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.

@Svara

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.

I wonder if it is partly that our housing stock is older. Though I do agree, we could do so much more with new builds.

Shit. We don't have a smart meter so unsure on exact figures but I had the hearing on for hours yesterday, not so much because of the cold but because we had a liquid spillage on carpet and the clean up left it really wet, was trying to dry it out. God knows what that cost!

@katepilar does your house have ventilation? Is it detached? I have a modern house, well insulated but it also has various vents, fans air bricks etc. When it’s cold here in the UK its generally pretty windy too and it makes a huge difference to the heat loss. I’ve sealed some of the vents but not all as they are there for a reason. No way would my house still be 16.5 degrees with outside temp of 5 degrees with 2 days no heating. We’re an island so there’s always going to be cold winds blowing in the UK 🤷‍♀️
Personally I think we’re just going to have to accept nuclear power, or fracking or unsightly wind farms etc.

@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.

Absolute nonsense. How do you explain the mental acuity of people who work outside in freezing temperatures.

@MyNameIsAngelicaSchuyler

I absolutely agree we need change at the top but people insist on voting for these absolute buffoons 🤷‍♀️

I agree but I have equally little confidence in Labour or anyone else! Who do you suggest I vote for next time?

@VanGoghsDog nobody's electricity that is supplied by the national grid is solely from renewable sources. All power generated in this country is, essentially, pooled, in order to keep the grid running at the right capacity, so your (and everybodys) power is generated by a mixture of gas, wind, solar, wood (or biomass, as they call it) and nuclear. Very little of the power in recent weeks is wind generated because the wind hasn't been blowing much.

@Lillygolightly

Absolutely. It’s terrible for the truly vulnerable. But there is a LOT of wasteful behaviour that’s down to laziness, and appealing to people’s moral compass has not worked at all.

Heating houses to 20+ degrees all year round yet wearing shorts / T-shirts inside
Driving short journeys on a daily basis when walking / cycling is possible
Buying / throwing away cheap fast fashion
Eating meat / fish daily
Multiple Short haul flights

There are so many behaviour that have crept up the last 30+ Years which are cumulatively destroying and depleting the resources we have at an alarming rate. Society is incredibly selfish in so many ways. increasing the costs of these activities is literally the only thing that makes people reassess their behaviour.

I’m sorry but I am absolutely sick to death if the general public being blamed for lacking morals and being selfish!!! No!!! Our shoddy excuse of a government & PM have no bloody morals and are seemingly at the height of their selfishness with lock down parties and their wage increases (apparently they worked hard during the pandemic and so they deserve it…..yeah right!!! Bring your own booze night was just you working late was it!!) while the nation suffers on.

People complain about those who claim all the benefits, those not working, those not contributing and those who are apparently terrible for having kids they can’t afford and all the judgy pants posts and behaviour!! I tell you I’d much much rather pay these people and their kids (they apparently can’t afford to have) a decent standard of living than I would keep allowing the huge corporations to keep tax dodging, underpaying their staff, creating waste and pollution while they take their profits off elsewhere!!

There is absolutely no good moral example set to the people by those who should represent the people like the PM and the government, or those who represent our country and traditions like the monarchy….even that’s a disgrace these days. Then we have these huge influential corporations which are the shining beacon of all you can get away with if only you have enough bloody money!

Our country in 2022 is an utter disgrace that we should have people who work a good hard living who are now having to worry about putting the heating on when it’s cold, who will be choosing over feeding their kids or keeping the house warm….and this is just the bloody start of it!!!

Yeah but we can all just have less kids or better yet no kids and give up our cars (not that will be able to afford to put petrol in them) and give up our holidays abroad (not that we will be able to afford those either) stop eating meat and recycle more and it will supposedly make all the difference whilst these fat cats continue to sit in their warm houses or on their private beaches, with the company jet sat on the tarmac whilst we all worry about turning up the thermostat!!!

I honestly despair if we end up with another Tory government!!!! How can it be HUMANLY possible that they could continue to be in power after all this shit show! HOW!!!

@Lillygolightly 👏 I honestly think that people voting Tory at the next election should be given a cyanide pill when they cast their for vote for when the reality of what they’ve voted for hits home.

@AchillesLastStand that seems so expensive. I pay on average 1.91 per day for gas with Octopus. Two bed terrace I hate being cold so heating on for between 5 - 8 hours per day at least and off over night. I am careful with hot water, 1 or 2 quick showers per day.

@Lillygolightly 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

You have summed up perfectly, exactly what I and a lot of people I know are thinking and feeling at the moment!

[quote disneylover367]@AchillesLastStand that seems so expensive. I pay on average 1.91 per day for gas with Octopus. Two bed terrace I hate being cold so heating on for between 5 - 8 hours per day at least and off over night. I am careful with hot water, 1 or 2 quick showers per day.[/quote]
My gas on 31 March was £2.57. That is about average for us on a fairly cold day with the heating on for a few hours plus use of hot water. We are in a 5 bed detached house though (but we don’t heat all the bedrooms). Yesterday the new tariff kicked in and it was £2 more expensive. I was just reading that Martin Lewis has said that a lot of people are reporting a 77% price increase on their gas usage under the new tariffs yesterday. It’s depressing and makes me dread the winter.

[quote Brownlongearedbat]@VanGoghsDog nobody's electricity that is supplied by the national grid is solely from renewable sources. All power generated in this country is, essentially, pooled, in order to keep the grid running at the right capacity, so your (and everybodys) power is generated by a mixture of gas, wind, solar, wood (or biomass, as they call it) and nuclear. Very little of the power in recent weeks is wind generated because the wind hasn't been blowing much.[/quote]
Yeah, so they basically just lie, don't they?

Is it really that cold where you are? I hate being cold. Where I am in the London area the temperature is not too bad at the moment though very dull. I'm so sorry, this heating crisis has hit so many really hard.

Derxa- about people working outside - don’t outdoor workers have a right to a warm place to use for respite? I’m not sure if that applies in the uk but it does in many places across europe.

MIne's usually in the 11-15 range. At 11C I start to feel a bit shakey so I put loads more layers on. 15 feels positively tropical & I relax.

@newstart1234

Derxa- about people working outside - don’t outdoor workers have a right to a warm place to use for respite? I’m not sure if that applies in the uk but it does in many places across europe.

True but we worked the farm during the Beast from the East. Your wits are sharper during cold temperatures. It just so happens that our central heating was knocked out by burst pipes. We managed with a three bar fire.

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.

Huh? Anything above about 18 degrees and I'm too hot. I can't function above 24 degrees.

NRFT but I suspect that a lot of people don't realise that the daily standing charge for simply having gas and electric come into your home has gone up massively. I'm with Bulb - the daily standing charge has doubled from 51p to 100p a day so £1.We are paying about £1.50-60 a day standing charge. We also pay more for our standing charge than relatives in Manchester. i hadn't realised until very recently that you pay different standing charges depending where you live.

I don't mind prices reflecting the cost of energy and being linked to usage as i think making people aware of how much they use is a good thing from an environmental perspective (and will stop people wasting heat / electricity etc) but I resent the fact that the increase to standing changes stay the same regardless of how much you use (or not).

Sorry that doesn't make sense - the daily standing charge for electric with Bulb has gone up for us from 51p per day to 100p. Gas standing charge has also gone up but not by quite so much.

I also like my heating no more than 18/19 or I get too hot. But I’m almost always moving around at home cleaning, cooking etc. if I was wfh from a desk or couldn’t move much for any reason I’d need it warmer. Also, houses need to be warm to stop them going damp. Bit of anacdata from me - my circle are struggling to keep their houses at 18. Only heating in the evening for an hour or so it doesn’t get warmer than that.

@itrytomakemyway

Just because we had cold houses in the past does not make it ok to have cold houses now.

I don't want to go back to the miserable 1970s and 1980s thank you very much. Are people really happy to just accept a drop in their standard of living?

Some things in the past need to stay there. I doubt any Tory MPS are putting on extra jumpers and jollying each other along about the good old days.

It's an absolute disgrace that people lining in the UK in 2022 are sitting in cold houses.

I doubt any MPs are worrying about how much energy they use or mortgage increases- we pay their energy bills and mortgages for their second home and then they get to keep the house.

@MyNameIsAngelicaSchuyler

The planet has limited resources and we’ve created a world where we take take take without replenishing. No one cares until it hits their pockets.

I know that we are in this position down to ideology (hint: don’t vote Tory) but maybe for once people will be forced to live more simply and less selfishly.

Exactly. It’s crazy really that most of us (including myself) have been doing nothing for the environment except for silly things that don’t help anyway. For example making a big song and dance about how great we are using reusable shopping bags that we then fill with throwaway plastic packaging.

Now we’re being forced to make the drastic changes that perhaps we should have been making anyway. I absolutely don’t think it’s fair because as usual it’s the worst-off who are suffering but you do get used to being in a colder house. My living room is 16 degrees and I don’t feel cold.

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.

It was quite normal for thousands of years before central heating became widespread in the UK and elsewhere.

[quote Porcupineintherough]@AchillesLastStand absolutely but the tories have had a lot of support over the last 12 years and the public squeal every time they are expected to shell out for environmental protection. "Green tax" is very unpopular.

@beattieedny the vulnerable have been dying for years, just in dusty countries a long way away. And they are dying now of famine and innundation as the climate changes. Many dont get to reach old age before doing so. Meanwhile we huff if we cant flush wetwipes down the drain or heat our hot tubs. The uk is plenty rich enough to clean up its act and stop its own people dying - if it wanted to.[/quote]
Well said

I don't want to go back to the miserable 1970s and 1980s thank you very much.

They weren’t miserable. We didn’t know any different, so we just got on with life.

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

16 here atm and that's warmer than it has been for a while. None of us are complaining of feeling uncomfortable. Not really sure of those figures tbh.