Heating in a old house

[chocolatemuffin75]

I live alone and can’t really afford to have my heating on much, I tend to just add layers to keep warm, but I’m worried about my house getting mouldy and damp what can I do to prevent this? Does anyone else who lives alone doesn’t put their heating on much?

Could you buy a humidity meter, about a tenner, to measure the humidity levels. If it's over 60% then open a window. Make show you leave the window in your bathroom open after a shower or bath, or fan isn't enough to clear the moisture from the air. A dehumidifier would be good if you can afford one, about £100, ours is 4p an hour to run.

I don’t think the amount of people in a house matters, they all need heated. It’s better to keep it warm than to let it get freezing cold and then try to heat it.

Thanks I’ll look into this

No I mean I only have my wage to pay for everything hence I live alone

If you can afford a dehumidifier that would be a good investment.

Ours runs when I'm cooking and in the bedroom in the morning. We move ours about but are considering buying another (looking at BF deals now).

Last year we had an issue with mould mites, as well as black mould, where one DC wasn't airing her room. Now we've resolved that I'm keeping on top of nagging about airing.

We just open windows in the daytime for a bit.

Do you not have your heating on much?

Another vote for a dehumidifier- I run mine especially when I’ve got washing drying inside and I also crack the bedroom and bathroom widows open for a while first thing.

My mother lives in an old house and it really does need to have the heating on for an hour or two a day and the windows and internal doors open for a half an hour (not at the same time) or some of the rooms do get mould.

@chocolatemuffin75 No, we don't. We might put it on for a couple of hours in the evening at the most. But we do open windows in the mornings.

We don't have our heating on at the moment, both of us run hot so we don't feel the need. When we do have it on, we tend to put it in for a couple of hours in the evening manually, rather than timed or via a thermostat.
However, the window is opened in the bathroom every time we have a bath or shower, every morning I open the upstairs landing window and a window downstairs, leaving them open for a good few hours. All the upstairs windows are open on the click all year round (by that I mean they are shut but on the night latch I think is the term?) so air is always coming in unless it's really windy. We haven't got any mould etc. Airing is the key.

Problem is I start work at 6 am every morning I don’t really have time to open and close windows, should I open them when I come home in the afternoon? I do put the heating on for 2 hours in the evenings.

I think a dehumidifier would be helpful as I find it’s less the cold than the damp that effects the fabric of the house. I live in an old building but I pop the woodstove on and open all the doors and it gets the warm air circulating.