How to stay warm?!

[BumbleNova]

I need your tips! We moved into our new house in September. It's a victorian detached that we bought planning a full refurb. It's not been touched in 40 years and it's a ice box. There is no heating at all in the toilets ...

We have a toddler and a newborn. There is central heating (25 year old boiler!) but it only comes on for 2 hours a day and we can't change that. It's got single glazing, high ceilings and threadbare carpets. Because of being in tier 4 we can't escape anywhere and warm up for a bit.

I'm sat here in 3 jumpers, 3 pairs of socks and the baby has his pramsuit on. Breastfeeding is brutally cold. It's around 17 degrees and the house seems to get colder day on day when the weather is this cold.

Double glazing is booked, fingers crossed next few weeks. We are planning to replace the boiler with an air source heat pump so no point just getting a new one or we would!

Get that film that you stick over the windows, put a hairdryer on it and it acts like cheapie double glazing. We put some over a single glazed bay so you couldn't open the windows but it cut the draughts down. Also floor to ceiling thick wool curtains lined were cheaper and quicker than double glazing. Swish tracks cut draughts better than rails. Foil behind radiators. Curtains over doors.

Bubble wrap on the windows for now? The big bubbles. Cut to size, spritz the window with water and clag them on bubble size first. Tin foil behind the radiators.

You can get little heaters that plug straight into a plug socket for smaller rooms, Wilkinson's are selling them. I think I'd suck up the cost and get some electric or oil filled heaters for now. Or even the calor gas type.

Sounds brutal and miserable!

Oil filled radiators. Aldi have them in for £30 or you can buy online. They're cheap to run if you only use the fan function when you need a blast. Keep them on all the time to maintain a more reasonable temp. Obviously they're boiling hot so you'd need to be confident your toddler isn't going to touch them.

Hot drinks as often as possible.

And I can't recommend heated throws enough! They'll make a huge difference- especially if you get a few. Heat the sofa before you sit down then cover yourselves with them when you're sitting down. You could probably use them when breastfeeding too as long as baby doesn't overheat underneath!
You can use them to heat the bed up too!

Also, wheat bags if you have a microwave. They can help to warm feet and hands really quickly and last a while.

Yy to bubble wrap or that hairdryer on stuff on windows, covering the frame as that's where the drafts get in.

The bubble wrap will work but if you want to see out the window there are kits available with window sized plastic film and double sided tape that you then heat with a hairdryer to shrink out the wrinkles. Will help a bit - we used them in Canada on 1960s double glazed picture windows before quadruple glazing was installed.

My teens love their Oodie copies from Amazon/EBay much warmer than a dressing gown.

@BumbleNova

Been there!
Thick frost flowers on inside of windows.
And these 19th cent houses were semis..
Detached is even colder.

Roof insulation makes a huge difference.
Have you a log burner?
This was bliss and a game changer.

A New Age traveller said
“ Your house is bloody freezing!..get a log burner “

I bought an antique one that is still going strong.. it takes smokeless fuel and logs.

Victorian and older houses are like Ice boxes..

The houses of my childhood were icy cold.. apart from sitting room.

An electric blower is expensive to run, but might make BF more cozy.

Lots of merino wool and silk thermal undies.
My house is warm now with double glazing and roof insulation..

Enjoy the peace of a lovely detached house!

Is the kitchen big enough to live in - ie. sit around in as well as eat for a short while while it is really cold? if so, having the oven on and cooking will keep it warm.

When we got desperate in our drafty rented flat i stuck bubble wrap over the worst window. It stopped the draft and the air pockets help to insulate. It got us through the winter before we moved out x

@MenaiMna

The bubble wrap will work but if you want to see out the window there are kits available with window sized plastic film and double sided tape that you then heat with a hairdryer to shrink out the wrinkles. Will help a bit - we used them in Canada on 1960s double glazed picture windows before quadruple glazing was installed.

Oh yuck! I did those.. they leave sticky marks on the wooden frames but stop draughty.

What type of heaters would work best?

Oil filled radiators very effective at earning a whole room and most economical of the electric heaters.

Can you reduce the amount of rooms you use temporarily so you’re not having to heat the whole house? Keep doors shut to the unused ones and put door curtains over them to keep our drafts.

Infra red heaters are much more affective and economical than alternatives. They give out a nicer heat than the oil filled ones imho.

Hats and layers too. Early nights.

I have weird shaped windows. I ended up shoving curtain lining inside a couple of double duvet covers and sewing heading tape on. It made a difference and they fit perfectly.

Mind you, duvet covers don't seem to be as cheap as they were, and it may not suit you, but it really helped me. They work as door curtains as well, with a draught excluder.

Playpen for the toddler? Leaving the doors shut makes such a big difference. Draft excluders for the bottom of the door too. A rolled up old towel will do.

Check local Facebook pages for people selling second hand fan heaters or oil filled radiator. If you sit next to one it keeps you warmer than if it's just in the room with you.

Your main problem will be the high ceilings, all the heat will go up there. Are the bedroom ceilings any lower? Might be worth turning a bedroom into a bedsit temporarily with added kettle, fridge, microwave, toaster and sofa. Especially if you can get some insulation for the loft to stop the heat going out. Fridge and microwave gives off heat too, which helps keep the room warm.

Wrap yourselves up in blankets or duvets and hot water bottle. Also put hot water bottles in the bed half hour before you go to sleep, one top and one bottom for each person. Wear hoodies or hats, humans lose a lot of heat from their heads.

Accept you're going to be cold in the bathroom and have the quickest shower you can then drip back into the warm room to get dried and dressed. Blow dry your hair.

The unexplained extra cold room could have a damp problem. Properties with damp problems always feel cold to me. You might not see or smell anything until the weather warms up or you get heating, because it needs warm and damp for mould to grow. I'm not a building expert, only guessing.

The cling film stuff on windows, heated throws, electric blanket, draught stoppers against external doors.

I assume you have fireplaces - is there cold air coming in through those? We shoved big wadges of insulation stuff into ours as a temporary measure to block draughts.

Also, if you're renovating, are there any cracks in window seals or door frames that you could just fill with expanding foam for now to stop more cold air from getting in?

Could you put heavy curtains over your windows l had single pane windows in my first house and my dad but duct tape around my window frames to get through my first winter in my house. I didn’t open a window inside my house was colder than outside.

There’s a thread in classics called No More Cold Mumsnetters!

Will dig out the link

Can you put the oven on for a bit and then open the door to let the heat out into the room as a temporary measure? we always leave the door open on ours when we've finished cooking and it does warm up the room

Sorry I can’t do links as on my phone but a search for that thread title will dredge it up

@KoolKaren

Let your husband smash your back doors 😏

If you have a bath, have long, deep, hot, baths with the baby. You can breastfeed there too if needed. The room will be warm and babies love it. I continued for years. When older they can play with a tea-set with you in the bath too. Only stopped when pregnant with my third as we couldn’t all get in the bath with my bump.

Oil free heaters are better than oil ones IME, they heat up a lot quicker

Heat the room below the bedroom you'll sleep in. Everyone sleep in the same room.

Windows: exclude all draughts. Bubble wrap, the plastic shrink wrap, heavy curtains. Hell, even duct tape up the gaps etc.

Doors. Heavy curtains and draught excluder.

Heated throws, hot water bottles (with covers and not too hot because of dc), blankets.

Get an electric heater.

Get heat holder socks or slippers. Layers. Wrist warmers, leg warmers.

Bedroom. Do the same to the windows and doors as down stairs. Layer up blankets on the beds. Put hot water bottles in the bed an hour before using them.

Bloody miserable being cold op. Hope you find something that helps