We are too used to Central heating..

[Dampclout]

Until the 1980s very few houses had central heating. Most people heated one room, had hot water bottles at bedtime and wore warm clothes. I can recall quickly going out of the warm front room and shutting the door behind me, if I wasn't quick enough there would be be the shout of ‘shut that door’
Nowadays I wear a tee shirt in winter and keep my house at 20c… I think I will be going back to my childhood ways this winter..

so did my parents, although I dont think it was common.My parents had coke fired heating using a boiler which you had to fill with coke as my dad after much research had decided it was the future!

The issue isn't central heating is too hot its that the % of income spent on energy is going to be treble that of what it cost between 1950 and 1980.

That is going to have a massive impact on the economy.

Some of that is valid but I think there is a growing recognition that its actually regressive for us to be heating areas to a level that the planet cant sustain

Same with cooling, like with air con, there are public information campaigns during summer months in countries with big usage like the continent for example

My thermostat is rarely set at anything over 18C and I wear layers, warm cardigans or a dressing gown in the evenings and thermal socks. Fortunately my cats like to snuggle up for warmth too. When it's really cold in the middle of winter though the worst part is breathing in the cold air, nothing helps with that.

I think the very first reply, from @chillipenguin sums it up really.

I also think some people have their time lines / view of recent history very wrong.

I still don't have central heating. We have a wood burner in the living room and a small heater in the back room.
No heat in our bedroom.

My relatives find my house cold but we are used to it. You do adapt

I remember laughing when a health visitor said my old granite flat should be 20 degrees. It never got there even with storage heaters. Dozens of babies must have been raised in that building over the years in nothing like a constant 20 degrees

We very rarely use the heating.... unless it’s gone down to about -5 then we usually only put on for 2/3 hours to heat the house and that’s it. Just throw on a jumper or bring out the duvets. We leave the oven open after cooking. The heating won’t be the problem for us. It’s everything else...

My DH (43) was brought up in a house with no central heating. He had black mould on his walls due to poor ventilation/ condensation and was constantly I'll with bronchitis over winter months. His brother became asthmatic. DH is still prone to chest infections if he gets flu (fortunately rarely) but last time he did 2019 he got pneumonia along with it. But we're too dependent on central heating.....

This is exactly what the govt wants. People to just accept living in discomfort in the 21st century so they can carry on lining their pockets at our expense.

It's not criminal to want to be warm. Or to stop your house from disintegrating from damp. It's not criminal to want to be able to feed yourself and your kids three decent meals a day without having to say "it's food or light kids, get used to it!".

Do I think some people could benefit from being more savvy? Yes of course. Do I think that most people are pretty savvy already and are having to consider some pretty dire circumstances? Also yes.

We don’t have central heating. We manage to keep warm and snug without it. My husband is disabled and asthmatic and he hates being hot. He likes the window open all year round, so when it is really cold outside we take it in turns; open one night, shut the next 😂

You don’t need a fireplace to install a wood burner , they can be put almost anywhere now.

But the 1960's - 80s were not feudal times, and whilst we didn't have some things available now, we also didn't have some other things like dangerous levels of air pollution

Just to point out, air pollution has decreased by over 70% since the 70s.

Oh goodie we get to go back in time 40+ years! Marvellous.

In the 1980s, we had high ceilings in our house, single glazed windows, an inefficient heating system that my father guarded like some demented miser..

We had a log burner in the living room.

We spent time in a cottage we owned too - that had no heating except a log burner.

We spent a LOT of time being cold, but we were young, fit, healthy, we ran around a lot, we could wear multiple layers, we had the privilege of healthy and mobility. But i absolutely know what it is like, what it was like then, what it will be like again.

Now I am 42, and I don't have a log burner, I can't forage free wood and coal like we did as kids.

I can't wear multiple layers (because TMI, accidents occur frequently, and I can't get in and out of them myself), I can't regulate my own temperature well and can't be removing/replacing layers frequently.

I suffer pressure sores, which again doesn't work well with layering, the slightest wrinkle can fuck me up for weeks.

I have a central heating system that heats three radiators downstairs. THere are none upstairs, this house wasn't fitted with a full fucking system and ive been saving for the last 10 years to get that sorted... wont be happening any time soon now though.

There is no fire, no gas fire, no log fire, nothing.

The double glazing needs replacing, but again, on one wage, and that of a freelance writer/dog trainer/illustrator, feeding two adults and a very expensive disabled lifestyle... nope, thats not happening either.

I struggled LAST winter, and I could afford to run the heating then. Permanently fucking cold with a drippy noise, horrific muscle spasms from being so goddamn cold, waking in the night freezing, tripping and falling because my feet hurt when I do have to stand, pressure sores because i haven't moved much cos im wrapped in layers and can't, and in any case, bits of me went NUMB with cold I could not feel the fucking three inch hole forming in my back..

BuT wE sUrViVeD bAcK tHeN wE'lL bE FiNe NoW...

Thats not true, some folk didn't survive then, old folk often didn't, disabled, chronically ill and fragile children didn't, winter would see a huge increase in deaths as a direct result of people being unable to eat enough or heat their homes.

The same thing will happen again.

Some of us won't be fine. Some of us will die.

I hate central heating. I'm currently in shorts & t-shirt with the windows open!

@Quveas I had pretty much constant bronchitus as a child as well as crippling asthma- born 1970.
Our flat was freezing, mouldy and we relied on bar heaters and oil heaters.

I had to attend regular bronchitus and chest clinics and I got to know other children also attending quite well.

I was left with lifelong asthma which is very much exacerbated by mould, damp and cold.

Guessing it's not summer where you are, or that's not a particularly worthwhile boast 😄

I live in a smoke controlled area so wouldn't be able to use wood without the risk of a fine.

With fuel prices going crazy, its not wrong to point out that people managed before central heating. Whether I can heat my house to the dizzying heights of enabling me to wear a tee shirt in winter is mine alone to contemplate.

The wood burners will really help

I grew up in a house with no heating in the bedrooms. I would dress and undress under my nightie but it was still fucking freezing.

As a teenager, the choice was: stay in the living room where it was warm but the TV was on constantly and there was no privacy or peace and quiet, or try and do homework or read in my bedroom whilst my fingers and nose went numb with the cold.

These were not the good old days.

It's also not wrong to point out that fuel prices going crazy doesn't just have to be accepted as "one of those things"

You get a DEFRA approved appliance for those areas

Admittedly it is August and one of the warmest summers we've had for a while

DH and I still live like that! I've never got out of the habit of not having the heating on.

Although we have central heating in the house, I just don't see the point of heating the whole house when we're mostly using just one room.

We are fortunate to have a wood burner in the living room, which kicks out a lot of heat, so we barely use the radiators.
In the depths of winter (January to March) I put the heating on for an hour or two first thing in the morning, with the thermostat set to 15, but we usually keep the bedroom radiators switched off.

I'm in the habit of throwing open the bedroom windows once the sun is up, so the upstairs of the house is often below 10 degrees. I'm used to it and just wear several layers and fingerless gloves.

In the evening, I often have to strip down to my vest because the wood burner is so warm! The living room could be 25 degrees, but the rest of the house about 12 degrees.

I can afford to keep my house at my chosen temperature, if you are happy at 18 degrees then well done you.

So you start a thread saying people are too user to central heating, then you get cross when someone points out your excessive central heating usage Ok...