Coping without heating

[Frio]

I’m seriously impressed by the people on the central heating thread who are surviving indoor temperatures of 14-16 Celsius. I really struggle physically and mentally with the cold.

My boiler has fritzed its circuit board and is utterly dead, any tips for managing until I can get it repaired? I have a couple of plug in oil filled radiators, plenty of sweaters and blankets but it’s the psychological impact that is the worst. How do I toughen up?

I’m lucky with my heat tolerance, but the downside is being stiff and useless in the cold.

Yy to real wool and other natural fibres. Tucking the base layers in as I go is also good.

We put the heating on but that is to try and dry clothes. If it wasn't constantly raining so we could have clothes outside, the heating would stay off for a bit longer.

I live in my bedroom all winter where i have a small oil filled radiator which i leave on at number 1, during the day but not at night. I always have the window open a crack for healthier air. I make big pots of home made soup and have hot drinks. Hot water bottle, extra blankets & a few nights woolly hat & gloves in bed. I keep an eye on the temp & the weather forecasts. It was so cold in my kitchen last winter that my fridge stopped working! I'm in my 70s and have just lost my winter fuel allowance as i miss pension credit by a few pounds.

I'm on the South coast. Not had the heating on yet. Probably won't until November.

We’re in the Peak District. We were away this weekend, and when we got home the house was 11 degrees. Heating went straight on.

I will try to get a screenshot of all the different devices that told me this next time it drops... not able to ss standing arm hairs and shivers though! The car was reading 1 degree at 5 am the next morning most mornings!

@MibsXX if you are genuinely getting those readings inside in September then you need to take steps to insulate your house.

I'm not doubting it's cold outside at points but at this time of year it does rise more than in depths of winter. My car had a frost warning yesterday early. But I think three degrees inside is very unusual even in February (I live in the Cairngorms so not coming from a warmer south perspective!)

When we were living in our first house we had no central heating - just a gas fire in the living room and one in the kitchen. No heating upstairs, so we used a convection heater in the bedroom for when we woke up.

The winter of 1981/2 was probably one of the coldest I can remember, with temperatures regularly going down to -15 at night. We lived on an unmade road and it was so cold that the water pipes on our street froze and we had to use a stand pipe down the road to get any water.

We would wake up every morning with ice on the inside of the windows - not just at the bottom, but all the way up the window. I was so miserable and cold that winter in spite of wrapping up warm. When you are chilled to the bone an extra jumper just doesn't cut it.

I never want to live like that again.

We live half-way up a small mountain, west wales, the house is part very old 4 foot thick walls and part not so well built small extension ( that wasn't lined etc) it's not great BUT thanks to covid rental prices here tripled almost overnight and haven't gone down since, yes min wage may have gone up a bit but when employers counter that expense by dropping hours, and there aren't that many employers around anyway, what do we do? Every price went up by a hell of a lot, so we keep quiet and try to keep warm, a chilly house is far better than no home. Moving isn't an option I don't have a spare 3K ( currently dont even have 3 pounds left!) and a guarantor required these days, child half-way thru intensive A-level course, and when I did try much further afield for work, off the record was told most employers are looking for school leavers or younger so as to pay less/easier to train!?! On the plus side it is beautiful here and feels a sight safer than a big town or city

Current temperature in my kitchen is 17C so cooler in the living room.
I don't use a thermostat... it's not connected to the boiler.
I typically will put the heating on for 30 mins when I get up to take the chill out of the air for my DS when he gets up st 6am (still a child)... it rarely drops below 12C.
In the evenings it may go on for another hour or so and at weekends it may be on a few hours.
Apart from that, wooly jumpers, move around and also an electri blanket on the sofa is very effective and also quite cheap to run

An electric blanket doesn’t stop cold (and possibly damp) air from getting in your lungs when you breathe. Or your 6 year old’s lungs. WHO recommend 20 for health. It’s also bad for your house to be cold and, again, possibly damp.

People are managing because they have to. Is that so hard to comprehend? Bills are too high so people will cut back or do without.

My friend was telling me his parents (mid 70s) are wearing their coats at home.

Hence the heating coming on for a while daily.
House is not damp. No black mould or other dampness indicators.
Electric blankets are very useful when you can't afford to heat the house for hours every day.
You know there's damp air outside? We are designed to cope with it.... what is not good for you is cold or otherwise damp air that isn't circulating... so ventilation is key.
How do you think people coped before we had central heating?
The WHO and quoted by NHS Wales comments on 18C "“The overall evidence suggests that households will avoid many of the health risks associated with cold homes if they generally maintain home temperatures of 18°C or above, which is the minimum temperature to which the WHO and UK authorities, including Wales currently recommend the general population heat their homes. As temperatures dip below 18°C some health risks gradually increase but these can vary with vulnerability and age. ""
Obviously this doesn't apply to vulnerable people.
Btw, 6 year old me remembers frost on the inside of the windows in the house in winter... and no central heating... and I'm not that old.... so clearly the house I grew up in wasn't a balmy 20C either...
But that's beside the point as ghe OP wanted to know how people coped with no heating... and in their case, hopefully it's temporary.

I grew up with no central heating and ice on the windows too. Lots of people got chest conditions and chillblains.

The heating doesn't need to be on for hours at a high temperature to prevent damp, though. A couple of hours a day is fine for many people, especially in September when it's still mild out.

The air needs to be at a certain temp to not be unhealthy long term. A couple of hours in the morning might work in some houses in some locations now, but as a general principle.

But in many houses you can maintain a reasonable temperature without having the heating on high for long periods - ours is currently sat at 17.5 for example, and our heating's not been on since yesterday morning despite it being 10 degrees outside.

There's also no set temperature for what's healthy - the government is always going to err on the side of caution because they have to consider young children, the elderly, the disabled and those with health conditions - many people really don't need their homes to be as warm as 20 degrees year-round to be healthy.

If they’re plug in ones then yes. You need an “Alexa” enabled plug (cheap on Amazon and can be any brand) you plug the heater into this and this into the socket. If you have an Alexa thermostat/thermometer in the room then you can program some with ITTF (if this then that) meaning you could set it to come on when the thermometer says it’s dropped to a certain temperature or off when it reaches a desired one. You can also set the plugs on timers

Can’t do the no heating thing any more but when we were rationing, heating the bed with the hairdryer before we got in was great! Probably used more electricity than the heating though!

Or just get fleece duvet cover and pillow case and you no longer have a cold bed

I'm still making do with blanket in the evenings. I have my small windows in the bedroom open all day for past week. It's averaging 15 degrees pretty much everyday so haven't felt the need for heating.