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?

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.

This x 100. It’s such a naive way of thinking. And those destitute people didn’t just suffer from cold, they suffered and died of respiratory problems because breathing in cold damp air all day and all night is not healthy. Neither is breathing in all the mould that will grow on your walls if you don’t heart your home at all.

We’ve just moved into a new build, not heating is absolutely not an option - it will cause irreparable damage to our house.

’Feeling cold’ is not the only consequence of not heating your home at all. It’s bad for your lungs, it’s bad for your house (new or old) and unless you have a tumble dryer presumably you plan on wearing the same clothes all winter because there’s no chance they’ll dry after washing in a damp, cold house with no heating.

What happens to the boiler if the heating isn't used? I imagine this is all going to cost the councils a fortune if boilers break down and pipes burst in council housing. And landlord repairs, it's not going to be easy if it's in the tenancy to use the heating if you just haven't got the money to pay for it.

It takes a couple of weeks to heat the fabric of a building so I don't think having any heating is realistic.

You need to be looking at measures to keep the heat in that you do pay for as long as possible. Heavy curtains, door curtains, draught excluders, insulating tape around doors, secondary window film, loft insulation etc. Small things can really stack up

What @SillySausage81 said.

My grandparents had to gather sea coal to stay warm but this was at least some form of heating. I grew up without central heating but we had a working fireplace and two gas fires. Even then it was bloody freezing. It's utterly shocking that this is what things have come to.

Isn't it horrible! You just can't warm up no matter how many layers you wear, it's just horrible after a few days.
I don't know how many people have lived like this and know how bad it's going to be but I can see many people not coping.

Your attitude is crystal clear 🙄

Unfortunately I think being cold is going to be normal. We got some help due to having a child under 5 last year but my wages have slightly increased which means we can't claim this year (but not enough to actually have the heating on) so it's going to be a cold one.
Worried about my DD2 and DH both of whom have asthma which can be triggered by cold. Worried about my 2 year old being too cold. He's only just walking and hoping he's more mobile before it gets colder so he can move around to keep warmer.
I got a snuggly a couple of years ago which is brilliant. Socks with slipper socks and then slippers were pretty good for feet.
I invested in a couple of exercise DVDs to help keep warm but only works short term.

Snap
miserable though

I lived in a house that was freezing all the time because I couldn't afford to put the heating on at all, whatever the temperature was outside it was usually a degree or two lower in the house, so often below freezing. It was an extremely miserable existence, too cold to do anything, we'd huddle under our duvets on the sofa and still be freezing. Even during the "Beast From The East" a few years ago we lived without any form of heating

Due to this and a few other issues, we were then moved to a maisonette type flat three years ago, and given help and support to deal with all our problems and issues. I don't know yet how these increases are going to affect us, we don't sit and freeze in this house, but we are careful with how we put our heating on.

We're on prepayment meters for both gas and electric so we're used to keeping an eye on how much energy we're using. We don't want to have to live without heating again, so I guess it will be a case of putting more money on each time we top up, and see how it goes.

No heating also meant no hot water, ever, we boiled kettles for washing and things like dishes, we lived for quite a few years like this, so really don't want to have to do it again!

coal fire=blazing hot room
and you're wrong, people did die

It didn't though. I'm 64 and still remember the utter misery of getting into a cold, damp bed wearing clothes. The neighbours used to lend their coats to put on our beds overnight. Frost inside the windows, condensation running down the walls. A two bar electric fire didn't even warm a room. We took turns to sit in front of it but your back was always freezing. There were no fleecy light blankets, just heavy damp wool. Anyone who says it was character building is mad or mistaken. Oh and as now poor families couldn't afford to put an oven on to heat up a kitchen. I remember my mother crying because of huge fuel bills. Can't believe we're back in the same position now.

Spare a thought for those who sometimes couldn't light their coal fire because (you've guessed it) they COULDN'T AFFORD TO BUY ANY COAL -and I will "shout" because that's how I grew up.

We had no central heating as kids, but we had a coal fire in our main room, and my mum purchased electric heaters for the coldest nights, and had them on for an hour before bed, then quickly into bed with a hot water bottle.

Had full baths far less, once a week hair wash as little kids, then in front of the fire on a Sun. That wouldn't work for a teen for starters.

I don't know why people equate not using the CH with not having any heating. Very few people in the 70's had absolutely no heating, most had a gas fire in the front room. They didn't heat bedrooms but did cook a lot at home.

I really think some people are starting to lose sight of the purpose of reducing heating which is to save money, if you have to buy electric blankets for every kid, plus buy heaters for occasional use, that's going to cost quite a lot of money! Why not just cut down on heating use, halve it rather than cut it out altogether and risk damp and pipes freezing?

I did not have a coal fire. Dad left us in a Victorian house with high ceilings, single glazed windows and storage heaters that mum could not afford to run.
The immersion went on once a week for my bath, and for mum to do the washing in a rented twin tub. We scraped the ice off the insides of the windows to see out in the winter.
I shared a bed with mum for warmth and we had 2 hot water bottles.

As someone I follow on Twitter has said:
Quality of life expectations evolve. It is not unduly soft, spoilt or indulgent to be upset when things you have had access to for years and were never sold as temporary suddenly become unavailable or unaffordable. Yes, even if people in 1951 went without them.
You are allowed to be scared and angry that you can't heat your house, even though not everyone in the 1950's could.
Similarly, you are allowed to feel stressed about a hard day at work even if your job is not repelling Russian tank assaults in the northern Donbas.

YES in the 40's- 70's many people did not have central heating but they did have heating, usually a coal fire in the living room, maybe wood and a range that used some type of solid fuel in kitchen, people only used bedrooms for sleeping not playing so had hot water bottles or bed warmers and wool blankets
people would gather firewood or at least kindling in some places people cut and dried peat for winter fuel
burst pipes and a broken boiler or serious damp and mould will cost a lot more to put right than a couple of hours heating
in the UK no heating at all through winter is not realistic yes there will be warmer days etc but there will be days when it is freezing outside
and people did die from cold or the effects or being too cold pneumonia etc

But the house you grew up in with no central hearing would have had other measures to heat it - so it's not quite the same thing .

I've lived in houses without central heating but there were coal or gas fires in the living room and plug in electrical heaters for bedrooms and the wall mounted one in the bathroom .

OP has said she only has central heating.

I think you have to have at least some kind of heating on in the house, for at least part of the day, even if it's just a few hours . I don't know whether it is cheaper to buy a stand alone heater to just heat one room rather than central heating but I think some kinds of separate heaters can work out even more expensive.

’Feeling cold’ is not the only consequence of not heating your home at all. It’s bad for your lungs, it’s bad for your house (new or old) and unless you have a tumble dryer presumably you plan on wearing the same clothes all winter because there’s no chance they’ll dry after washing in a damp, cold house with no heating.

I agree.
We had an extremely cold winter 1981/82 with temperatures regularly going down to -15 at night, and lots of snow. We had no central heating, and we went to bed in pyjamas, sweatshirts, socks, electric blanket, duvet and extra blankets.

We had a gas fire in the kitchen and one in the living room.

Every morning we would wake up to ice on the inside of the windows - all the way up, not just at the bottom.

We would put the immersion heater on every other day, and boil a kettle for washing and washing up on the alternate days.

Then after several days and nights of freezing temperatures the water pipes in the road froze and we had to get our water from a standpipe.

I never want to live like that again. I will cut back on everything else before I will feel that cold and miserable.

The fact that people are considering wearing hats and fingerless gloves indoors in 2022 in the U.K. is terrifying. Bleak times indeed. I have never heard of this, but the government must do something 😕

Jesus. Is this the level we’re at.

It seems like it -can't quite believe the lack of compassion and refusal to wake up to how bad things will be for so many people...

We had no central
Heating when first moved into my parenrs old house...I had a gas heater thing in my room to warm it up before school! With a big canister of gas! (🙈).

Ironically they later installed full heating and a wood burner and when I stayed with newborn ds (2 weeks old and a january baby) we had to strip him to just his nappy as the temp was 26 degrees! I almost fainted it was so warm!

I expect these are written by the summer haters who can't bear temperatures higher than 18 degrees and complain every time the thermometere tops 20 degrees.

I hate being cold. I can't function when I am cold, and I am fit and healthy. For someone who is old or ill it must be their worst nightmare.

Well, people washed less, and washed their clothes less for starters when they didn't have on tap hot water. Like once a week for bathing. My mum had one school skirt and it was sponged down. Likewise shirts often did have sweat stains and not smell amazing, but everyone was in the same boat (she's not quite old enough to remember detachable collars!

If you have a once weekly bath and hair wash, and have musty clothes, then that's the consequences of not having the heating on or drying clothes properly.

The thing is in the past everyone did this, so having quite greasy hair, or not smelling the freshest was common. Now everyone has moved to daily or every couple of days bathing/showering and washing clothes much more frequently, we have higher standards of what we expect from others- we don't expect them to smell of BO or have greasy hair (which I remember vividly from my childhood).

If you go backwards in one area, it will impact on other areas which have changed drastically in terms of social norms. Shampoo from the pound shop is much cheaper than shampoo used to be, so in some ways some things have got cheaper, and others more expensive.

If you live by yourself, I think you can just about get away with minimal heating if you are not a sweaty person (so don't need endless clothes washing) and boiling kettles to wash and do your hair. If you have a family this isn't really feasible, even just in terms of time. I've done it as a single person, it's miserable but doable, but for little kids, I would rearrange a lot of my finances to prioritise them being warm, and fed- even eating pretty crap food and being a bit warm is better than having ok food and no heating, and I know there will be some families where it is genuinely a choice, but for many it will not, it will be a question of reorganizing priorities.

Lots has changed, not just CH. I don't think just saying, well I won't have heating is really an option for very many, given the negative consequences.

It was 9° in my flat last year. I survived.

When it gets to people being unable to afford electricity at all in about two years time is when things will get really nasty. We all need to plan for this, because severe rationing of electricity is on its way at the very least.

It staggers me that so many people in this country are entirely unaware of how bad things are going to get. How naiive we've become...