To never ever put the heating on?

[Awayawaywe]

In the last 2 years we have had the heating on a maximum of 10 days. We use hot water bottles at night and blankets and copius amounts of tea to keep warm. This means our electricity bill is the same in the summer as it is in winter (although we do bathe more in winter as in summer we mostly just have a wash)
We have 3dc all five and under and now when I visit other peoples houses I am sweltering! I end up in a vest sweating my head off!
Are we the only ones?!!!!

Ps this is saving us about £30 a month in the winter months.

A house that is less heated will get less damp

Well that is in direct contradiction to what all advice on damp and mould I have ever read says. From the National Landlords Association website on preventing damp and mould: 'A combination of heating and ventilation is the main form of control.'

For example the advice below is from the NHS website.

You can help prevent the build-up of condensation by:
putting lids on saucepans, drying washing outside and avoiding using paraffin or bottled gas heaters
opening the bedroom window for 15 minutes each morning
making sure your home is well insulated
heating your home a little more
ventilating rooms regularly and leaving doors open to allow air to circulate, unless you're cooking or showering
if you're cooking, showering or bathing – opening the window, putting the fan on and closing the door of the room you're in

Sorry, this is absolutely not true.

Why not?
Damp is condensation, it is caused by conditions inside a house. Warm air hitting cold walls and windows. If the temperature is the same inside the house as outside the house then there is no condensation.

A house should not have any moisture, rain etc coming in from outside. If that is the case then that is a leak, not damp

All that for the sake of saving £30- surely you are spending more on jumpers and blankets than you save?

I'd also be careful about 'never putting the heating on'. My Grandparents turned their heating off completely when they went on holiday in the winter. They came back to a bungalow with no ceilings completely flooded. The water in the pipes froze and burst.

Id be surprised if you don’t have mould, and only washing in the summer is gross it’s hot and sweaty, surely you’d wash more??

Condensation is cause by inadequate ventilation, you won’t avoid it by hermetically sealing your house and keeping the heating off!! 🤣

Caused...

When I was 6 or 7 my Dad lost his job, and we couldn't afford coal for the fires (small village, no gas - did have radiators but think one of the fires heated them?) we had to wear our coats indoors to keep warm, it was miserable.

Yes, you need ventilation AND heating. All the advice on the subject agrees.

A house should not have any moisture, rain etc coming in from outside. If that is the case then that is a leak, not damp

Yes, but you can't just avoid condensation in a house just by making sure it doesn't have any leaks!

Humans breathing, showers, running water, heat from cooking, steam from the kettle and the iron - all these things create condensation and cause damp in homes that are not sufficiently warm and ventilated.

I used to live in a flat which we couldn't afford to heat properly. There were no leaks into the property. We still had a serious mould problem because the flat was bloody freezing!

If the temperature is the same inside the house as outside the house then there is no condensation.

The moisture comes from human bodies (or feline ones for that matter).

I see this in action. I have an outbuilding which houses just-neutered cats before they are returned. It is always ventilated. If it's empty there is no condensation. If it has cats in, and no heating, then the damp is unbelievably bad. If it has cats and heating then it's fine.

Condensation is cause by inadequate ventilation, you won’t avoid it by hermetically sealing your house and keeping the heating off!!

The whole point of ventilation is to equalise the temperature inside to the same as outside.

A house also has natural ventilation in the brick or stone work. This is why it's a really bad idea to mix PVA glue with paint when decorating (a tactic that is supposed to prevent damp but doesn't)because it stops a house, paint/plaster/brick/stone drying out naturally

Houses are not hermetically sealed and never should be

Am I the only one wondering how the hell they get their washing dry? Because if there is a tumble dryer on then this is even more ridiculous

Our house is a lot colder than the average person's house (I mean even when we've got heating on)
There's a thermometer in my child's room recently it's been mostly at 11.

Our home in SW France gets the most humidity when the temperatures soar in summer. The tiled floors are literally wet for a couple of days until the inside and outside temps equalise.

Jeez what a miserable way to live

.... Which I certainly can't cope with so I do put the heating on I never have it on so much that it gets as warm as other people's houses
But no way could I cope with just 10 days with the heating on!!!

Yes, but you can't just avoid condensation in a house just by making sure it doesn't have any leaks!
But that is a leak and is nothing to do with condensation

Humans breathing, showers, running water, heat from cooking, steam from the kettle and the iron - all these things create condensation and cause damp in homes that are not sufficiently warm and ventilated.
Yes they can and that's why ventilation is important but it is heating that causes the most problems. I grew up in a few different houses. With one coal fire and no central heating. We hardly had the fire lit but no damp

I used to live in a flat which we couldn't afford to heat properly. There were no leaks into the property. We still had a serious mould problem because the flat was bloody freezing!

Then you did not ventilate enough or the flats were badly built. You still need to ventilate even if you do not put the heating on but obviously not as much

Then you did not ventilate enough or the flats were badly built. You still need to ventilate even if you do not put the heating on but obviously not as much

We opened the windows for several hours a day and still had horrific mould problems. Strangely enough two humans living in a cold flat with no decent heating will create condensation. Add on the fact that we had to dry clothes indoors too (couldn't afford a tumble dryer) and it's easy to see why we had mould problems.

You can bang on all you want about how heating doesn't help, but all the official sources say it does

I would die. I hate the cold. My house is heated to 22 degrees minimum.
I would be miserable without the heater, so saving 30 per month during winter wouldnt be worth my suffering.

We don't have the heating on that much and mainly do for the cats as we can huddle under blankets but they won't. However we didn't heat our bedroom at all as I hate sleeping in a warm room and got mould despite having windows open.

I do think mainly washing in the summer instead of showering is a bit gross to be honest. I can't see why a quick 5 minute shower is such a big deal.

That’s all wrong, Flax All of it.

I use a heated airer for drying clothes so that is often on in the spare room and heating off. No tumble dryer

We opened the windows for several hours a day and still had horrific mould problems.

I'm guessing they were badly designed and built and that maybe you heated one room, adjacent to the hall and that hall was the same temperature as outside but with no ventilation?

Strangely enough two humans living in a cold flat with no decent heating will create condensation.

In a confined space yes.

Add on the fact that we had to dry clothes indoors too (couldn't afford a tumble dryer) and it's easy to see why we had mould problems.

Not saying any of the above is what you did but in a confined space with not much chance of natural brick or stone ventilation. This is a big problem with flats

Sealing up outside doors and hallways is another bad idea.

Damp is about condensation. Look at what happens to a bathroom window pane in winter when you take a shower. It is the heat from steam/moisture hitting the cold pane. No heat no damp. But if you took a cold shower, there would be no condensation on the window

Am I the only one wondering how the hell they get their washing dry? Because if there is a tumble dryer on then this is even more ridiculous

Clothes will dry without any heat at all. I dry clothes without any heat. Either outside or on those clothes horse things

There is a big difference between a cold temperature and damp. It is not the same thing.

People lived in igloos without any heat at all, but didn't get damp

I'm guessing they were badly designed and built and that maybe you heated one room, adjacent to the hall and that hall was the same temperature as outside but with no ventilation?

Well, no, you assume you wrong.

But you keep rambling on as if you're right and all official advice to heat your home to avoid the damp is some kind of weird global conspiracy