What Date to Put Heat on, & Wind Farms?

[Haahaha]

I waited until the last day of September last year, to put on radiators. It felt too cold at that point. Feel cross now as physically cold for the first time since summer. Thermometer 21c. Annoyed that we are reliant on Russian gas. How did we come to this? Should we be campaigning to build wind farms to supply local electricity to heat us in winter?

Why on earth would you want the heating on if it's 21c?
Surely a fan would be more suitable.

And why choose a date for the heating? Surely it goes on when it's actually cold enough (funds permitting) regardless of an arbitrary date.

We are not reliant upon Russian gas.

You can’t just throw up a wind farm in 30 days. Consent is needed first and too many Tory voters in the shires will block planning applications.

Prepare to be rationed and learn to live with less.

The house I lived in last year would be around 16°c on average, it was a 100 year old stone cottage. Stick on some warm clothes.

It's still Summer, it was 21 degrees here yesterday and the heating certainly didn't need to go on, we'd have melted.
We'll put the heating on if we feel really cold, we don't have a set date.

We aren’t reliant on Russian gas. Our heating won’t be going on at all if we can possibly help it but at 21 degrees even I wouldn’t be cold and I’m always cold. This is definitely a case of our a jumper on.

It's not though is it. 21 deg room temperature is not cold. It just isn't.

My routine if I'm cold will be 1) extra layers 2) cup of coffee 3) hot water bottle 4) heated throw and only THEN will the heating go on if I'm genuinely still cold.

Wind farms - have you any idea what's involved with building one? How long it takes from the initial idea, the stages, planning or permits involved. I assume you don't live anywhere near one being built so have no clue what's even involved with getting the parts onto site

We definitely need to be investing in far more renewable energy, for both energy security and for the environment. Unfortunately we should have been doing that for years. This government is very backwards when it comes to energy.

We need more solar, wind and wave energy and we need to let our local mps know we are in favour of that. Why any new warehouse or factory is built without solar panels baffles me. Why new homes are still built with roof trusses that aren't strong enough to have solar added is madness.

We also need to insulate homes, so many homes can have far more insulation without it being too difficult to add. I get some older properties will be difficult, but a lot of properties could be made warmer, very simply.

As for when to put the heating on, I don't think I've ever used the heating from June to September, sometimes it goes on for the odd day in October, but normally November onwards. I'd make sure you have thick curtains, warm clothes etc... before putting the heating on.

We are still in a drought where I live and currently spend a lot of time trying to keep the house cool enough.

As I understand it, the main thing that's stopped wind farm being build is nimbyism.
Former Shell employee, Lis Truss has said she will grant more oil and gas drill permits, she also considers solar farms and eyesore, and has said - no more of them, she wants the country side back looking pretty.

I think it was November last year as it wasn't that cold and I have a gas fire (which I know probably uses more gas than the central heating).
But we (UK) do NOT rely on Russian gas - it makes up just 3% of our usage. We get our gas from the North Sea and Norway. The reason the cost has increased is the market does not operate in isolation.

They could remove the planning consent laws around wind farms as it's a national emergency. Personally we have gone with solar so we don't need to worry when we turn the heating on but agree it's still to warm

We definitely need to be investing in far more renewable energy, for both energy security and for the environment. Unfortunately we should have been doing that for years. This government is very backwards when it comes to energy.

Indeed, David Cameron 'cutting all the green crap' has cost us dearly.

We don’t have a specific date for putting the heating back on, the programmable thermostatic is set to 18C for a couple of hours morning and evening so it kicks in as needed. 21C still feels pretty warm to me though, I’m in our kitchen which is 21C now with the door wide open and only a thin dress on, it feels warm (its 19C outside so not cold at all).

I go by temperature rather than date, and I'd like to keep the house at 19 when I'm sitting around, that's where I'm comfortable. But the fact stands that I won't be able to afford to do this this year, and it's not going to be about what's comfortable or what I want, it's going to be what I can afford. So lots of wrapping up and finding alternatives to putting the heating on until I'm desperate. Trying to be more economical last winter I could mostly manage with the house at 16 unless I chilled down, (disabled, can't move around much), but am planning better thermals this year!

So if gas not from Russia, then its a mark up of Northern sea and Nordic gas, that's driving up prices?

And transport costs of shipping liquid gas from China which it has bought from …err….Russia.

Energy is sold on global markets, so although we're not reliant on Russian gas it still impacts on us.

Demand is what dictate prices, we might not be reliant on Russian gas but without it available to others they are then buying the same supplies as us which drives up prices. It's pretty much just an auction and goes to the highest bidder

Obvious mumsnet troll is obvious

If I felt chilly when it was 21c I would put a cardigan on and have done a couple of times this last week, heating generally goes on when it starts getting to about 18c, then only in the evening after dinner when sitting watching TV in my cardigan

I'm trying to figure out why my grandparents had a better quality of life, even though we live in the age of such technological progress. They lived under a post war frugal mind set, but they always had a comfortably heated kitchen and sitting room. They used coal, l know that's not sustainable. The bottom line, we need to generate our own heating in winter. Cambridge Uni are researching wind farms. So it's not just hippy outliers suggesting this.

My parents grew up in houses with the frost on the inside of the panes etc, but were living in a house operating on the same system since pretty much the iron age, of there being one place with a fire where you could come to get warm. So the rest of the house was bearable and manageable. The issue now is one hell of a lot of housing stock that has been specifically built to be central heating dependent and a lot of cheaper modern housing is highly flimsy besides.

In the short term, houses built before 1950 are going to get a lot more expensive to buy because they will be better built and have chimneys and fossil fuel capacity, and those who can afford it will go to log burners etc but many won't be able to afford the adaptations etc or houses won't be compatible. Mine isn't. And as you say, not sustainable.

We're in the equivalent of the first few weeks of lockdown where everyone's going.... shit, this is a mess isn't it? And then gradually the adaptations start to turn up, the technology is invented to meet need, people come up with the ideas and things start to move forward again. In the meantime, the important part will be making sure the most vulnerable get through the next few months.

20,000 in UK die of hypothermia.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12576771/

This one's for the put on a jumper sect.

I can't fathom why you need heating on at 21'c

Mine won't go in till house is consistently 16 and then only upto 19