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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:
justcleanyourbloodyteeth · 02/03/2020 16:17

The OP didn't come cache then? Was this thread possibly a whole load of rubbish?

Corneliawildthing · 02/03/2020 16:19

If you ever have any visitors, do you issue them with hot water bottles and blankets as they come in?

Paintedmaypole · 02/03/2020 16:19

My experience of clothes that dry slowly is tbat they smell horrible, sorry. I do dry some clothes inside but it is warm. I just speak fro my ow experience.

Doyoumind · 02/03/2020 16:19

Of course it was, just clean.

mugoverandover · 02/03/2020 16:24

I try to keep hearing down to as little as possible, we have the heating on for a total of about 3-4 hours a day mainly when DS is home from school, not on overnight and use the obvious hot water etc.
I have a meter and spend around £50 a month on gas

amazedmummy · 02/03/2020 16:24

My boiler broke down and it took a week to get a replacement. I was bloody frozen. The temperature in my mid terraced house was 11 degrees. I had an electric heater but could only heat one room at a time. I also couldn't dry any of my clothes. It was miserable.

Flaxmeadow · 02/03/2020 16:24

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

Nope. People comment on how clean and fresh my house is and if it wasn't they would tell me, believe me

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

Only if they're still dirty and haven't been washed properly, or someone has BO

If clean clothes are left to dry in a well ventilated room, or by an open window then they will dry relatively quickly. You'd be surprised I'm sure

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.

Well the OP hasn't replied for a while and I'm not directing my posts at her anyway

Yes depends how big your house is, whether you have a washing line, how big your open windows are, how many people etc

Flaxmeadow · 02/03/2020 16:28

My experience of clothes that dry slowly is tbat they smell horrible, sorry

Never had a problem with it myself

hazell42 · 02/03/2020 16:32

I am like this, but unfortunately my kids are not. All through the winter they have had the heating on while I sat in my room with the windows open, which I know is ridiculous
I loathe being hot

copperoliver · 02/03/2020 16:36

I hate being cold I've rather go without somewhere else and use the money being warm. X

drivingtofrance · 02/03/2020 16:37

I suspect OP won't be back.

First time poster?

JemimaCuddleMuck · 02/03/2020 16:38

Anyone else waiting for OP to come back and tell us she lives in the Caribbean? Grin

Thisismytimetoshine · 02/03/2020 16:44

You may be noseblind to your own clothes, Flax, but the people in close proximity to you won’t be.

Thisismytimetoshine · 02/03/2020 16:46

I’d find it quite frankly bizarre if multiple people remarked how clean and fresh my house is, tbh.

Oysterbabe · 02/03/2020 16:50

Clothes definitely smell fresher if they are dried quickly via a tumble dryer or heated airer over just left at room temp. I've done plenty of both.

BackforGood · 02/03/2020 16:51

What odd claims.

Not sure how you can be 'drinking copious amounts of tea' and 'filling hot water bottles' through boiling the kettle once and putting the water you don't use for that round of drinks into a flask.

No idea how you can be getting clothes dry.

I do know that some people have to choose very carefully how to spend their money; that they have to limit their heating; that actually £30per month can make a big difference to some families' budgets but this doesn't add up in terms of what you claim to be doing and what the savings would be long term.

WorraLiberty · 02/03/2020 16:54

Sorry, I still think you're probably nose blind to the smell.

I didn't mean your house anyway, I meant your clothes.

No matter how clean your house smells and how clean your machine got the clothes, hanging around waiting to dry in the cold, does make them smell stale and musty.

And if you're used to that then no, you won't smell it yourself.

Flaxmeadow · 02/03/2020 17:00

You may be noseblind to your own clothes, Flax, but the people in close proximity to you won’t be

Nope.

I’d find it quite frankly bizarre if multiple people remarked how clean and fresh my house is, tbh.

We're all different

LaurieMarlow · 02/03/2020 17:01

Nope

You’re in no position to say that though.

Ariela · 02/03/2020 17:03

I had a friend lived in a middle flat in a terrace for 3 years and never ever used her central heating.
We barely use any (thermostat at 15) because we were layers of clothes if cold.

Ariela · 02/03/2020 17:03

*wear not were

Paintedmaypole · 02/03/2020 17:06

If a gale is blowing through your well ventilated home your clothes will indeed dry quickly and smell fresh. If they dry slowly they will smell- of damp, not BO.

LochJessMonster · 02/03/2020 17:09

This was like the house of one of my school friends. I remember her saying her Dad only put the heating on for 1 hour in the morning and only from the 1st November. They wore so many jumpers. She was miserable, I felt really sorry for her and her siblings.

readingismycardio · 02/03/2020 17:13

If this is real, this sounds like child abuse to me. Sorry.

Flaxmeadow · 02/03/2020 17:13

Sorry, I still think you're probably nose blind to the smell.

What smell?

I didn't mean your house anyway, I meant your clothes.

What's wrong with them?

No matter how clean your house smells and how clean your machine got the clothes, hanging around waiting to dry in the cold, does make them smell stale and musty.

Have you tried hotter washes or putting less clothes in the machine? Or washing them more frequently?

And if you're used to that then no, you won't smell it yourself.

You see it all depends on how clean you and your clothes are doesn't it? How clean the rinse is and so on

Someone might wear Jean's and a shirt for a few hours and then wash them and dry them in the fresh air and they will not smell

Someone else might wear the same clothes for a few days. Not wash them properly and then stick them in the dryer but no amount of fabric softener perfume could get rid of a stale dirty smell. It just makes it a sickly dirty stale smell

Noseblind can work both ways can't it?

It isnt about how you dry them. It's about how clean you and your clothes are and how well ventilated clothes are while they dry. Same with a house. To me a dryer or radiator does not provide good enough ventilation to dry clothes properly but like I said, we're all different