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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To never ever put the heating on?

625 replies

Awayawaywe · 02/03/2020 09:30

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.

OP posts:
Paintedmaypole · 02/03/2020 15:07

clothes will still dry with no heat at all , they will dry slowly and then stink unless they are dried outside in the wind. My house feels cold today even though tbe heating is on. It makes it hard to concentrate on work I need to do on the computer. You can refuse to work in an office below 16 degrees. How can the children play and learn if they are huddled up with hot water bottles

formerbabe · 02/03/2020 15:08

Unless you're very poor, this seems quite brutal.

I actually don't mind the cold...my ancestors were Russian! I wouldn't put the heating on just for myself unless it was really freezing...I'd just put my dressing gown. However, I put the heating on every night for the dc...it's not nice for them to have a bath and go to bed in a cold house

On the other hand, my sil has the heating on full blast constantly. God knows what her bills are like. I cannot stand it...her house is so warm I feel genuinely sick when I'm there. I usually 'accidentally' leave something in the car so I have an excuse to pop outside!

My2catsarefab · 02/03/2020 15:08

Poor kids. This time last year there were blizzards every where. Our heating pipes froze and we were without heating that morning. Even our cats who don't usually bother with each other were cuddling together for warmth. It was so cold it was painful. Your kids must have been, and must be, freezing.

Fair enough if your house just had adults in and you agreed to no heating. But kids don't have the choice. For the sake of £30 a month - put the heating on. You don't have to have it on sweltering. There is a thermostat you know.

ItIsWhatItIsInnit · 02/03/2020 15:17

I actually don't mind the cold...my ancestors were Russian!

I have to laugh at this - Russians are obsessed with central heating. It's always on, it's like the Bahamas indoors. Shopping centres have cloakrooms because it's too warm to walk around with a coat on.

Do people think they just sit there in -30 with an electric blanket? In my grandma's flat I walk around in a tank top and shorts.

AngelicInnocent · 02/03/2020 15:25

Bloody hell, I'm legally required to provide more heating than that to the animals here, never mind if there were kids around.

MadamShazam · 02/03/2020 15:32

You are saving £30 a month?? Seriously, put your heating on, you're not saving that much! I'd be worried about damp and mould aswell, if we didn't heat our cottage it would be riddled with the stuff!

Flaxmeadow · 02/03/2020 15:32

[clothes] will dry slowly and then stink unless they are dried outside in the wind

This is not true.
I dry my clothes cold in winter and they dry relatively quickly (unless its jeans/something heavy or I'm in a rush). They dry in just a few hours and jeans will dry overnight.
My house is clean, the air is clean and my clothes do not stink.

Moisture in your walls, furnishings etc from poor ventilation and using dryers etc will make your whole house, and anything in it, smell musty though

DianaT1969 · 02/03/2020 15:35

I want a magic kettle that holds enough for copious amounts of tea all day and water bottles for a whole family. Mine seems to hold 4 mugs maximum. 5 if I'm willing to hold it upside down and tip the limescale fragments into the cup 😕

inwood · 02/03/2020 15:37

Op are you there???

Ninkanink · 02/03/2020 15:38

OP’s probably warming her house through the power of wind them up and watch them go.....

Kinneddar · 02/03/2020 15:40

they will dry slowly and then stink unless they are dried outside in the wind

What rubbish. Plenty people dont dry clothes outside. What about all the people who live in flats etc with no outdoor space do you think they all walk about wearing smelly clothes 🙄

Chillicheese123 · 02/03/2020 15:40

@ItIsWhatItIsInnit ha I noticed the ridiculousness of that statement too. Like having some great great grandfather who was Russian/E. European makes you immune to cold!! In A lot of those places it’s boiling inside like you say and if you can’t provide a warm place for your kids to sleep there’s a bit of shame around it like you aren’t providing properly. People aren’t bragging about saving money on the heating when it’s -25!

frillyfarmer · 02/03/2020 15:41

You are ruining your house, or someone else's. Houses need to be heated as well as ventilated, regardless of how old or new they are - it's a fundamental requirement.

It honestly sounds a miserable existence.

MooseBreath · 02/03/2020 15:42

We keep our house between 16-17 degrees in the winter unless we have guests who prefer a warmer house. It's comfortable and keeps the damp out.

Flaxmeadow · 02/03/2020 15:47

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.

Yes but heating wet clothes causes rapid moisture escape and in a dryer it is confined as it is directed into the air

Say you have two separate cup fulls of water in two separate pans on a hob. You bring one to a rapid boil. The steam will hit the ceiling and potentially cause damp in the ceiling if repeated. Leave the other on a very low heat and not boiled and it will dry out and disperse more naturally

It's the same with putting clothes on radiators over and over again. The moisture is in the same confined space and it's all going the same direction up the wall. But use a clothes horse away from it and the moisture disperses better

It's actually bad for clothes to be put in dryers all the time. Apart from shrinkage, it destroys the fibres as well. Like using hairdryers is bad for your hair

poppymatilda · 02/03/2020 15:47

Not for me! I like the house to be warm and welcoming in winter. Had a friend who used to refuse to put the heating on to save money and I hate going there - used to make up excuses not to go round unless it was a warm day.

Completely up to you how you live in your own house but if it were me I'd rather be warm and forego something else

happymummy12345 · 02/03/2020 15:48

I couldn't cope with that at all. I like to be warm.

AdoptedBumpkin · 02/03/2020 15:49

I couldn't do it in the winter months. It is simply too cold in the sticks.

WorraLiberty · 02/03/2020 15:51

I dry my clothes cold in winter and they dry relatively quickly (unless its jeans/something heavy or I'm in a rush). They dry in just a few hours and jeans will dry overnight.
My house is clean, the air is clean and my clothes do not stink.

I hate to say it but you've probably gone 'nose blind' to the smell.

Damp/wet clothes and especially bedding covers/sheets do smell musty when they take a long while to dry.

And in the case of the OP (not that she's bothered coming back), they're a family of 5. So that's a hell of a lot of damp clothes bedding and towels to be hanging around in a cold house.

Wannabegreenfingers · 02/03/2020 15:55

Sounds utterly miserable, but each to their own.

VetOnCall · 02/03/2020 16:05

If this is by choice and not necessity I can't imagine anything more miserable. I'm very outdoorsy and pretty hardy (go winter camping etc.) but I can't stand being cold when I'm indoors. I find the thought of having to sit bundled up like the Michelin Man huddled under blankets clutching hot water bottles wearing a bloody hat and gloves in the house indescribably depressing. I couldn't live like that. And unless your poor kids are doing non-stop burpees like some insane Guinness World Record attempt then they must be freezing. How do they nap, read, watch TV, sit down to eat or sleep at night - they can't be 'running around' 24 hours a day. God help them when they have to sit and do homework.

I'm in Calgary and it regularly goes below -20 here in the winter; today's low is a relatively toasty -2. Houses, shops, offices and public buildings are generally very warm though. It is more often than not beautifully sunny, clear and crisp here in winter but it's still fucking baltic. Nobody would have an unheated house or dream of sitting around with hot water bottles wearing a hat and gloves indoors.

CoolcoolcoolcoolcoolNoDoubt · 02/03/2020 16:09

Damp/wet clothes and especially bedding covers/sheets do smell musty when they take a long while to dry.

Agreed. Now I spin my clothes at least 2 times before drying them, and make sure the radiators are on with my window open a crack, as soon as I put clothes on the drying rack. Otherwise they smell damp!

florascotia2 · 02/03/2020 16:12

Who said anything about dryers? I certainly don't have one or use one. Nor would I advocate one - they use a lot of energy.

All I was doing was stating the phyiscal fact that drying clothes without heat does not reduce the amount of moisture that evaporates from the clothes. It simply spreads it more thinly through the house, whether that be in the air in the rooms or on surfaces. It doesn't get rid of it.
Drying clothes with heat evaporates the moisture more quickly and yes, this does tend to make the moisture accumulate in particular places at first. But the amount of moisture evaporated remains the same. And the amount of moisture needing to be removed by ventilation from inside the house remains the same.

Other factors besides heat will influence whether the evaporated moisture is instantly visible as an accumulation. For example, thick curtains and furniture covers made from natural fibres will absorb a considerable amount of water from the air inside a house. That's not usually a good thing. It's usually better if the moisture is ventilated out of the house - and that's possible by many different methods.

But you say you open windows, anyway, so I'm not sure what the issue is.

LukeSkywalkingOnTheseHaters · 02/03/2020 16:14

YABU

heat kills corona

adaline · 02/03/2020 16:15

What rubbish. Plenty people dont dry clothes outside. What about all the people who live in flats etc with no outdoor space do you think they all walk about wearing smelly clothes

No, because they probably have central heating on, or use heated airers or tumble driers!

Very, very few people dry their clothes "cold" - and for good reason! It takes ages (no way do jeans dry overnight unless they're left on a warm radiator!), and yes, it makes your clothes smell musty after a while.

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