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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Why would you not want a heated blanket?

304 replies

Swanfairydust · 02/12/2021 00:38

I live with another person and they have been working from home all day. The heating has been turned up to 23/25 degrees (I can see from the app). I didn’t think it was partially cold today - between 8-10 degrees but I have been told my spare room can get cold.

The thermometer is usually kept in her room but it was in the living room for a few weeks (she was away, didn’t want it kept in her room).

As the radiators were turned down low the temperature didn’t increase in the living room and as a result her bedroom radiator has been on full power all day (there is no tmv).

I have told her to put the thermostat back in her room (third time of asking, so this time it was

outside her room and told h

OP posts:
Original poster
Swanfairydust · 03/12/2021 14:06

@motherofcatsandbears

If she’s WFH all day in her room, why not get her one of those low energy electric heaters? There are loads on Amazon for about £25. She may well have purchased a blanket online so of course she wouldn’t be bringing it back home with her. I do think you’re being a CF by going into her room though - I know it’s your house, but if she’s paying you for her room, you should respect her privacy. I think there’s more going on behind the scenes that you’ve not mentioned.
What’s a low energy heater? I’ve got a dyson one which is efficient.
OP posts:
Original poster
Swanfairydust · 03/12/2021 14:06

[quote FinallyHere]@GetTheFlockOutOfHere

If (for example) you have 10 rooms, and you have a radiator in each one, and you switch 5 of them off, you are still using the same amount of gas.. Switching any radiators off to save money doesn't work. Not with gas central heating.

This statement lacks any mention of the location of the thermostat, which controls the boiler. It is at best, incomplete if not just wrong.

If the thermostat is in a room with the radiator switched on, it will indeed cause the boiler to switch off when the set temperature is reached, in that room or area.

If the thermostat is anywhere else, it will keep the boiler on until ... the area the thermostat is in reaches the set temperature and may indeed increase the efforts required by the boiler.

Simples.

[/quote]
Exactly!

OP posts:
Original poster
Swanfairydust · 03/12/2021 14:07

@FluffyBooBoo

She's not a landlord

What is she then? A landlady? Are you getting gender-specific here? Because I don't know anyone that uses that term any more.

She says it's her house and she rents out a room to a lodger. That makes her a resident landlord.

Makes them a lodger with no rights.
OP posts:
FluffyBooBoo · 03/12/2021 16:26

Makes them a lodger with no rights

I'm not sure how that's relevant to my post Confused, but sure. Lodgers have very few rights.

valnevavaxx · 03/12/2021 16:59

You sound unhinged, OP. I hope your lodger leaves.

EberhardtSmallcock · 03/12/2021 17:07

@valnevavaxx

You sound unhinged, OP. I hope your lodger leaves.
And you don't exactly sound like a bed of roses when you say that.

OP, I have RTFT, and I think you're actually being perfectly reasonable. I was a lodger for a time as a postgrad, and I expected to abide by the rules of the house, and not take the piss by doing things like having the heating on all the time. When I was cold, I did what I do at home now, and filled a hot water bottle and put a cardy and slippers on. As a lodger, you are paying for the use of the sleeping space and, possibly, kitchen, and are paying a share of the bills. This does not mean your room is your little private empire which the house-owner can never enter.

I did also lodge with a truly batshit women, btw. There was a lock on the door, but she used it to make sure I couldn't come out at night in case I ate their jam. Confused

I didn't stay there very long.

Interesting that a third of the people who voted also think the OP is being reasonable, but presumably don't dare say so because the noisy majority are convinced she's a weird stalker and keep reinforcing this view to one another.

godmum56 · 03/12/2021 17:43

@spotcheck

Bloody hell OP

Put the heating on a schedule

Buy her an oil filled heater. If she uses it tons, she can buy extra oil

It's perfectly possible she ordered a blanket on Amazon

Stop going in her room. Everyone has said it's not on and you still make excuses. Cut it out

ermm oil filled radiators don't use up the oil.....
THEDEACON · 03/12/2021 17:54

You sound like a nightmare to live with You should not be entering her room!

Meowenstein · 03/12/2021 18:07

As long as it’s OP who is actually paying for the bill, I don’t see how it’s reasonable for the lodger to have heating up to 25 degrees. I bet the lodger would turn the heating down if it was her house and she was the one paying the bill.

Elle2018 · 03/12/2021 18:11

OP you sound like my ex - could live in a freezing house no problem. I however hate the cold and I would hate to live somewhere that was cold the majority of the time. 16 degrees is rather chilly, in fact I believe that this is the minimum working temperature….if your house was a workplace you’d have to send everyone home if it dipped below 😂
Let her increase her money towards the bills and have her room warm.

Mirw · 03/12/2021 18:11

I don't understand central heating never having had it. But if your bills are getting unmanageable she needs to pay the difference as well as her share. Then there is no problem. If she won't pay, you can get a lock for most radiators and for some thermostats so they will not go higher than say 20 degrees.

Mirw · 03/12/2021 18:13

Maybe ask her to have her thyroid checked as an under active thyroid would make her cold. But an over active thyroid could make her too hot in some situations and cold in others.

Theoldwrinkley · 03/12/2021 18:21

I have this sort of issue. I don't want to lose a good lodger, but his room is tropical! He is from Poland so it's not as if cold weather is a novel idea, but he'll wander round in tee-shirt, whereas I have 4 fleece layers on. He has a moan, but I turn a deaf ear, and it's more of a neighbourly 'pulling of legs rather than serious discontent. His room is only small, so fingers crossed bill won't be too horrendous. And our solar panel inverter has pack in, so now we aren't generating any power ourselves.

Mantlemoose · 03/12/2021 18:48

A heated blanket does nothing when you are typing and your head and nose get cold so yes, you need the room heated. Hence why I'm back in the office and never working from home again - my house is very old and too expensive to heat so £6 from the gov does beggar all :)

Zzzsotired · 03/12/2021 19:00

Is this person your nanny or au pair? You certainly appear to see yourself as far superior. Perhaps you need a contract with this person since you’re unhappy. It all seems really rather strange, the whole set up - I suspect much more to this than has been posted.

Oartistic · 03/12/2021 19:10

@THEDEACON

You sound like a nightmare to live with You should not be entering her room!
You do know the lodger could just move out if she didn't like living with the OP?
BooneyBeautiful · 03/12/2021 19:17

Doesn’t even use bed sheets on her duvet

What does that mean? Doesn't she have a bottom sheet and a duvet cover?

Vynalbob · 03/12/2021 19:36

Put a timer on for when you're both out... or something similar eg smart plug.

Maybe easier if she pays a little bit more

AppleJane · 03/12/2021 20:17

@BooneyBeautiful

Doesn’t even use bed sheets on her duvet

What does that mean? Doesn't she have a bottom sheet and a duvet cover?

It probably means she has a bottom sheet but can't be arsed to put the duvet cover on and sleeps directly under the naked duvet.

Merryweather80 · 03/12/2021 20:24

My heating has been on three times for thirty min at a time so far this winter. It’s a luxury. What did people do before central heating. It’s not necessary. Fwiw I’m disabled and can’t move very well. My circulation is shocking But tough it costs too much.

TracyBeakerSoYeah · 03/12/2021 20:36

@Meowenstein

As long as it’s OP who is actually paying for the bill, I don’t see how it’s reasonable for the lodger to have heating up to 25 degrees. I bet the lodger would turn the heating down if it was her house and she was the one paying the bill.
The lodger is taking the piss & completely stupid if she's cranking up the heating sky high whilst lazing around in shorts & a t shirt complaining that she's cold!
AnotherDelphinium · 03/12/2021 20:47

@TheLovelinessOfBaublyDemons

It’s their space. It’s my house. I guess you don’t have someone living with you? Full control of your house?

OP when someone lodges with you it's not normal to just walk into their room when you feel like it. If I were her I'd be looking for somewhere with a lock on the bedroom door.

It’s completely normal to have full access to the lodgers room, it’s normally explicitly written into the contract. It’s a bit strange to go looking for a blanket, but I make clear to my lodger her room will be vacuumed once a week, so she knows I’m going in there, and I’ll vacuum as much floor space as I can access.
ErmineAndPearls · 03/12/2021 21:27

Sorry if this has been asked upthread, I haven’t read ALL ten pages on this fascinating subject, although I do appreciate an OP who has stamina and doesn’t flounce off after a few challenges! Are you and your lodger from… em… different backgrounds? I’m guessing the OP is in her 40s and from Scotland. DLodger is in her 20s and from… Spain?
We have what we call the Thermostat Wars in this house. DH turns it up to 21, I get a headache and turn it down to 14. Ad infinitude. Guess who does the housework and who sits still all day?

SammyScrounge · 03/12/2021 21:30

@MintJulia

23-28 is very high. Is she someone who refuses to dress for winter?

I wouldn't want a heated blanket but I wear a sweater & socks. She sounds self-indulgent. I'd ask her to pay an extra £10 a week in heating or look for another house mate.

It is high. Thyroid trouble? A colleague of mine was furious at the temperature his wife kept the house at. He used to turn down the thermostat behind her back. And she would start feeling really cold. Eventually he realised there was something wrong (she was wearing big Aran jumpers in the summer) and she had thyroid problems.
Yummypumpkin · 03/12/2021 21:35

I once got food poisoning from a battered sausage in Berwick Upon Tweed.

I threw up on the heated blanket at the B and B.

I was only 10 and when we got home from holiday the next day, my hamster had died.

Thinking something similar might have happened?