My house is 8 degrees. 8 degrees

[Bonecold]

Heating oil ran out yesterday. I have £200 in the savings pot with boiler juice. For a minimum order I need 500 litres which is £468.

So I’ve left the heating off until either the price per litre drops, the weather gets better, or my savings pot reaches the amount needed to do an order (£65 DD a month).

In the meantime I have a fire place so I can heat one room (but no wood so have to outlay for that).

I can’t work out if I should:

a) remove the £200 from the savings account and spend it on wood/coal to get through to warmer weather. Pro - would be warm now, Con - even further away from filling the tank

b) heat one room with wood, live near a wood so could scavenge enough wood weekly to do this?

c) plug in electric radiator. Pro: heat, con: eats electricity

D) small loan for £300/400 and top up oil. Pro: heat, con: small loans have huge interest and would be another bill each month

I’m at work all day and kids at school usually so it’s not like we would be freezing all day and can boil water for cooking and have electric shower for washing. But it’s Easter holidays here so they’ll be home for the next two weeks now

What would you do?

I really feel for you OP. I’m trying to keep the heating off as much as possible but it’s really bloody cold at the moment!

Keep a lookout for skips: often lots of pallets, pine offcuts etc which are great for burning. My BIL is an expert Womble, they have 2 burners and rarely buy wood.

And I can’t believe it’s got to page 2 and no one’s advised you to get your beer jacket on 😂 Couple of glasses of wine and you won’t feel a thing!

Isn't the Landlord going to get shafted by renting out a property will an EPC rating thingy beneath a certain level?

I have oil and have found a nearby garage that sells it. We have 10 gallon oil cans for when we are skint. Is there one around your area you could get to?

EPC is the lowest allowed in order to rent. He replaced the windows when the new legislation came out and changed some lightbulbs to get to the minimum allowed level

Every gap in the door or brickwork has been stuffed or sealed over by me

Also if you are cooking in the oven, leave the oven door open once you have turned it all off so any heat comes into the room

You don’t need to drive around you can just Google it op, find a local supplier and drive and pick up a canister?

8° outside when you are moving about isn’t so bad. But it’s a very different thing when you are sat inside.

@Patented

Hm, it doesn't sound too cold to me, but I appreciate that's not helpful. Jumpers and hats?

An indoor temperature of 8° is cold, that's not in question

Make sure all windows that get sunlight are not covered by blinds or curtains at all on sunnier days. The back of our house is south facing and even today it's been very warm sitting near a window, whereas the rooms at the front have been uncomfortably cold.

Beer jacket you say? Does Jack Daniels work?

@Bonecold
Well done on the wood.
Reminds me of Withnail and I in Uncle Monty’s cottage.
I have a Whippet lying along my back, on the sofa,
But she needs fuelling with chicken.

Open fires waste a lot of heat- stoves are much less wasteful
My boiler broke down about 10 yrs ago in snow-
I chopped skip wood up but cold houses are grim.
Breath pluming as one speaks or an animal yawns-

No fun.

Do any of your local garages sell home heating oil by the litre? In Northern Ireland they sell it by the litre! Can't remember the times hubby has took a petrol can to the garage to buy 10 litres at a time (that was all he could lift up to pour in the tank) we've survived many a week doing this!

Urgh I thought legislation was changing again but I guess not

Presumably moving elsewhere won't be cheaper once you factor in heating costs? Not that helps in the short term.

The electric plug in throws are absolutely amazing and pence to run so perhaps £50 in one of those to help?

@SoupDragon

Completely irrelevant, but you have the same thermostat as me. 😂

Yes, I do too. I love it.

When I was younger we lived in a house with no heating for two years, I don’t envy you one bit as I remember how bitter it can be in the winter

I’d go with the electric heater, maybe one of those cheap electric fan heaters if possible. They do guzzle electricity but if you all get in one room and keep the door shut you can put it on for 10 minutes then turn it off and the heat retains quite well?
Otherwise it’s all jumpers and double-socks. Oodies or something similar would probably be good too.

I find keeping your feet warm really makes such a difference too.
Also long-sleeve thermals can help, those black ones you get, just anything ‘heat-tec’ish. Decathlon sells them for £6 each or I think supermarkets do them?

I hope for everyone’s sake the weather warms up a bit soon!

I'm sure you've thought of this but chuck any extra boiled water in a flask so you can have more hot drinks/washing up water without worrying about spending more.

@MissyB1

This reminds me of my childhood in the 1970s - and not in a good way. Why oh why have we gone back in time

The tories

@SoupDragon

Completely irrelevant, but you have the same thermostat as me. 😂

Me too. And I'm so cold at 11 degrees. I have a log burner in the living room so that's quite toasty but going to the loo or kitchen involves the 'corridor of cold'.

I like being cold at night but snuggled under many layers of covers. But I can see showers will be few and far between until spring comes.

An £80 load of dried wood used to last me a whole winter for the woodburner so I'd do that. It's nearly summer. You'll be fine.

So sorry your going through this op. Have you got an energy charity or trust in your area. I have heard of them providing emergency heat in this scenario and funding it i really hope you get sorted

I’m not sure the tories are to blame for Russia invading the Ukraine. That’s a bit of a stretch

@Bonecold

It’s single brick so can’t do cavity wall insulation.

Single skin- Far from ideal. So many old houses in UK are expensive to heat.

Have you loft insulation?
I had a top up of loft insulation and it did make a difference-
The house stayed warmer for longer.

Your landlord
Ought to insulate your loft, if there is one.

@BowerOfBramble

I'm sure you've thought of this but chuck any extra boiled water in a flask so you can have more hot drinks/washing up water without worrying about spending more.

Thank you, great tip. I'm trying to stretch the last of my oil as can't afford the minimum and I don't know why I hadn't thought of this, I even have a flask but just hadn't thought it it before your post!

@Laptopsandmouses

I’m not sure the tories are to blame for Russia invading the Ukraine. That’s a bit of a stretch

The Tories could have issued a windfall tax on the wealthy producers of energy- But nope. Look after the uber wealthy and let the poorer freeze and starve.

Definitely the being cold! People have lived with real fires basically forever and so long as you have proper chimney and ventilation (and quite frankly it sounds like the whole house is ventilation) it's not going to do anyone any harm esp in the short term.

I agree that the open fire is the priority now but that's not to deny the truth about air pollution:

In the UK, the single biggest source of this type of air pollution is domestic coal and wood-burning, which accounts for almost 40 per cent of the UK’s background levels of PM2.5.
This presents a major public health challenge.

www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2020/march/open-fires-wood-burners-bad-health

Whenever our oil ran out which used to have to get an engineer to bleed the boiler to get rid of air bubbles before we could start it again.
There were also local official oil schemes where the residents would join and all get small amounts of oil on the same day.
Also try another oil company. We never had a 500 L limit