or is 13 degrees a warm enough home.

[BlackBag]

DH does n't feel the cold. So we have the Spring duvet (8 tog) on the bed and never the whole thing.

The kitchen thermostat is 13 degrees and the woodburner get the sitting room up to 16 sometimes.

The children run around and don't seem to feel it. The cold makes me sluggish, irratable and depressed. If I'm running around tidying up it's ok but once I sit down at the lap top or to read a book I feel like my brain is grinding to a halt during the winter time.

DH is a DIY kind of person but tends to ignore all advice to fit extra radiators or get a proper plumber in to get the ones we've got work properly.

AIBU to want a warmer house.

Haven't read the whole thing but 'sluggish, irritable and depressed' means hypothermia may be affecting you.

YANBU. Increase the heat. Do whatever it takes. Hypothermia = A Bad Thing.

The temperature next to my PC is currently 14.8. Heating has gone off now but even when on it never gets to more than 17 in here. Old Victorian house and oil central heating which costs the earth - I usually wear my coat during the day and have a heater under the desk!

Children wander around quite happily though and are very healthy...

Meant to add that our heating is set to 15 degrees through the day.

It's funny looking back on my childhood - getting up with frost on the inside of the windows - and strip washing in cold water in the mornings. The immersion heater was only put on for an hour or two each day. My mum insisted on daily strip washes and it was bloody cold with no hot water.

I wonder how we survived.

But I'm guessing you had a fire? The problem we've had is that this house has no stove or fire. Storage heaters only. So if you're cold you cannot warm up anywhere.

Do you have a fire and fuel zukiecat?

'I spent my life in the winter seizing up, muscles contracting with the cold. Had to sit next to the radiator all evening and couldn't do anything.'

Did you live in the house I grew up in, SoMuchToBits? I wore several woolly jumpers, thick hiking socks and a sleeping bag so that I could sit and do my homework in my bedroom on winter nights. I was skinny as a rake despite eating everything put in front of me and then some.

My thermostat is set at about 16 day and night - maybe a little higher in the day when we're all home. House heats very unevenly and there are some very cold spots, plus places where it's warmer. But 13 is a waste of money because it's not actually keeping you warm (or healthy). Let your H wear a t-shirt and shorts if he's that comfortable. Warmth makes a huge difference.

PatPending although I know what you are saying I still think if you can make your house warmer then you should.

I grew up in Scotland in a house without central heating - open fire in living room, parent's bedroom and my brothers had a wood burning stove - all other rooms were unheated, stone floors downstairs with some lino in living room and bathroom. I had a boxroom where icicles formed on the inside of the tiny skylight window. I have terrible circulation, always (even in summer) have cold hands and feet, no-one else in my family has circulation problems like me.

I recently lived in a house for years which was very similar to my childhood home, no heating in the kitchen bathroom and one bedroom, other rooms had storage heaters - it had double glazing, mostly. I am so glad we moved from there this winter, it was so hard dealing with that level of cold, our kitchen would often drop below freezing, bathroom was regularly below 7 degrees.

It is exhausting living in a cold house, all crammed into one room because it is too cold to be in the other rooms most of the year.

I know how they build in Canada and Norway gaelicsheep - I visit both regularly as we have family in both places. But they build with dry cold in mind. Not the damp cold we get here. It's a fact that they get much colder temperatures but they don't waste energy the way we do and they go out and about in extreme cold because they are outdoor nations. They are not namby pamby about the cold - they get on with it.
I've always been struck by the fact that Norwegians look very robust and hardy. They love outdoors even when it's cold.
They also don't shove their heating up to some of the temps quoted on here - they are very environmentally aware.
They dress appropriately and insulate their homes - you are correct in that regard.

I think our thermostat may be a little innacurate because in the winter it always clicks on around 13 degrees, if I left it on 20 it would never click off.

I don't time it, just put it on when it's chilly, turn it off when it's getting stuffy.

If you are feeling really cold then turn it up, YANBU.

We have a 10 tog duvet and I'm never cold in bed, buy yourself a duvet and just use it on you side. I'm a hot blooded person, but not a dictator, I can stand being a bit hot now and again,

That's my point really PatPending. They know how to deal with the cold. I'm not saying it's bad to be cold ever, simply that you need to respect the cold and know how to deal with it. That means proper outdoor clothing and properly insulated houses. In the UK we tend to be hopeless at both.

We have a Galilean thermometer in our living room. If the bottom bulb has dropped down, meaning it is 18 degrees or thereabouts, then I am very happy. I don't need it any warmer. But it is miserable spending every evening in a freezing cold room. This is the first winter for years that I haven't been sat in the living room shivering under a blanket with chilblains on every single toe.

Wrt the dressing appropriately - I agree, and none of that silly fussing about how they look in the winter either. Just put on enormous puffy coats, warm hats, proper thick gloves and padded moon boots and get on with their lives.

It'll all be inconsequential in about 50-100 years time anyway when the oil, gas and coal run out. If we haven't set up renewable enrgy resources by then to generate enough power, everybody will be freezing unless they know how to rub two sticks together.

I grew up in a house with a central coal fire and no central heating too. I well remember the desperate dash to the toilet of an evening and the getting dressed in bed. I survived.

Had asthma too mind, maybe summat to do with the constant smoke fug though.

Is that your answer to the OP then, velouria and others? I had it hard as a child so yah boo sucks.

Gaelicsheep you are spot on there. I am from Finland (have lived in the UK for 17 years though) and we regularly get periods of temperatures of -25C or below even in the south. I don't get the damp cold vs dry cold argument, or the other one that 'we are used to it'. It really is a question of equipment. Houses that are properly insulated. Appropriate outdoor clothing. I despair every winter when during a cold spell the playgrounds and our local beach is empty when normally they would be packed with children. Or when my daughter's nursery doesn't take the children to play outside because they don't have warm clothing (for toddlers, an all in one suit, insulated snow boots,, waterproof gloves etc).

13 degrees is too cold! Get the plumber in!

Our house is at 12 degrees normally. I hate it. We are renting though so the landlord is unikely to go to the expense of fitting better heating than the crap we have now.

I watched Human Planet last week, all about the artic, and apparently in your average, traditionally built igloos the temperature is 16 degrees c. Point out to your DH that your currently colder than actual eskimos, see if that convinces him?

Love the Eskimos!

Hate Scottish Hydroelectric

I grow up in a cold house, coal fired central heating but ice on the windows, getting dressed in bed. As soon as my parents could afford it in went double glazing and a gas boiler. Their house is unpleasantly warm now.

DH - who does n't feel the cold, designed and under specified the heating here because he does n't like modern stuffy houses. Well I can see his point I can't cope at my parents but there has to be a meeting point somewhere in the middle. At the moment we physically can not get the kitchen above 13ish and the living room 16 tops on a warm sunny day, my bedroom was 11 this morning (I have thermometers everywhere).

Friday I was out, day and evening and came back to find the place absolutely freezing and it's taken this long just to get it up to 13/14 level. DH did n't feel the cold/sat in the attic in the hot spot.

So what I'm saying that when you've been skint/unemployed/sleeping on someone elses sofa/out all day & night so never at home you lose track of what's unreasonable. And am heartened to find that 13/14 is generally considered unreasonable.

So Blackbag what are you going to do?

dh calls me the human radiator, if its too hot it drives me crazy and i cant think. our house is currently 22, we keep the heating on all night,except bedrooms.i walk around in a vest he has sweat suit and socks.

You need to keep a watch out for mould & condensation - both bad for the health.

What am I going to do - Keep the range cooker on low rather then off during the winter

Instruct DH firmly about the danger to our marraige if the woodburner goes out.

By next winter:

Fit draught brush, Keyhole keep and insulate above front door.

Point exterior wall

Sort out gap in bathroom ceiling

Morter gaps round backdoor, Make door curtain, fit shutter to window.

Identify and fix all draught holes.

Fit extra rads to ground floor

Much of this I can do now I'm not carrying a toddler round all day.

Looking at that lot it's not surprising we're cold.

What about you Zukiecat have you got plans by next winter?

For FOUR years my DH insisted the underfloor heating him and his mate installed was running just fine and the only problem was the windows downstairs were draughty...
Finally I grew some balls (!) and phoned round and got a heating engineer, much to DH's disgust, who discovered that something had got stuck in one of the valves (Looked like shredded rubber; Lord knows...) and that the system had NOT been working AT ALL these past four years, and the only heat we were getting was residual heat (can't remember the precise explanation).
I battled and battled DH and stood over him while engineer was here making sure he let the bloke do his job. FINALLY we have a warm house. You can't leave it up to your DH or even take his mad opinions into account. Just get the job done properly yourself..

I count myself v lucky that I have a DP who isn't a thermostat fascist (or amateur heating enthusiast, porth ) After reading all this I have just given him a big cuddle for not turning it below 18 in the daytime even though I know he's itching to. He does not know why this random display of affection has occurred.

OP, you are Too Cold. You are making me feel quite chilly actually