Can we use public building to stay warm?

[Jobseeker19]

For example can we sit in the library or town hall for hours and use their central heating and charge our devices in their plugs?

I'm wondering if it will come to this if people cannot afford the new energy prices.

[quote shouldistop]@JustWonderingIfYou my thermostat is set to 16 degrees and to keep the house at that temperature the heating was on for a total of 9 hours yesterday.
Without the thermostat on my house can drop below 12 degrees in the winter. I've never left it long enough to see how much colder it can get but it probably would eventually. [/quote]
Our radiators have individual thermostats on. Our coldest room is usually 7.3 degrees at its coldest. The warmest about 13 degrees after 24 hours with no heating.

It's a very draughty old Victorian end terrace. The draughtiness is awful for heating, but great for staving off damp.

@Tryingtokeepgoing

How much did it cost to do all of the work to your house? Consider the fact that (especially now) many cannot afford to pay out such a large sum; plus those in rental properties are at the mercy of their landlord.

Not everyone has the luxury of living in a modern, well-insulated home either.

It's really not hard to see past the end of your nose if you try.

Personally, I live in a very old, draughty house with high ceilings. It's been insulated as much as possible, yet it still gets extremely cold when the heating isn't on. Mine is currently on at 24 degrees, and that is just about tolerable with all internal doors shut, thick pyjamas/dressing gown/socks..
The thermostat comes on at roughly 5am and that warms the house enough for when we (6yo and I) get up at 7ish, it then has to be on consistently to hold it's temperature.

I am disabled, but even when my father comes to stay he complains of how cold it can get. Luckily, the energy bills aren't a huge concern for me (yet) but we'd be fucked if they were.

It's a good point about unheated houses and mould - I've seen stories locally about flats and houses in a dreadful state. Often HA properties, built relatively recently, but clearly very poor quality construction. Those conditions cause long term health problems. Although I don't agree with the tactics of Insulate Britain they have a point about our housing stock, especially the newer ones.

In the 70s and 80s there were fire places.

Even in the 90s I remember sitting around a small gas fire. They have all been pulled out of social and most private housing now.

So when people talk about there being lack of central heating and how everyone coped they are forgetting that they had fire places to at least heat one room.

And if you had a real fire place you could use wood and random thrown away things to feed it.

It is not the same as now.

@EYProvider

You’d think the UK was the North Pole from some of the comments on here. It’s only really a bit chilly during most winters apart from one or two odd days. Can’t you just put an extra jumper on?

My house goes down to single digits with no heating - found this out when the boiler broke while I was away.

My previous flat had no central heating and hovered around 10 degrees in the winter. Gloves, clothes, dressing gown, and still had incredibly painful chilblains. Also pretty much gave up on bathing during the winter so as not to be wet and naked in that temp.

Bit more required than "just putting a jumper on"

The UK is terrible for the humidity - cold and humid does not make for a fun time.

Hence everyone going to the library to keep warm

So I’d be very surprised if a modern house with double glazing curtains, cavity wall insulation and decent loft insulation was that difficult or expensive to keep warm, even at todays energy prices

I live in a 30s semi, not a very efficient modern house. The area I live in is chock full of 100+ year old terraces. A decent proportion still only have single glazing. There is no cavity to fill because 100+ years ago they didnt build houses with much of a cavity, they cant insulate the roof because it's a room and they use it. Because 100+ years ago that's how they were built to maximise the useable space.

This is not an uncommon place, across the north of England these kinds of places exist. In the thousands.

And even if we all lived in perfect modern homes that use very little fuel to keep warm, still bills are doubling, so for anyone on a fixed income that's a probable crisis.

Am I really reading posters telling people to just pull on a jumper

Where is the anger and empathy ? The understanding that this is fucking obscene

So many people (myself and my children included) already wear jumpers in the house. So many people already have a half and half system (myself included, I often eat porridge as my main meal), and already work full Time, as I do and we already habe the heating set to 18.5 / 19 degrees. We live in Scotland and rent privately an ex 1950s council house which is poorly Insulated. We often wake up to temperatures of 14 degrees after only having the heating off during the night.

But I'm assured by the posters who love a race to the bottom, comforted that they grew up in 1970s with only a gas fire / coal fire (neither of which are even common place now) and double duvets. Thank you.

I'm sure those same people would treat friends and family with the same contempt and tell them to pull on a jumper.

We gave a huge 1959 built house with no insulation. It's a tied house so we don't own it. We also have turned of heating to unused rooms but even if with heating on its still cold but we can keep it tolerable. I haven't sitting bed to work at times as itsxso cold.

@EYProvider

You’d think the UK was the North Pole from some of the comments on here. It’s only really a bit chilly during most winters apart from one or two odd days. Can’t you just put an extra jumper on?

Really? Im in the SE and its 2 degrees this morning. My house gets bloody cold.

I hope all the libraries give homeless folk the same offer.

As someone who lives in the north in a single brick 1860’s weavers house and whose boiler went off last night because it needed topping up I can confirm that it’s very cold! Heating went back on as soon as we found out but it’s -3 here and the house won’t warm up until at least lunchtime.

Reading through this thread it's really clear that the shoddy build quality of much of our housing is a real problem here in the UK. Thank fuck the government has been so slow to require builders to do more than the minimum to improve standards eh? Now our newest homes are better for cold but shit for heat, something that could be avoided with just a modicum of thought and improved design.

My house is on a cliff top in the Scottish highlands. We have loft and wall insulation and double glazing. It is still freezing. We warm one room and dress warmly. We have two duvets and hot water bottles in the beds. We have lived with little heat for the last twenty odd years. We have two dehumidifiers to keep the damp at bay, but they also help dry clothes on an airer and warm the room a little. So are worth the money. I have also been known to hang things to dry in the greenhouse.

I am aware it is not the same thing but we get regular power cuts so have torches (battery and wind up), a large stock of batteries, solar\wind up radio, lanterns (battery and solar) and camping stoves. Some of these things can be brought fairly cheaply. A lot of people already have many of these things. Board games and radio by lantern light have kept us all going for days during bleak freezing storms with no electricity. Small children think lanterns are fun. I can still read books using a head torch. So thats the things I would think about getting to prepare for in advance of the high bills. Especially if there is a risk of being put on a prepay meter at some point. A few days indoor camping may stretch the electricity a bit more.

CV19 working from home is another big issue too. Most people in the UK have central heating on morning as they get up and when they get back from work late on in the day as the children are out at school and both parents working all day. if suddenly yo have to work from home all day not only don't your employers pay the extra heating and electricity bills but they also are trying to pay lower wages as people do not have commuting costs.

My house is double glazed and has some but not huge amounts of loft insulation. The loft is still many degrees colder than the house though.

My house regularly gets down to 14 or 13 just overnight so I think it would get pretty cold without the heating on.

I work from home and generally cave about 2pm by which point the house is down to 15.5 degrees and even with thick socks, slippers, thick leggings, thermal vest, dress and proper wool jumper and a blanket over my knees I'm still cold. I am a generally fairly cold person but keep the house heated to 18 as a rule.

You can but I wouldn’t charge devices more than necessary as fundamentally it will be paid for with council tax rises if it’s the library/town hall.

My bathroom’s temperature range is about 8-15 in winter whether I use heating or not and I’ve never got chilblains from it and I still manage to shower

@JustBlethering

So I’d be very surprised if a modern house with double glazing, curtains, cavity wall insulation and decent loft insulation was that difficult or expensive to keep warm, even at todays energy prices

Does everyone live in a modern, well insulated house in the same part of the UK then?

Agreed.

As a PP says, the housing stock has a huge impact on how well something can be insulated. I've family members who live in homes that are impossible to insulate meaningfully because they're 1950s social housing design with >40% glazing/non-solid wall front and back frontage (terrace house with picture windows and partial barge board cladding with what used to be asbestos behind the cladding ).

They've got curtains everywhere. When there's no heating on, their home is reliably

We have partial double glazing, cavity wall in insulation not possible, have loft insulation and curtains - although most neighbours have blinds or shutters.

[quote TinselTitsAndGlitteryBits]@Tryingtokeepgoing

How much did it cost to do all of the work to your house? Consider the fact that (especially now) many cannot afford to pay out such a large sum; plus those in rental properties are at the mercy of their landlord.

Not everyone has the luxury of living in a modern, well-insulated home either.

It's really not hard to see past the end of your nose if you try.

Personally, I live in a very old, draughty house with high ceilings. It's been insulated as much as possible, yet it still gets extremely cold when the heating isn't on. Mine is currently on at 24 degrees, and that is just about tolerable with all internal doors shut, thick pyjamas/dressing gown/socks..
The thermostat comes on at roughly 5am and that warms the house enough for when we (6yo and I) get up at 7ish, it then has to be on consistently to hold it's temperature.

I am disabled, but even when my father comes to stay he complains of how cold it can get. Luckily, the energy bills aren't a huge concern for me (yet) but we'd be fucked if they were.[/quote]
I think you’ve missed the point I was trying to make, sorry if it wasn’t clear enough… All I was saying is that a few simple and relatively cheap changes made a massive difference to keeping an old, single glazed house with high ceilings warm. The loft insulation and draft proofing cost a few hundred pounds. The refurb of the windows cost a lot more, but that was for aesthetic/longevity reasons and won’t have had much, if any, impact above the draft proofing on the energy efficiency. Effective use of blinds/shutters/window coverings ensures that heat stays in the building. The other thing that helped was blocking up unseen chimneys with those chimney balloon things. If these things work on my house then surely they’ll work as well on others :)

The quality of U.K. housing stock is pretty poor from an energy efficiency perpective, but simple changes can help. It’d never be worth me spending money on double glazing…the cost would be >£40k for windows acceptable to the conservation lot, and I’d lose the original glass. And save under £400 a year even at current prices. I can’t insulate the walls as again it’d obscure original features. But even in a modern home simple things like the effective use of window coverings will make a difference.

If these things work on my house then surely they’ll work as well on others

An evidence-based approach would suggest that those things possibly work in a similar fashion on similar buildings in similar regions (built on drained land or not) with similar weather conditions. Extrapolating beyond that would probably be speculation rather than an evidence-based investment strategy or sufficient evidence on which to ground advice to people living in different circumstances or housing stock.

@Jobseeker19

I'm thinking that after work and picking the children up from school I'm going to have to find somewhere to burn time in the winter.

Even Prets monthly subscription seems value for money now.

You'd need to sit in Pret at least 5 hors, you can only have 1 drink an hour on the subscription (up to 5 drinks)

I couldn't use my library for this as it had no toilet and wouldn't allow eating or drinking. There was a one hour limit on the PCs and the printing was 10p a sheet.

I go to cafes where I can eek out 4 hours on one cup of tea.

@RedskyThisNight

Do wonder how many of the people currently keen to wfh will want to return to the office and someone else's heating bills ...

Been wfh for the last 2 years - keeping the house to a reasonable temp for the 8hrs I'm working costs me approx £1- even if this doubles to £2 that will be £10 a week in heating compared to approx £35-40 in fuel costs (if petrol prices don't also go up), and saving 7hrs of time (so nearly another working day). And I have a relatively easy commute of about 30-40mins all on a motorway. I imagine unless you live within walking distance of your office, most people's heating will still be cheaper than commuting costs.

I fully intend to do this when our cap ends in April. There’s no point in me heating my house just for me, when I can go and use the library for free and work from there. I’ll probably be far more productive too, and thinner because I won’t keep boredom snacking