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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to not turn on heating

243 replies

mailfuckoff · 09/01/2018 11:51

I have trouble with spending money on myself and for looking after myself. It's cold and I'm working from home. If the kids were here I would turn on the heating but it seems wasteful for just me. However I have a few layers and a blanket and I'm cold. Do you turn on the heating just for you.

OP posts:

metacrisis · 10/01/2018 21:32

Because I don't need to?

KatharinaRosalie · 10/01/2018 21:36

If you enjoy being cold then great, saves money, good for environment. OP doesn't though but feels she does not deserve to be warm.

MysweetAudrina · 10/01/2018 21:36

Would never cross my mind not to heat the house if it was only me. If it's cold it's cold, the heating goes on no matter who is in the house. All members of my family are equally deserving of good food and heat and i wouldn't scrimp on them unless I had to.

SingingSeuss · 10/01/2018 21:40

I am the same. I didn't today. Dressing gown on top of clothes working from home.

Skowvegas · 10/01/2018 21:53

£200 in heating a month?? How big are your houses? I have a 5 bedroomed house, large downstairs space, I work from home and heating is on a lot. Gas and electric cost me £125 a month.

I have a 5 bedroom house, a new highly efficient gas boiler, brand new double glazed windows and a very well insulated roof/walls. So far this year the average temperature where I live has been -11C. It's just really fecking cold here and it costs a lot to heat your house when it's that cold.

Pumpkinbell · 11/01/2018 02:14

If i am really cold (if feet are like block of ice) then yes but otherwise no. Just use the gas fire in the room and or layers and a blanket. Put it on for DD though (only 4) husband thinks its character building for kids to be cold but not me!!! If its cold and shes home the heating is on

BulletFox · 11/01/2018 02:18

Character building??

PikachuHeadgear · 11/01/2018 02:46

I grew up in a very cold house, and I when I first owned my own house it didn't have central heating. It was utterly miserable and I can't identify any so-called 'character building' benefits that I might have gained from it. Since I have been in charge of my own finances, heat has been a priority. I had central heating installed as soon as I had the money to do it, and I keep the house warm. There are a multitude of things I would do without before I would go back to being perpetually cold all winter. And, most of the time I live on my own. I don't quite get the theory that warmth is some sort of extreme luxury unless it's for someone else.

FluffyWuffy100 · 11/01/2018 07:04

£200 in heating a month?? How big are your houses? I have a 5 bedroomed house, large downstairs space, I work from home and heating is on a lot. Gas and electric cost me £125 a month

When I lived in a lovely but cold old three story Victorian house with no insulation in the roof, heating bills would be £200/month eg over Xmas holidays when I was home. One year the outside temp dropped to -5 for several days in a row and we had to have the heating on 24h a day.

Bloody hell that was a cold house. The sitting room got warm and that was about it.

Would go up to my bedroom on the top floor and you could feel the temp dropping with every step you took.

That was where I discovered electric blankets.

I’m ahuverjng just thinking about it!

k2p2k2tog · 11/01/2018 07:31

I grew up in a similarly freezing house - 100 year old, sash windows which rattled, no central heating. Gas fire in the lounge and dining room. in Scotland. I remember the days of waking up and ice inside the window or seeing your breath.

It's not character building. It's awful. I do think people are ignoring the OP who says "I would turn on the heating but it's wasteful just for me". That is a totally different scenario from "I can't afford to heat my house". She is saying "Other people should feel warm but I don't deserve to".

Anyway. It's another freezing morning here with fog. Forecast to get not much above 0c all day. I'm out this morning but back at lunchtime - I have no intention at all of sitting here shivering and patting myself on the back for not using the heating until the kids get home at the back of three.

ReelingLush18 · 11/01/2018 07:51

I don't feel as if I'm punishing myself by not turning on the heating - just saving money.

Often (yesterday) it's not that cold anyway so don't really need it on. Or one has it on for an hour and it warms the place up nicely so it can be turned off again.

However if I really was feeling chilled to the marrow I would probably capitulate.

I spent my whole childhood hogging radiators at home and school because I was always cold AND my father was very loathe to put the heating on for long.

I do find the house gets stuffy very quickly with the heating on though, and at night times I have to have a bedroom window open (even in the middle of winter) otherwise I feel as if I'm suffocating from lack of fresh(ish) air.

Vicky1990 · 11/01/2018 10:14

I only turn on the central heating if my children are here, never if I am alone.
I am active during the day so don't need it, and when I a relaxing will put on some more clothes and put a blanket over myself.
I find going to other people's houses who have the heating on all the time can be unbearable.

Oliversmumsarmy · 11/01/2018 11:00

I spend £300 per month on gas and electric.

I have tried having the heating on at 22 degrees but I am still freezing. Mine is on at least 26degrees. I don't want to live in a house which is cold.

frenchknitting · 11/01/2018 11:07

I came on to say that YABU and ridiculous. If you can afford heating then not reason to be a martyr - no one is going to give you a medal for being cold.

Having read some of the replies though, people are saying they never put the heating on... UNLESS it drops to e.g 16 degrees. :-) That's the point I put the heating on for the baby!

So I think a lot of YABU and YANBUS are saying exactly the same thing, but some of us just live in colder places/houses than others.

Not being able to afford heating is a completely different issue though. A couple froze to dead in a house locally one night in the recent cold snap, which is a scandal.

Wishithoughtbeforeispeak · 11/01/2018 11:55

I put the heating on just for me we only have it set on 18/19 anyway and I’m not being cold for anyone not only that but what if being cold makes you

Wishithoughtbeforeispeak · 11/01/2018 11:57

Oops ! Pressed enter too soon

Was going to say what if by being cold you get ill and can’t work / look after the children surely a little bit of heating is better than no money if off sick.

OrangeOasis · 11/01/2018 13:57

I’m home alone today and have set the thermostat to 17 but I cheat. If I’m particularly cold I’ll pop the thermostat in the hall (can move it around the house ) which is the coldest part of the house, therefore the living room will be warmer than 17, if dp is Home I place it in the living room but turn it down to 16.5.

Dp still doesn’t like the heating to be on constantly, I’ve tried to drum it into him, that’s the beauty of having a thermostat, surely it costs more to heat up from scratch every time than having the heating on a low temp but constant?

pinkstripeycat · 13/01/2018 07:16

Never ever turn heating on if I’m home alone. If I get cold I vacuum --or go round my mothers who is retired and has heating on all day--. If my DSs are cold (rarely and mostly sit topless) I’ll put the heating on. If DH is cold I say put a jumper on.

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