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?

It is a fucking outrage that people are in this position at all. I'm so angry and upset about it. Heated throws and hot water bottles don't help your lungs if you're breathing in damp, mouldy, cold air. Houses should be at at least 18 degrees for human health according to the WHO. Let's hope the useless turds who call themselves our government step up and do something soon.

@BeanieTeen some of it is the fact we have become accustomed to always turning on the whole house heating which isn't sustainable. People had fires in the main living spaces that warmed the house which is still common in older victoria era homes and mansions. We are cutting back, have stocked up on wood and will light the log burner if we are going to be in all day/night.

We could pay it but I refuse to spend the equivalent of a holiday on gas and electric so we will be colder but have blankets and a nice fire 🤞🏻

Me too. I always had chest infections and was forever getting antibiotics. I didn't make the connection until I started heating the house in winter and haven't had one for over 20 years.
It's going to cost the nhs a fortune.

Who did? The OP said 14/15

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.

We don't drive and frequently leave the house however it frequently very wet here and that often lead to us having heating on to dry coats and shoes so they are wearable next day. (Not all the time but frankly rain here can be extreme and there lots of insidious mist that gets you very wet over time)

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

I was thinking of doing this but keep reading on here actually it saves nothing as cost of boiling is the same if in one go or bit by bit - so actually if you just heat the water needed each time in kettle it's better than having cooling water on the side.

Last November we only had our heating on for an hour a day because our boiler was on its last legs and we needed it to limp on until we got a new one. It wasn't very pleasant but it was ok. However, we did have other sources of heat like electric radiators and a fan heater. And I swim so I was able to shower in the warm at the leisure centre.

With heating off it takes a few days but eventually the inside of the house will reach the same temperature as outside. Last winter we lost power for 24hrs and it was about 5 or 6oC outside and inside we were down about 10oC (and still dropping) by the time the heating came back on. You can close off one room and try to keep that warm but it’s pretty tough. You can use hot water bottles / heated blankets and things but it’s very very hard to stay comfortable when the room drops below 15.

You do have to keep house warm enough that pipes won't freeze. This happened once when we had a 48 hr boiler breakdown. The pipe was actually in kitchen floor slab and I hadn't realised how quickly it would freeze

It would be interesting to know if failure to heat home which resulted in burst pipes would invalidate home insurance. Anyone know?

I regularly go away for long periods in winter and I’ve always turned the heating right down when I do. I live in a small well insulated flat (to illustrate, it didn’t get above 25 in the recent hot weather despite me living in one of the areas where it reached 40 at one point).

Despite this, within 5 days of the heating being set to ‘frost protect’, it was coming on for short periods (I checked the app out of interest). I think people are massively underestimating how cold it can get with no heating. You can’t husband heat that doesn’t exist. Also, I would turn the heating on full blast (not something I’ll be doing at current prices) roughly 8 hours prior to getting home and it would still be trying to reach a reasonable temperature when I got in.

I train at home. Do 45 minutes of weights/cardio. Warm up enough to do the housework/get showered/ etc etc and then oodies/blankets. I keep fit and can still function. Put heating on just before afternoon school run for a couple of hours to take the chill off for the bairn. It's dooable.

I've just thought of another factor from back in the days when "we had ice on the insides of the windows"... Yes, we did, but it was mainly in the bathroom. And when we were little my mum used to bath us in a little tub in the lounge in front of the fire, so it was actually lovely and warm. No idea how she washed herself, probably just a flannel wash in the sink whilst remaining fully clothed, which is what I did on the coldest winter days as a teen, and it was bloody miserable. I also remember trying to go to the loo whilst pulling my trousers down the absolute minimum amount possible, plus sitting on my hands instead of the toilet seat because the toilet seat was so cold. The thought of going back to that makes me want to cry.

Just another point to say how most people who "grew up without central heating" did not actually grow up with no heating. They are two very different things.

DH called our local chimney sweep at the start of August. Normally he has a wait time of 2-3 weeks. No, end of October is the earliest he can fit us in this year.
Don't assume you can just get your chimney swept at the drop of a hat.

Definitely don’t turn your heating off completely - much harder to get the house warm again if you change your mind, and as PPs have said, it could burst your pipes and cause damp - all far pricier to fix than if you just kept the heating on for an hour twice a day.

Remember - if you call your energy supplier and tell them you’re struggling to pay they have to help you with a manageable repayment plan.

Another one who grew up without central heating. It was absolutely grim. We had a log fire which kept one room warm, but lighting and fuelling that was a major undertaking. The whole family had to live in that room during the winter as the other rooms were completely unheated. We had to spend a lot of time chopping and storing logs and kindling. Baths were a big deal and involved putting the expensive and inefficient immersion on for an hour once a week. No hot water to to the bathroom or kitchen taps so washing up involved boiling a kettle. Very difficult to wash and dry clothes. Mostly stand-up washes with a flannel throughout my school years. The kitchen was always absolutely freezing and not a place to linger (water freezing in the bowl overnight). We were colder and dirtier in a way modern families would find hard to understand, and rightly so given the huge improvement in living standards over the last half century. I'm horrified that anyone in 2022 is going to be going back to that, or worse, given that most people don't have alternative sources of heat in modern houses.

And pp are right - people did then and still do die of cold in poorly heated homes.

Get thermal curtains and blockdrafts.

A single decent small size thermal curtain can set you back around £40.

By the time everyone has bought new thermal curtains, draft excluders, woolly throws, winter duvets thick dressing gowns, electric blankets and dehumidifiers the OP could have just put that money to one side to pay towards heating costs.

By the time everyone has bought new thermal curtains, draft excluders, woolly throws, winter duvets thick dressing gowns, electric blankets and dehumidifiers the OP could have just put that money to one side to pay towards heating costs.
you’re assuming that this is a short term problem. Winter comes every year. Recovery is likely to take more than 12 months. Thermal curtains etc will reduce bills even if prices go back to normal.

We live in a 1930s semi with a newer extension which we've insulated as far as possible. We set the thermostat to 14/15 degrees and run the central heating for 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening. Less than this the house gets thoroughly chilled and damp. On top of that we try and keep the back room warm using the wood stove/ oil-filled radiator and pretty much live in there in the coldest weather - obviously thekitchen warm-up too if I've got the oven on.

So yeah, I think you need at least 1 warmish room if you are in all day. If that's not doable can you find somewhere warm like a library to work/be ?

Last winter, I lived in a flat with weird storage heaters that I couldn't work out. In the part of the UK where I lived, it was an exceptionally mild winter (think only having to de-ice my car 3 or 4 times all winter). It was still way too cold to live without heating- especially as I had to dry my washing indoors. By November, I'd bought a couple of those oil filled radiators, and was running them pretty much constantly in my bedroom, and another to dry washing in the living area.

I'd still sleep under a duvet and blankets (and sometimes my coat) usually in a jumper and warm joggers. And I'd spend most of the evenings when I was in, in bed in order to keep warm.

I was out most of the day during the week at work, and at the weekends I'd usually go out for a bit too- even just for a drive to warm up!

Anyway, I'd say you can't live with no heat source at all, particularly if you're home all day. I'm not sure if running other types of heater will be cheaper than switching your heating on for a few hours a day, but I'd have a look into it. Or else, as others have said, see if you can up your income by about £20-40 a month, which will probably pay for you to have the heating for a few hours each day.

@PutinSmellsPassItOn @FuzzyPuffling

Where do you live though? I'm in the North East, by the coast and when my boiler gave in a couple of winters ago my house was getting down to 3/4c. That's colder than my fridge.

I also looked at buying thermal curtains - cheapest I could find was £145 for one set.

I was in my 20s by the time I lived in a house with central heating. While it was fine to be without, everyone did always have the ability to heat the room they were in. Not having heating on at all anywhere in the house will be really grim. I've decided that as the heating will be about 2.5 times the price of last winter, I will have it on half as much. I will still end up paying a more, but I don't think a freezing house is a good idea for the house itself or human health.

You don’t want thermal curtains, you want thermal curtain linings - maximum £32 at Dunelm. I have no idea how good they are but they are not nearly as expensive as the full curtains.

I'd highly recommend setting a low minimum temp or you risk your pipes freezing and bursting

I live in a 1930s semi, solid walls, no cavities, we have to have the heating on constantly to prevent condensation damp, we leave it on 14C at night and while we’re out, then turn it up in the evening for a few hours.

I would be careful of turning heating completely off on in old houses as it can cause damp when you turn it back on (the walls get very cold and the warm air creates condensation when it hits the cold wall). We used to have condensation running down our walls every day when we turned the heating off at night and while we were out.

Our house isn't that old - 60's, and insulated. We had the heating on for 2 to 3 hours a day last winter and it was miserable. DH & I both work from home, sedentary jobs, and I was miserably cold when working, even with fleece lined leggings, thermal top, wearing a coat and with a duvet over me.

Don't know what we'll do this winter, especially when costs rise again in January.