of each block and relaceing it will a barrier, would something injected into the block itself work?

Just so there are options here...

People have suggested insulating the room and they have suggested more or better blankets. I just want to remind people that there was an in between option that was used for quite a while in history. A 4 post bed with curtains. Some were used for decoration, and some for privacy, but many were used for warmth. It essentially created a small room around the bed as long as it is the kind with a top.

I would suggest the other insulation, barriers, and whatnot too... but this might be a cool in between option in the mean time.

John C Daley wrote:I wonder if instead of scraping out the mortar of each block and relaceing it will a barrier, would something injected into the block itself work?

I have researched it a bit before. Using insulation material in a standard block cavities is almost worthless due to great amount of thermal bridges. 8" block without insulation has R value of 2.0 and with filled cavities around 3.5.

Back in the old days as Matt suggested there are other methods that were used.

A hot water bottle or hot bricks were placed in the bed to warm the bed before folks got into bed.

There were also bed warmers which were metal pans with long handles that were filled with hot rocks.  The pan was slid between two layers of bedding, then bed would be heated thoroughly before folks went to bed.

  Just to expand on Anne's wise suggestion to "heat the person not the space"..........   While more insulative blankets and clothing can work well, it can be bulky, and it can also be nice to have the bed already warmed when you first get into it.   For that, electric bed pads or electric blankets can work well, and can usually be turned off after getting into bed.  

  Back in my young hippy days I had an electric blanket develop a short in the middle of the night, and woke up with the room filled with smoke.  It was a very dangerous situation, though it ended alright after we dragged the smoldering blanket outside where it literally burst into flames on the fence.....an image that I will never forget.  The new ones are fireproofed, but that might not be all that healthy either, so I avoid them.

  As someone who spent a couple of decades in a leaky old, woodstove heated, log home in the north woods.....my favorite bedwarmer (by far) ended up being a recycled two-liter plastic drink bottle, filled with water and heated in the microwave.  The round water bottle can be adjusted closer or further away, for how much, or where, the heat needs to go.  They really work exceptionally well, with enough heat for all night.  Years back, I ran some big Yahoo Groups on sustainable living, and a lot of those people ended up using two-liter bottles as bedwarmers too, and even lowering their thermostats at night.  Try it!  It really works well.   Just carefully monitor at first, to figure out how long the bottle needs to be in the microwave.  Now, they even sell stuffed animals with water inside, to warm in the microwave.

I think pretty much all the relevant good advice has already been given. As for the summer sun overheating question, how much does that happen in your location? I expect at 5500' in Utah, the nights get cool year round. If you do not get serious hot weather in summer, I would add rigid insulation and siding/plaster to the outside.

Drainage and water diversion, especially on the low side of the roof, may give enough relief from moisture wicking... I would try that before trying to cut moisture breaks into the existing block walls. Expose and waterproof the outside of the foundation. A gutter leading all roof runoff far away downhill would be important, as well as sloping the ground away from the base of the walls for at least three feet in all directions, and making a swale if necessary. Is your subsoil clayey or sandy? How damp is the ground surface under the floor? 2' is not much, but possible to access, and a vapor barrier can make a big difference.