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.

What temperature is it in your house?

Presumably, OP's kids aren't stuck typing on laptops all day though.

That's true, but when they are older they will have to sit at their desks and do homework in the evenings. That's really horrible when your room is freezing. I remember not being able to write properly because of cold hands.

5 degree INDOOR temperature would probably get social services knocking

Sources? My point was that it's not as cold in the UK as Mumsnet seems to think it is.

I would be miserable if cold. I have heating on all day and switch it off at 11pm or when we go to bed. I also sit on sofa with snuggle blanky too. Electric blanket warming bed. Heating goes back on at 7am when DH gets up.

Our house is on 21 whilst we are in from around 4pm to 9pm then comes on automatically at 5am-8am when we are all left for work so it's warm when we get up and leave. I'd be miserable living in a cold house!

On returning from holiday in the winter my house was 10 degrees inside, yes I need heating!!! I use blankets to reduce the cost though

Outdoors, bundled up and moving, it’s perfectly fine. Indoors, it’s just uncomfortable. Op clearly agrees because she gets everyone to huddle under blankets for warmth

I feel like she said they run around a lot up-thread, but can't be bothered to check. Most under fives do move a lot. Tbh kids do seem to run warmer than adults a lot of the time anyway.

That is not 'very cold indeed'. It's -37 degrees today in Oymyakon, Russia. That's very cold indeed. 5 degrees is a bit chilly.

Seriously. You now just shooting for the sake of it. Either way you can't really compare it. As someone who grew up in a country where -15 was a norm in a winter I can tell you that this 5 degrees of dump windy cold are worst and more annoying. Dry freezing is beautiful and doesn't go under the clothes and into the bones like a rainy 5 degrees so I get what pps are saying. Cold just feels differently in different places.

It was a figure of speech.

That's a moot argument - saying it's not cold because it's worse somewhere else. 5 degrees outdoors in a puffer coat, power walking with scarf and hat would be OK. 5 degrees in your own house would be horrendous and neglectful to your kids.

Our boiler a broke a few winters ago. Dd was 2 at the time and I dressed her in so many layers she looked like a sumo wrestler but her hands and nose were freezing. She got packed off to the in laws very quickly.
The engineer wasn’t able to give a time- “sometime this weekend” so we couldn’t go and stay there too.
It was miserable. There was condensation on the inside of the windows. I went to bed in leggings and long sleeve top, pyjamas and a dressing gown, quilt and blanket and I was still cold.
It reminded me of growing up with no central heating or double glazing huddling around the electric fire. The bathroom was at the back of the house and Jesus it was freezing. Even with an oil filled radiator that plugged in. I still have a scar on my arse from that bugger.

I last had a house without CH in 2006.

Even when I was on benefits I’d happily pay £30pcm to be warm!

And not putting the heating on for babies could be neglectful- they are t drinking tea (I hope!)

As someone who grew up in a country where -15 was a norm in a winter I can tell you that this 5 degrees of dump windy cold are worst and more annoying. Dry freezing is beautiful and doesn't go under the clothes and into the bones like a rainy 5 degrees so I get what pps are saying.

I agree. You go outside in -15 dry cold, you go indoors into 25 degrees, lovely and warm instantly.

You go outside in 5 degrees damp and raining, indoors in 17 degrees, can't get warm at all.

5 degrees outdoors in a puffer coat, power walking with scarf and hat would be OK.

Really? I'd be sweltering! It was 3 degrees today when I got to work and I had a light coat on over a jumper. Scarf and hat with a power walk? I'd melt!

Anyway, I should definitely get to bed, lovely as it has been chatting to you all. Have a restful night.

Really? I'd be sweltering! It was 3 degrees today when I got to work and I had a light coat on over a jumper. Scarf and hat with a power walk? I'd melt!

Well, we're all different. I feel the cold very easily, anything under 10 degrees I'd be frozen without a big coat, hat and scarf.

@ItIsWhatItIsInnit exactly.
Though I now loath the 25 degrees😂 We always slept in colder bedrooms. About 18 or so. I now like my 18 -18.5 all the time. When it's 25 in a summer you can find me sitting in a cold bath😂
My family laughs at me now...
I do miss the nice dry freeze though. And snow

I hate being cold it just makes me miserable, I just love gas central heating!! But I don’t like it on at night so it turns off at 9am, then back on in the morning. If someone is in the house in the day in the winter then it’s on, but off if we are out.

I’m sure I read some were then in another five years the government won’t let developers but in gas in new houses!!

Can't be arsed reading the full thread but yes YABU and revoltingly stingy.

Heat your damn house and stop neglecting your DC for the sake of 30 measly pounds a month.

You have baths in Winter and just 'a wash' through Summer? ..(not envy)

I have a brief shower and then collect the water to wash our clothes in a tub, then I use the laundry water rather than flushing the loo.

I heat my home using sunshine and star power, my children pedal on exercise bikes rigged up to generators and once they've pedaled enough the lights come on. I've told them they can watch tv if they pedal enough to generate enough power to switch it on.

We have underfloor heating with stone floors and love nothing better than to come in from cold and walk barefoot. I too would be miserable if cold. How can you do that to your children? I know this won’t go down well but why have kids if you can’t give them the basic of a warm home (obviously disregard this comment if your financial situ has changed for the worse since you had them).

YABU my Dad used to be really stingy with heating. I was allowed it on in my room but if I say went downstairs to watch Eastenders he would turn it off. It was only really on properly in lounge & kitchen. It wasn't especially nice. We used to have hot water bottle & I suppose that was cosy.

We had to replace the boiler last year

We had no heating or hot water for 3 days and it was -2!!

The beds were cold, feet were freezing, kids went to friends to shower but me and DH managed with boiling the kettle for a wash down and hair wash, but having wet hair and no heating wasn’t much fun!

It went on nearly 24 hours to reheat the house.

We don’t have it on much, as like OP I find it suffocating, but too cold and you can’t function properly.

I assume the 'baths in winter' and 'just a wash in summer' is a typo and you mean the other way around?

@BecauseReasons

I can't stand the heating it makes me have flare ups so I don't like it on for a long period of time just enough to take the chill off if it's very cold.

Why do you just wash in the summer and not bath? If anything I'd do it the other way around because you'd get more sweaty n sticky in summer!