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?

@SillySausage81 I think lightand was just making the point that these old houses which were built and inhabited back in the Victorian times clearly had heat sources, and often in most rooms, since some people here seem to be harking back on these imaginary times in history where apparently people made do with big wooly pants and fingerless gloves to get them through winter and didn’t need to heat their homes. It just wasn’t the case.

Bizzare as it sounds.... stick bubble wrap to your windows. Buy a large roll (it's very cheap per square metre) and it will stick to a window very easily without glue. The bubble wrap is semi-transparent so will let light in and the air bubbles themselves provide surprisingly good insulation.

You have blankets/throws on the sofa and a sleeping bag round your legs at a desk.
You have a hot water bottle and drink warm drinks regularly.

You put a duvet under your sheet and a blanket on top of your top duvet.

You eat large starchy/stewy meals and puddings in the kitchen and leave the oven door open while you eat.

Put cardboard boxes squashed flat in the bottom of dog baskets.

Get thermal curtains and blockdrafts.

Isn't it more economical to keep the thermostat low rather than turning the heating fully on and off?

I so remember that ‘81/‘82 winter, I had a 6 month old and a 2 year old, no central heating and neither electricity nor water for 10 days because the power lines came down and the pipes froze- I was melting snow for water 😳
We luckily had a wood burner in the kitchen so we lived in one small room, candles and dressed in layers.
Utterly miserable.
I also remember as a child the cold, damp bedclothes from where you breathed on them, ice covered windows and going to bed in socks, gloves and a dressing gown over vest, pyjamas, jumper.
How appalling is it that 60 years later we’re having to live like that?
Shocking.

Absolutely this.

People mainly had open fires

They cause their own problems, but at least they were warm and cheap. The price of logs has gone through the roof lately, along with everything else.

All these "we had ice on the inside of our windows" people can piss off, frankly.

Our thermostat has a safety setting of 5 degrees to avoid pipes being frozen. I remember my childhood winter where the pipes froze and my parents nearly had them bursting but luckily realised it and we managed to avoid it.

The issue is that a house with no heating is very difficult to get warm. We had a rental where the boiler had two settings on or off, no settings to allow heating for some hours a day or a change in temperature. We were away visting family over Christmas one year and returned to a house with a week of no heating, it was damp, ice cold and it took 2-3 days to get the house dry and warm again with a boiler on full heat.

It is also very dangerous to develop respiratory illnesses. You are more likely to get ill and damage your lungs long-term.

Exactly. My mum remembers fireplaces and a proper ovens (aga style) heating the kitchen. It was only the bedrooms which were ice cold in winter. The living rooms had always a source of heating, not on all day but enough to keep healthy and have a normal life.

14/15C is not cold!!! My goodness. That's our average winter temp anyway.
It was 6C in our kitchen diner last year and that was too cold 😬

All these "we had ice on the inside of our windows" people can piss off, frankly.

Indeed. It’s like a big dick competition but with who could cope with the least warmth.

I think you missed the - , the poster said -15C as in 15C below 0C

Think it depends where in the country you are and what kind of house / flat you have.

It can be absolutely miserable having no heating at all in winter, as most people who've had broken boilers or lived in old draughty houses can attest to.

Primark sell thermals, a heated throw (or blanket and hot water bottle) for the sofa or desk if you are WFH. An electric blanket for your bed can also make a big difference.

We've got storage heaters which draw their heat down in the night. I'm grateful that DD will be in school and I'll be in work between 8am and 5pm - and that she'll be in bed from around 7.30pm, because I'll just cover myself in throws once she's asleep.

I won't have the heating on in the bedrooms, and probably just have it on in the kitchen to make sure I can still dry clothes once or twice a week, and on low in the living room.

Now is the winter of our discontent.

I was just thinking how people need to socialise in others's homes and share the burden. Turn your heating off while at a friend's/family's house and vice versa.

Yes I agree.

Though this is MN where so many people don't like anyone else other than their little family, and hate having people in the house. It's going to be a shock 😟

That sounds so miserable.

We had five weeks with no heating from Xmas to end Jan this year as boiler broke and had to be replaced. We had two oil filled radiators in the whole house. Was still pretty miserable and the electricity bill was very high as we had them running 12 hours a day.

I don’t know what’s more depressing. The fact that we’re in a situation where people can’t afford to heat their homes, or the easy willingness people are showing to take this sad situation up the arse… ‘oh well, electric blankets it is. Bubble wrap for windows, ok…’ The passivity and lack of outrage here like this is all ok is shocking.

I think we might see a lot of older people temporarily moving in with family rather than go cold.

We have our heating off and the house never goes below 16 degrees (and that's at night)

I don’t have my heating on much but my house is very well insulated so it retains heat well.

It helps to have lots of Woolley blankets and Woolley jumpers - a good thick Woolley jumper is sooo different to just a normal jumper. I have a hot water bottle on my lap most of the time aswell. Thermal or fleece lined leggings and thermal longsleeved vests help.

make big thermos flasks of hot drinks so you don’t have to keep boiling the kettle but can have a warm mug.

Also, go out a lot for lots of walks, you get quite hot walking and it keeps the circulation going. The more dormant you are, the colder you get.

But people did die. The elderly got hypothermia and those who had problems with their lungs would get pneumonia. It’s simply not true that people aren’t affected by very cold weather. We know coal fires and wood burners are very bad for your lungs. Pipes would burst which happened a lot when I was a kid and mould grew in bathrooms and kitchens. I’ve lived in places with only gas fires or open fires and never again, thanks. An awful lot of people don’t have fireplaces any longer and putting an electric fire on instead of central heating would defeat the purpose.

I grew up in a very cold house. You get used to it and you don’t feel the cold as much. Apparently you develop more brown fat which is better at keeping you warm? Or something like that. And you get used to sleeping with your head under the duvet, reading under the duvet, basically you do everything under the duvet to trap your breath and body heat.

It fucks up your lungs though. As a kid I had chest infections all the time, had pneumonia a couple of times and regularly had to use an asthma inhaler. After the world progressed and we had gas central heating installed I never needed an inhaler ever again. Perhaps I will need it this winter though because I can’t afford heating any more!

We moved into this house end of December and the gas was capped until they could sort it the next day. I have never ever felt so cold. The house was at 15 degrees. The kids were crying they was cold. It was awful. I dunno what we will do. I have 2 disabled kids who have sensory needs and can't just put layers on. The house needs to be at least 24 degrees warm. I feel sick at the thought of it.

I think it would be hideously cold and impossible. Our boiler broke last year and we had no heat for 2 days in a modern, well insulated new build. It was a total nightmare despite storage heaters. I did live in a student house with no heating though and it was an old house with thick walls and despite ice on the inside of the windows sometimes, we managed.