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.

hmmmm...

Why would anyone suffer so - just to save £1 per day? I'd rather eat less than be cold and unable to have showers/fresh hot drinks.

Is there another source of heating? Gas fires or wall heaters ?

My first house didn't have central heating, but I had two gas fires in the downstairs reception rooms and a gas heater up stairs. It was a mid terrace too so had heat from the neighbours. I didn't feel the cold there. But if I did I would have installed and used central heating.

What’s the point of talking about buildings where none of that stuff happens, Flax? Cooking, washing, etc happens in all normal homes.
Other buildings, not so much, but we’re specifically talking about homes here.

Op sounds like my mother. She was very proud and pleased with herself refusing to have central heating installed when we were kids. They could easily afford it as their house had no mortgage as they had received loads of money help and a massive inheritance.
Being cold is the most miserable thing ever and very neglectful of dc.

What a load of tripe.
Why do people have to be so rude?

The temperature in Glasgow today is 5c. Is that a comfortable temperature? Should I be sitting here with the windows open and the heating off to combat damp?

No of course not. I never said that

Or should I do what any sane person does - heat the house. Open the trickle vents on the windows. Make sure that the kids open a window when taking a shower. Open the window when boiling pasta on the stove.

Yes

The idea that the ideal temperature is the same outside as in is just total lunacy.

That depends where you live and how you like it.

I wasnt saying it has to be the same. Especially not for the elderly and children but more about how a house, bricks and mortar etc, reacts to temperature inside and outside. How do you think ventilation works?

I didnt use to before having DC, probably as my dad never used to unless it was really really cold and we were used to wrapping up, then at university we never had it on because we couldn't afford it; but I do now if it's cold because it's too much to be putting a wiggly baby into numerous layers. I turn it off when he is in bed though and in appropriate sleepwear for the temp.

I see you've missed the part of my post which quoted yours, Flax. The part in which you said :

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

Which is nonsense. Ventilation is about allowing MOISTURE to escape from your home.

In live-in homes, ventilation is they key to avoiding condensation.
This does necessarily not mean having windows wide open, it means reducing the amount of water vapour in the air. Trickle vents, airbricks, a fan fitted to a ventilation duct can all do this, so can a dehumidifier. In old houses with open fires, chimneys did the same. Warm air flowed up the chimney, even if a fire was not burning, carrying moisture with it.

Condensation happens when warm moisture-laden air meets a colder surface. So insulation can reduce condensation, also.

The warmer the air inside a building, the more moisture it carries, so heating will keep the moisture circulating in the air, while it is on. But as soon as the temperature drops, the moisture will begin to condense. You need ventilation , too, so that the warm, wetter air can flow towards the drier or colder air, which is usually outdoors.

My GPs were like you OP. Made of money but would never have the heating on, the house was like a freezer, even in the summer.
Their living room was dark as well which didn't help.
They may have saved some money but they never had family visiting because it was uncomfortably cold, I couldn't take DD round there when she was small due to it. They'd not even put the heating on for her.

The heating is always on in my house in the winter months. I don't care how high the bills are, I refuse to be cold in my own home.

I do feel for your children, not being able to sit and play comfortably in their own home because they've got to be bundled up in layers and clutching hot water bottles.
When they go to school and start bringing friends home will you expect them to sit in the cold too?

How do you stop the bathroom going mouldy?

How do you dry your washing?

Do you live in the Maldives?

I don't know how you do this OP.

I am always full clothes in jumper and tracksuit bottoms and socks when I'm at home, but I do feel the cold without the heating. My living room only starts to feel a bit warm when it hits 18 degrees, below that and I end up with a cold nose and freezing hands and feet!

Which is nonsense. Ventilation is about allowing MOISTURE to escape from your home.

Yes it is, but that also happens in cold temperatures. Clothes will still dry for example with no heat at all
So not nonsense

"think op would have mentioned by now if they were sitting in front of a blazing log fire every evening. It’s probably safe to assume not"
Why does everyone presume a fire is a blazing log fire? Never heard of a gas fire? It doesnt have to be a massive fire that heats the whole house.

"I've never lived in a house with a working fire, I'm not sure I know anyone who has a fire either. Plenty of fireplaces, but purely decorative."
Absolutely every person I know bar one (who has no chimney) has a fire in their lounge. When I say fire, I dont mean an actual log burning fire, but like a gas one. 2 houses in our road have actual fies with smoke coming out of the chimney, the rest have gas fires. I couldnt bear to live in a house with no fire.

How do you stop the bathroom going mouldy?

Either by taking cold showers (not recommending it just saying) or opening windows and keeping it open for as long as possible afterwards. If no window, then keeping the door open for as long as possible and in nearby rooms and windows

How do you dry your washing?
Cold. Either on an outside line or on one of those clothes horse thingys*

Still can't remember the name if it*

Flax No. Clothes dry in an unheated room because of the laws of physics & chemistry. The moisture in the clothes evoporates and escapes into the air, drying the clothes and making the air moister.

www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_evap.html

Heat speeds up the evaporation of moisture into the air. It doesn't get rid of the dampness, it just moves it from clothes to air more quickly.

@French I'm aware of that - I'm on a very tight budget myself. However, I still think it's not worth making my house mouldy - the potential cost to repair damage caused by mould and damp is way more

Oh fgs OP come back and answer some of this?

No. Clothes dry in an unheated room because of the laws of physics & chemistry.

Yes I know. That was my point

The moisture in the clothes evoporates and escapes into the air, drying the clothes and making the air moister.
Yes it does

Heat speeds up the evaporation of moisture into the air. It doesn't get rid of the dampness, it just moves it from clothes to air more quickly.

Yes but if you heat the clothes the moisture moves into the environment very quickly, causing damp. If you dry the clothes completely cold, it takes longer and so the moisture has better, and wider, dispersal and is much less likely to cause damp. It is more naturally dispersed

I dry all clothes completely cold (winter). They dry overnight mostly
I dont boil cook and always open kitchen window whe I cook
Always open windows for showers and keep open for as long as possible
Have doors open
I dont use dryers or radiators to dry clothes
I ventilate a lot

I heat my house and ventilate it well. I also cook a lot on the premises and have lots of luxurious hot showers (as do the rest of the family).
We don’t have any issues with condensation or damp.
You seriously don’t need to deny yourself heat 🤷🏻‍♀️

What do you mean only wash in summer? Surely the other way around would make more sense?

Couldn't do this I have reynauds and constantly have white numb fingers and toes during winter.
My husband would be more than happy not to have the heating on as he sits in the house all winter in shorts and his top off.
We're all different but with children in the house they should be your priority and have a right to be warm and comfortable.

But the moisture still has to go somewhere - whether it evaporates quickly or slowly. Hence the need for ventilation - which, like evaporation, can happen quickly or slowly.

Moisture might be less noticeable if it evaporates slowly, but it's still there. Condensation will only happen if it meets cooler surfaces before it escapes from the building, which is why I said earlier on condensation is relative to temperature as well as to moisture.

My house insurance states i have to keep the house a certain temperature or above which I wouldn't achieve without the heating on but I was raised in a house that didn't turn the heating in ever.
My parents thought oh we're all fine. I just went along with it as a dc but now I am so sad we did that. It did make me work harder at school though as I never ever wanted to live that way and now don't have to.

My parents used to sell the line, we have tea, we have electric blankets blah blah. It definitely affected my sleep. As the temperature dropped over night I'd wake up as a dc. They almost definitely don't know this as I never mentioned it but it wasn't nice at all so imo YABU.

Sounds miserable to me.

Miserable existence. Our house is a lovely 22 degrees at the moment and will stay that way. Buggered if I'd live like that.