My heating was on for two hours yesterday…

[AchillesLastStand]

My heating was on for two hours yesterday, on in the morning for an hour and in the evening. We had one bath yesterday which the boiler heats the water for. We shared the same water. I logged onto Bulb to see the energy costs for yesterday, £4.50 for gas, £3.50 for electricity. It’s unsustainable if it goes up again in October. My 8 year old DS is under his bedcovers with his tablet because the heating has had to go off.

Your landline phone charger, electric toothbrush charger, fridge freezer.....etc etc...you will be surprised...try to ensure all is off at the plug and nothing left on stand by.....x

Yep, DP and I have decided to use our battery packs to charge our phones at home, I think they have around 15 hours of charge in each, so we'll charge them at work and then use them to charge our phones when at home. Small things! lol

Small things ... make fuck all difference! Pennies per month.

It's unlikely that the money you save in electricity will pay for the shortened life of your battery packs

Hrm I'm not convinced, sorry. Buildings with no eaves, cavities or proper foundations do not do well in the British climate, without fairly careful regulated ambient heat and proper ventilation. Victorians and the next few generations didn't do this as you say and tended to have just one fire and the rest of the building cold. That exacerbated their damp tendencies, over decades, hence the problems we have now.

The thing is - many people won't be affected by this. They won't be affected by the cost of living crisis. Yes, they will see bills go up, but a lot of people will be able to afford this as they are reasonably well off.

If people vote for their own interests, then they will not vote for parties that damage their own interests. Even if it could be in their own interest as we are all inter connected.

@Flipflopssndsocks

It’s mad. I don’t have a smart meter so have a book to record usage so I can work cost out. It’s scary. Dh can’t work due to ill health and go back to standard variable mortgage rate soon as well. Struggling to remortgage due to missing dogs income and price rises so I don’t want to think about October!

@Flipflopssndsocks If you stay with your current lender and as long as you aren't looking for any additional borrowing then you will be able to switch on to one of their deals without your income being taken into account.

I think your being a bit disingenuous there, Victorian property was built to have a fire going in the fireplace at all times, that kept them warm and kept the damp away, those buildings are now being used in a way they were not intended to be used, i.e no fire crackling away at one side of the building with the heat emanating up the chimney wall.

Disingenuous to think the victorians considered proper damp proofing when homes were built. That fire might have kept one wall dry but damp was as much of a problem in the Victorian era than it was now.

Re the water table question no I'm not in London and no one in the street had a basement. We just lived in old houses with poor foundations in an area with high building density, no gardens (think rows and rows of old terraces with tiny yards) so no drainage and over time the water table got to be a problem.

@RewildingAmbridge

I went down to the kitchen at seven this morning, boiled the kettle, the smart meter already showed £1.65 and there wasn't a light or electrical device in in the house, the heating wasn't on, the hot water had been on for half an hour (gas boiler not immersion)

Is it standing charges?

The thing is that there is a middle ground between the ‘when I was a kid we had no heating’ and and acceptable standard of living.

Look at any last thread on here about what temperature people set their thermostat on and you’ll see so many people saying 22° or above. When it was the January lock down I did FaceTime calls to a lot of families. I was there in a big jumper with a blanket on my knee and they were in strappy tops.

No one wants to go back to the old days of ice on the inside of the window but we do need to get used to 18° being an acceptable temperature again.

@MrMrsJones

When I was a kid, we only had heating in the lounge.

People have got too comfortable with hot houses

Oh don't be so fucking ridiculous.

If people vote for their own interests, then they will not vote for parties that damage their own interests. Even if it could be in their own interest as we are all inter connected.

Problem is, there aren’t really many voting options that will protect those who really need it. Labour aren’t making any real alternative suggestions either.

18 degrees is the absolute bare minimum temperature under which people experience physiological effects such as changes to blood pressure and mental acuity. It has never been an "acceptable" long term environment.

Some of the comments on here are really interesting. There seems to be a presumption that the standard of living will just keep getting better and better, without any blips we need to limit this way of thinking. For years now Mumsnet has been full of posts about how people would die if they had to turn their thermostat below 25 and they don’t want to have to wear a jumper in the house. Sod the environment.

Growing up Our house was cold in the winter, I had no radiator in my room and the single paned window had a crack in it. We all spent most of the time in the front room with the gas fire on. It was fine, we all sat together and watched the same tv or read. Homework was also done in that room.

The situation is as it is, people just need to adapt, it will undoubtedly change again.

If people are struggling to heat one room in the house then that needs some financial assistance. But if the problem is not being able to have every room in the house at 21 degrees, whilst everyone uses their separate charges/tvs etc then it is the behaviour that will have to change

@BoredZelda

I think your being a bit disingenuous there, Victorian property was built to have a fire going in the fireplace at all times, that kept them warm and kept the damp away, those buildings are now being used in a way they were not intended to be used, i.e no fire crackling away at one side of the building with the heat emanating up the chimney wall.

Disingenuous to think the victorians considered proper damp proofing when homes were built. That fire might have kept one wall dry but damp was as much of a problem in the Victorian era than it was now.

but it would radiate out and the fire would dry out the air anyway.

There are things others countries are doing, building more insulated homes like Germany for example (German homes use a third less heating than us because they are so well insulated) but the government have no interest in doing them until people demand that they do them.
Yes, I've stayed in a lovely German back to back terraced house. Everything so well thought out. Terrace at right angles to the street so the front of the houses faced a path and front gardens/patio that was fairly private. Huge, almost floor to ceiling, living room window that let in natural light but with an automatic external roller shutter to keep it warm after dark. Very warm because it was a back to back terrace and properly insulated.

We rarely had any money for heating either when I was a kid. It was fucking miserable, house full of damp and mould. Going to bed before dinner time just to try to get warm under the duvet. I wouldn't subject any child to that existence.

Ours has been on for over 5hrs a day for the last week but it's an old house with a wooden floor over a void, so gets cold fast 😫

@ToothGrinder

18 degrees is the absolute bare minimum temperature under which people experience physiological effects such as changes to blood pressure and mental acuity. It has never been an "acceptable" long term environment.

In the winter my house is rarely above 18°. My mental acuity is fine thanks.

@VelvetChairGirl nah, those houses were damp. Mostly they've just carried on being damp. It's not a new thing. They weren't well designed.

In the winter my house is rarely above 18°. My mental acuity is fine thanks

I smoke 10 cigarettes a day and I haven't got cancer so smoking and cancer aren't related?

@cakeorwine

In the winter my house is rarely above 18°. My mental acuity is fine thanks

I smoke 10 cigarettes a day and I haven't got cancer so smoking and cancer aren't related?

Are you seriously arguing that 18° is so cold that you can’t think straight?

[quote ToothGrinder]@VelvetChairGirl nah, those houses were damp. Mostly they've just carried on being damp. It's not a new thing. They weren't well designed.[/quote]
My grandmother lived in a 3 story old house in chiswick (rented), top flour was servants quarters, there was 3 fireplaces on the ground floor in the living room, dining room and kitchen.

her house wasnt cold and damp, except the bathroom that was very cold but then it did have marble flooring which made it very cold and bloody dangerous.

[quote LadyCatStark]@okayigetit bloody hell, don’t admit that on MN! There was a thread recently where some posted were adamant that charging your phone at work amounted to theft!

I don’t understand the smug comments about how cold it was in their day, why would anyone want to be cold when there are alternatives available? It’s a miserable existence.[/quote]
🤣🤣 I knew some people would think that, work expect me to use my personal phone for business reasons so I'll use their power to charge it if I want! Lol

but it would radiate out and the fire would dry out the air anyway.

I’m thinking you aren’t clear on what extremes of heat and cold do to a building.

her house wasnt cold and damp, except the bathroom that was very cold

It was. You just don’t remember.

We live in a new house with an Air Source Heat Pump, we have a woodburner so the heating is very rarely on but everything is electric.
Our bill in March last year was £95 this year it's £290!
I know all the new energy ideas are supposed to save money but I dread to think how much our bill would be withour ASHP but it is still not anywhere near affordable!