Cutting down on using heating

It's been tried before, and is a dangerous plaster. Most popular insulating materials are carcinogenic, and PIR is horribly toxic and a nightmare on fire. Even though it's a good insulator. We'd be better to build new housing estates using innovative methods, and put to bed old housing stock. We could probably recycle these, into slabs and block work. Certainly scope for national plans and job creation. You can 3d print housing, this could use a geo-polymer using material from existing housing. But finishing at the moment still requires human labour. Plenty of scope for prefabs though.

But you still had some heating as well.
Heat and air is the best way to go. I do morning and evening short bursts, works great. Your dad was spot on with ventilation

We regularly got down to 7 degrees indoors last winter and that wasn't out of choice. Mainly because our heating system is so old, furred up and the pump / system is knackered. I could £25 on gas snd it would still be at 15 degrees.

Better use of money is on fixing up the house to stay warm but you need money to fix stuff too. Maybe using less gas is a luxury a lot of us can't afford. Not being snidey as I do agree with you. I'd just to be in the position to heat my house above 15 this year. I'm asset rich btw so not poor but there's no free cash to pay for gas or fix my house

The mould issue can be addressed with proper and regular ventilation.

I grew up in a house with no central heating we did not have mould as it was properly vetilated (my dad is a demon for opening windows)

The standing charge is a travesty and should be scrapped.

It's the standing charges that cripple people with lower use
I can't cut my heating or electric use any more, usual total use is £3 a day absolute max inc standing charge

First world country life... Yay

I think the government should have a national insulation programme. It would lower household energy bills, go some way towards net zero targets and create jobs installing it. Yes it would need funding, no, I don't have the maths. But I would vote for it.

Depends on what their vulnerability is, doesn't it?

Vulnerable to what, for a start? Disease?

And I am struggling to come up with a vulnerability that prevents you from wearing warmer clothes or using a blanket and hot water bottle in the normal fashion (people who may or may not be "vulnerable" but who have certain disabilities might of course need assistance with dressing, making up the bottle etc)

For PP worried about hands, there are gloves (fingerless?) and wrist warmers, and for the face then masks (the wearing of which is a fantastic way to protect the vulnerable and the aged, though of course that benefit is less likely to accrue within your own home, unless you are in one of the (literally) millions of households which do contain someone who could be categorised like that)

It's a great indicator that most of our housing isn't really fit for purpose. It's totally possible to build a house and use human heat and heat traps to keep it warm.

We have had damp and mould issues in a bathroom that we first attempted to keep warm. When fully ventilated it's not a problem, even if it's freezing cold.

We are just pumping away heat and money to warm up walls that ultimately leak the heat back out in our old property. There is some benefit in terms of heat living in a terrace. Cavity wall insulation can just introduce other problems. Passive houses is where it's at. Most housing is utter junk in the UK.

We wear down jackets and hats indoors in the winter, it’s quite an extreme way to live. I wouldn’t expect others to do the same, but yes don’t have your heating on and wear just a T-shirt, that’s bonkers.

In one fireplace I’ve got a wood burning stove. In DP’s house they’ve got a wood burning stove and in the big front room also a fireplace but no place to put a fire (unless they just lit it).

They do radiate heat throughout the whole house if you leave doors open. But you need to do as we both did recently, get chimney swept.

I can't get away with not heating the house in the winter. It's 300yrs old with solid stone walls and sucks up damp very efficiently. It's all very well saying heat the person not the space, but that's completely impractical in my situation. Instead of individuals being forced to continually penny pinch the fucking tory govt could have invested properly in green energy 13 years ago. By now the UK would be in a far better sustainable and self sufficient position if that had happened.

Being bundled up doesn't help with the hands and face, which are the parts that I struggle with. Last year we kept the thermostat at 18 during the day (it's always off at night) and it was miserable. I've whacked it up to the heady heights of 19 the last couple of days. We live in a 1930s detached house without cavity walls and it can be chilly.
Aren't wood burners really bad pollution-wise?

We couldn't use less if we tried. We live under blankets, and in one room in the winter. Totally punished though with standing charges. Our extravagance is a hot water bottle.

Likewise my Mum lives in her bed for most of the winter. Uses one lamp and a tablet. With just the freezer and fridge on using electric.

@RoseAndRose If a non-vulnerable, not elderly person can cope with those measures during their time in their home, then why can't those who don't fall in to those categories?

You really don't see that there is zero logic to that? There are plenty of things non-vulnerable people can do that vulnerable people can't ... surely you can understand that?

That part was of course because OP was talking about what is happening inside your own home (ie the place where you can think about how much heat you use)

If a non-vulnerable, not elderly person can cope with those measures during their time in their home, then why can't those who don't fall in to those categories?

DC playing indoors should be fine with the bundled up option (the bit before the "or" that you selectively edited out)

Less that last winter? No.
The heating is on for two hours a day when the thermostat says it's cold enough.
Ie: this week it's meant the heating has come on in the morning only.

I'm tempted to add an extra hour of heating. But need to look at the cost.

Has he no option of an open fire/wood burner? DS is rural and has no mains gas, the wood burner makes a big difference.

We don't all have gas heating. Mine is electric. I'm not being cold, plus I have a hamster that would hibernate if it got too cold inside.

If someone's home feels REALLY cold even if temperature shows it shouldn't be that bad, check humidity levels

I'm trying but the cold is bitter and can be painful.

I'm lounging with 3 blankets and a hot water bottle rn, I wonder what January will be like.

Because breathing freezing cold air is so healthy for the elderly and the young and everyone in fact 🙄

@RoseAndRose or be under a blanket, perhaps with a hot water bottle?

How do you go about your day under hot water bottles and blankets? How does a child play?

It simply isn't conducive to normal living to do that other than for an hour or two in the evening.

Poor people already heat their homes so little that it causes damp, mold, condensation and eventually leads to respiratory problems.

I think, because houses were built 30-40 years ago or so that they built them with Central Heating in mind. No fire places for example and no chimneys like older houses.
If I had a chimney I'd be opening it back up and getting wood and coal delivered like when I was kid. We had 2 fire places, one in front room and one in the back room. Dad would set a fire in the back room and the heat would travel up the chimney and radiate heat all through the house. He'd make us keep the upstairs doors open "so the heat can wander around"

These days I can scarce afford to have the central heating on for more than 2-3 hours a day. It costs far more than a bucket or two of coal used too.