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.

I'd be really worried about damp to be honest. Do you open your windows to air the house?

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

unless you really cannot afford this, I'd rather spend the money and have a nice warm home. Hot water bottles. Gosh, my grandparents did that in the war I guess.

Mumto1girl3boys Mon 02-Mar-20 10:17:53
Im more concerned that you dont bath in the summer😱 digusting
..........
Quite agree, it's awful. Op, do you not have a shower?

You say you save £30 a month by not having heating on but do you spend £30 (or more) per month on other, non essential things?

A cold house is an inhospitable one. Back in the day people didn't have central heating, they went through the palaver of lighting a coal fire or having a fuel burning stove in the 'essential' rooms. Bathroom heater was only on when necessary. I am 70 and remember all that, we all put off going upstairs to the toilet in the evening because of the cold.

We are, however, not living in the 1950s and, quite rightly, expect more.

Friends of your children will live in comfortable, centrally heated homes and will notice the cold in your house when they visit. How embarrassing for them.

You could at least put the heating on a timer for morning and late afternoon/evening.

I grew up in a cold house as my parents refused to use the central heating. We had a gas fire I the lounge, and that was it. Hot water bottles in bed and blankets. I fucking hated it. I now cannot bear to be cold when I'm at home. I live in an old house that we can struggle to heat but I do my absolute best to make sure it's nice and warm when we're home.
Unless you have to live that way because you don't have the money to afford proper heating, then I think it's pretty ridiculous and potentially neglectful to your DC's. Teaching them to be sensible and mindful about money is one thing. Teaching them to be miserly (and suffer the consequences) is quite another.

WalkingDeadTrainee - I prefer it cooler. My DH likes it warmer so we compromised at 19°. The engineer who replaced our boiler was quite surprised, generally speaking, it's the other way around! (Generally being operative word)

Even when it is cold I don't like the way the air goes with the heating on. I'd rather use blankets, clothes etc.

"nobody had central heating 40 years ago"
That doesn't mean they had no heating.

It sounds bloody miserable and slightly exaggerated. How can you drink 'copious' amounts of tea from one kettle full? Unless it's a kettle the size of a fish tank.

Yeah that's a fair point about exaggeration.

'Copious' amounts of tea and hot water bottles all round for a family, from one flask of water

Is this the new MN chicken?

We had no central heating growing up, but the fire was lit first thing, and kept going all day so at least one room was warm. My family were poor and had no choice, no way would I choose to live like that, I would rather save money some other way. Drinking all day from a thermos and not bathing, by choice? That is just weird. No wonder the DC spend their time running around, no doubt they are freezing.

I only have 1 heater in the downstairs of my house and 1 in my son's room. It is a 3 bed house. Neither of us feel the cold. I sleep with my bedroom window open most nights (even in the winter).

I hate being too hot. My parents were the same. I think we have odd extra warm blood or something!

nobody had central heating 40 years ago

I must have imagined the radiators in the house I grew up in then.

I do find it odd that MN is so obsessed with the environment yet people happily admit to having their heating on “full blast” for half the year. I guess you only have to save the planet in ways that don’t inconvenience you or cause you any discomfort 😉.

nobody had central heating 40 years ago

Houses were routinely built with central heating in the 1960s, that’s a lot more than 40 years ago.

TabbyMums: Colds are viruses you dont get them from being cold.
......
Cold temperatures lower immunity to viruses and viruses can lead to bronchitis, pneumonia, etc, which usually start off as viral and often evolve into bacterial infections.

I hate being cold and have my heating on night and day, lower temp at night of course.

It was actually written into a lease agreement for a previous home that we had to keep the house heated above a certain temperature to prevent damp and cold damage. I can’t remember exactly, but I’m sure the magic figure was “at least 12 degrees”.

Yesterday was a warm day??

Are you in the UK? I'm in the south east and yesterday was bitter, especially when the wind blew.

op is patent bollocks.

i grew up without central heating/coal fire only and it was bloody miserable. just the smell of calor gas heaters gives me flashbacks

we put central heating in our place (terrace, western uk) and it keeps the damp under control. otherwise house was basically returning to the earth on the side of the prevailing wind/rain.

Tbh this annoys me so much because if you’re middle class with a semi in a ‘decent’ area, and little Tabby and Seb are freezing in their beds and have musty uniforms at school and unwashed hair it’s seen as being ‘environmentally friendly’ and all jolly cups of tea and knitted blankets . If you were a 22 year old single mum in a council house who couldn’t put the heating on and her kids uniforms were damp smelling and they told their teacher that they’re cold but Mum gives them a hot water bottle and tells them to be quiet, it would be a bloody child protection issue and everyone would be so sad for the kids !

And how do you dry your clothes, OP?

Having children isn’t good for the environment.
Having 3 certainly isn’t.

It’s a bit of a contradiction on ops part, I don’t really understand the point of this post really 🤯.

"nobody had central heating 40 years ago"

They had fires though. Either coal fires in certain rooms or gas heaters or whatever. Not having central heating is not the same as not having any heating at all.

Lynda's right, you're more vulnerable to catching a cold when you're cold.

Can I ask what is wrong with woolly jumpers?

Maybe your kids are running around to keep warm?

Our heating comes on when Nest detects that the temperature has dropped below 20 degrees. It doesn't cost £30 a month to heat our house, it just ticks over keeping it a steady temperature. So it never gets really cold and doesn't activate if the temperature is above 21.

When I was a kid we had central heating downstairs only, the bedrooms had a couple of those portable electric radiators that weren't particularly effective. No way will my child have to suffer the horribleness of a cold damp house like I had to, why would I inflict that on him when there's no need?

Storage heaters are shite compared to proper gas fired central heating, but if that's what you have and you don't want them on anyway, fill your boots.

nobody had central heating 40 years ago

We had central heating installed 1973, so more like 50 years ago.

Why don't you shower in the summer?

My house would be freezing and damp if the heating wasn't on. It's a large, pre war house.

MIL on the other hand lives in a brand new 2 bedroom flat, never has her heating on. It doesn't drop below 18 degrees even in the winter. In the summer it's unbearably hot.