To say turning heating “off” will make the house unbearably freezing?

[HairyKitty]

I can’t afford the fuel bills with the price rises. But we are at home full time in an old poorly insulated terrace.
But surely, whether the heatings is hard off (or set at a low temp so it doesn’t come on) after 2 or 3 days of this in winter the house would be very very cold for us to live in full time, most likely about 14/15 degrees?
How do people cope in winter who actually have the heating off in old houses and are home full time?

@KnickerlessParsons you had a coal fire. That's the difference between then and now.

Most days ds and I are out from 5am until 8pm (he's a swimmer!)

I plan of lowering my thermostat from 18 to 16/17 because I don't want to be paying to heat an empty house!

And then put it up to 18 on the one day of the week we are home evenings and again at the weekend if needs be.

I'll monitor and register my gas readings weekly and if this keeps usage below last years and cost around the same or marginally (10%) higher I'll continue.

If it doesn't I'll have a rethink.

We do have electric blankets

I grew up without central heating too, but we had other heat sources which were used. We had a coal fire like all our neighbours. We also had a pull cord heater in the bathroom.

I think your right OP. Having the heating completely off will be freezing after the first days.
We are on oil and if we run out in winter, so no heating, the house temperature is manageable for a few days due to residual heat but by day 4 its absolutely freezing!
Also would add my DD and her housemates were too poor to use heating much at uni house. Just was on a 1-2 hours a day , not only was the house freezing it also started to smell damp- victorian terrace like yours.

No heat at all, over winter? Do you have any illnesses or disabilities. If your body cannot regulate it's body temperature with very cold indoor temperatures then you'll be at risk of hypothermia and if you have any respiratory illnesses you may exacerbate those too.

No one has mentioned the trusty hot water bottle!! I have 2 ☺️

I remember those times, as a child, but we did have coal fires in the two living rooms, and the gas cooker going at meal times.

An electric bar thing in the bathroom.

In the bedrooms, during bad winters, we used to get ice patterns on the inside of the windows.

Its was a big old house, and most of it felt freezing in the winter.

it's doable if you're young and fit, but it's a miserable way to live.

And elderly people did die - that's one of the reasons they bought in fuel allowance, and grants for insulation and central heating.

Hopefully, the government will get back to work soon with a plan to help those who need it. I won't hold my breath though.🙁

In the winter we have heating on first thing in the morning and evenings. I WFH, and I simply heat the room I'm in and wear lots of layers. This winter to save money I will probably be looking at using a hot water bottle for my feet (the main bit of me that gets cold when WFH) and swapping the fan heater for an oil-filled one which will still be on fairly minimally, and we will be knocking the thermostat down at other times.

A few years ago my boiler packed up at the end of November. It was 2 weeks until it could be replaced. I had no other source of heating except 1 tiny electric fan heater that was loaned to me by the LL for the duration. Honestly, I have never been so cold in my entire life. By the 4th day no matter how many layers I wore, or how many hot drinks/meals I had I just could not warm up. It was miserable. In the end I was spending most of my time at my parents house, only going home to sleep (I couldn't stay there overnight for reasons I won't disclose here).
Whilst turning off your boiler may sound like a "good move" on paper, trust me the reality is so different.

we have a 3 year old living with us so will be having the heating in although probably at a lower temperature for for less hours than usual but there’s no way I’m living in a freezing miserable house all winter! I’m nervous about the bills but at the end of the day I can only pay what I have and if I can’t afford the whole bill I will pay what I can then make arrangements to catch up any arrears over next summer

I usually have the heating set to kick at at 13 degrees and bring it up to 18 for an hour in the morning and at bedtime.

This year I'm not sure what to do. I'll probably try about the same, or drop the standing temp down. I don't think many people can afford to add a second heat source now (although I am kicking myself for not buying that house with the log burner). We live in dressing gowns, blankets and hot water bottles.

It's going to be a long, cold winter

Don't forget that it is considerably colder in some parts of the UK than others. Never having the heating on in the north of a Scotland is very different to the south of England.

I’m 50 and I grew up in a house with no heating until I was a teenager. Blanket on the couch at night. Hot water bottle in bed, with plenty of layers.

Do you have to be home full time?

I only had the heating on for 2/3 days last year, because I actually don't really feel the cold, but I also know how to keep warm as well.

Faux fleece blankets, hot water bottles, merino wool thermals, layer up with cotton and then a fleece, wear socks and shoes indoors (we have to anyway due to our flooring), try to spend as much time outside of the house as possible, long walks when it's light, places like bookshops, libraries, free museums, you can insulate the windows by adding an extra sheet over the curtains (or behind the curtains), if you have neighbours who are likely to have their heating on, make sure your beds are against their walls.

I grew up in a very cold, badly insulated housing with minimal heating and it really was grim. If you switch off heating completely there's always a risk of damp patches forming on walls.

Honestly I think having heating on for less time and keeping thermostat lower is probably a better option than no heating at all. Try and get advice on what type of energy useage will keep your bills within manageable levels and stitch to that.

We live in a cold, damp part of the UK where snow is common in winter. Living without heating is miserable and not something we're going to do entirely - there also seems to be little point as much of the utility bill increases are standing charges - the amount we pay to be connected to the supply - NOT how much we use!

In terms of cutting down though, an electric throw for working at home was a godsend. Layers are ok to a point but in a cold damp house just feel like cold damp weight! A heated throw provides an external source of heat and that really helped us.

I do wish some posters would stop going on about insulation. It isn't suitable for every house. Our house is a stone terrace built in 1900, if we insulated it we'd have a problem with damp that would be much worse than the cold.

I think it can wreck the boiler as well as risk freezing pipes if you don't use the boiler for long periods over winter.
Our bill will go up to £130 per month but it was roughly what we paid in our big old house before we downsized so we will just be a bit more careful and have the log burner on more though surprise surprise the price of logs has gone up too. Glad we moved to a smaller house with insulation.

YANBU
With my disabilities, I really need to have 18C to stay healthy. I plan to just heat one room and live/sleep in that room if it comes to it. I can also use bog standard candles to both light and heat the room a bit to save energy costs as well.

I didn't think that was a suggestion, just a simple fact that in the early 20th century and before that, people cooked on coal or wood fired ranges that had to be started up in the morning and left warming all day, meaning there has never actually been a period in British history where people have had NO heat source at all in their homes - except perhaps the absolute most destitute people of all in Victorian times. There are always people in these threads who claim that they grew up in houses “with no heating” – well unless they were more destitute than an out-of-work Victorian docker with 13 kids then no they didn’t, they almost certainly had a coal fire at the very least. It is absolutely shocking that in this day and age, in the 5th richest country in the world, people who last year were reasonably comfortable are going to have to think about not having any heating AT ALL some days.

It would in our house but we do have a fireplace in just about every room so I aim to use them. Back to the future.

I read in papers that 25% of people plan to turn heating off completely this winter, more for families with children. I need to really cut back and was wondering if turning it off is realistic without another heat source. To me it seemed it would be impossible to have it “off” and I think most who have tried it on here are saying it would be unbearable.

It can drop to the low teens at least inside, I once lived in a house with no central heating over a winter while we waited for a new system to be put in, and it was cold, but not impossible. We had a couple of oil radiators which we moved to the room we were using, wore lots of clothes, and spent a lot of time at other peoples houses and out and about. Wouldn't have done it without the oil heaters.

In another house I barely had the heating on, but we did have a big log burner that I used to light very early each morning and keep in all day, and bank up at night, relighting from the embers in the morning. But the cost of wood has shot up, so that's not really going to help now.

Hot water bottles and ski wear!

Possible in my flat. Not possible in my mum's house. Though we managed with one fire in the living room for years but that is not the same as no heating.

Why not just wait and see.

When it gets to winter then add on extra layers and if it’s unbearable then just have your heating on very low for a short amount of time.

If you can’t cope with it then just turn it up a bit.

Do you usually wear thick jumpers and socks during winter?
If not you’ll be surprised to find these dirk way better than hearing anyway.

A hot water bottle is amazing too.

It's shocking to see this thread in 2022. What a horrendous time we are in.