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?

Wish I hadn't have looked.

www.which.co.uk/news/article/energy-price-cap-rises-to-3549-how-will-it-affect-your-bills-aZkHR2p2t2P7

I swear if I read one more I grew up with ice on the inside of the windows and it didn't do me any harm, I may self destruct

I grew up without central heating in the 70's and it was utterly miserable. We had a gas fire in the kitchen and stayed in there as much as possible but god it was horrible. I had chilblains every single winter. I remember not being able to sleep because I was so cold - just laying there shivering for what seems like hours. I used to put off going to the toilet as long as possible because it was freezing upstairs.

I still loath winter and dread it coming around each year, and I think that this is because I have no nice memories of it growing up. I hated it as a child and I hate it not. Being cold all the time is grim.

Their is no way we will be able to afford the heating bill this winter, so we have decided not to have the central heating on at all, the only source of heating will be electric blankets and even then I'm going to be very frugal and only have them on for a little while in the evening. We have as a family agreed to have the heating on for christmas day as a treat.

I've spent the last few winters not having the heating on until the temperature dropped below 12C. Not fun or healthy or advisable but can be done. I do wear a jumper, coat and gloves while watching the telly though.

The problem is I don't think it's advisable to let the temperature drop much below 12C though so if I can't afford to keep it that temperature I'm screwed. I've had occasions where the boiler wasn't working where it got into single figures, but even 9C isn't sustainable for long periods.

What choice have you got though? If you/I can't afford to heat the place then the choice is taken away. I don't want to run up debt on something like heating because all that will do is make problems twice as bad the following winter, when fuel bills are even higher, my outgoings will be higher because of servicing the debt, and I'll be a year older and slightly more at risk of harm from living in cold conditions.

I think there are only two ways out of this crisis: radical action from the government in the form of subsidised energy or people dying in great numbers.

Yes, anything you can afford is likely to pay for itself quickly. Money on energy bills is money gone and doesn't help next winter.

re: thermal curtains, What I did when living in a freezing house with enormous single-glazed windows was buy thermal curtain lining off ebay by the metre and then just cut it to size and sew it to the top of the curtains I already had. It obviously still costs something, but it's miles cheaper than buying whole new curtains.

I swear if I read one more I grew up with ice on the inside of the windows and it didn't do me any harm, I may self destruct

I'm with you on that. The couple of winters where we did have ice on the inside of the windows were utterly miserable.

I think it must be rose tinted memories. We grew up with ice on the bedroom windows but I can’t remember feeling hot or cold or anything at all about it. I also can’t remember if we had a fire in the lounge.

We plan to put heating on early and late. My bedroom and kitchen, living room will be off I'll keep kids heating on and in the bathroom. I've ordered warmer duvets for kids and thermals. Its shit that its 2022 in this country!!

@RampantIvy My nan is 80 now and says they used to sleep with coats over them as kids. She said it was so cold it was painful and their mum spent most days crying at the conditions she was raising children in. Yes it didn't kill them but the same fear they felt back then we are feeling now. It's awful isn't it.

It is bloody awful to think of people home all day in cold conditions. I hope they can open up some kind of warm hubs where older people can gather if they want to and have a hot meal. I think there will be more demand for day centre through places like Age UK or similar - it will be cheaper for people to pay for a couple of days a week than try to individually heat their homes.

Really keep an eye on your pipes, if the water in them freezes they’ll burst and flood the place, this happened to my friend when she was on a winter holiday and left heating off. Google what to do. Insulation etc.

I think it must be rose tinted memories. We grew up with ice on the bedroom windows but I can’t remember feeling hot or cold or anything at all about it

I can remember it being too cold to play in my unneated bedroom. But only once.

Make sure you and your children are on the priority services register-it gives great peace of mind and reassurance that you will be the priority in case of power outages or stuggles to pay bills. 🤗

I lived like this in a house with only convector heaters, only one worked.
I lived there for 6 years, showers and baths were bad, you'd get out and be freezing. Letters went soggy, waking in the mornings was physically painful.
Our bedding was often wet.
Even.with additional heaters that I purchased myself, it never got truly warm (and it was hideously expensive!)

Figure out where that sweet spot is where you're saving money but not living in a dire situation.

We lived in an old draughty cottage for 6 years, our heating was really rubbish and run on oil so to make it last we only put the heating on in the morning for an hour and a couple of hours in the evening.
During the winter the house was usually 11 degrees so we all wrapped up in layers and blankets, I’d pop the heating on for an hour if it dropped below 11 degrees and I also had a low wattage blower heater that I popped on to warm the room I was in but most of the time I just put up with being cold as I only wanting to use the heating for the kids once they were home. It was pretty miserable.
Are you able to put the heating on for a small amount of time? You might risk having mould/damp and if it gets very cold you don’t want the pipes to freeze.
We now live in a double glazed fully insulated house and we’ve all been incredibly hot as we aren’t used to a house that holds heat!

Perhaps small plug in heaters in one room would be cheaper.
I was brought up with one coal fire - thing was it was lit all day so aired the room above and heated the water, also air circulated through the chimney so little damp.

But you could try one heater in a small room - so maybe put in the bedroom in the evening and have tv in the room.

You will still need air to circulate so can't keep all windows closed.

We haven't put our heating on for 4 years now. No gas and I refused to pay the electricity prices, I'll be paying more now and still have no heating!
It's not a bad as you think, keep your feet warm, plenty of blankets and layers.
We do have a couple of 1Khw heaters that go on after a shower or to get dressed in front of and oodie jumpers have been a good buy, much better than a dressing gown.

when I was a child we had no heating, ice the inside of the windows in the morning, had lots of blankets on the bed, wore socks to bed and getting out of the bath was SO cold! Felt cold a lot but there was no alternative.

Are they electric? So are you using electric without paying for it? Just wondering if I am reading it wrong.

You all better also check your home and content insurance. Often it does include a clause that damage is only covered if you take proper care of your property.

So knowingly risking frozen pipes and damp/mould may mean that damage from flood or damp is excluded if you run into trouble.

So at least put your boiler on freeze protection, it is rare that it goes below 5 degrees inside but you never know.

If you heat your house on short burst, ensure you have aired the house properly, stale air takes a lot longer to warm up than fresh air.

Fivemoreminutesinbed everything in the house is electric and I pay a monthly DD. I just didn't like how much it was so heating was the thing to go.

I cannot imagine being in a room less than 16C. The thought makes my skin prickle. I'm sat in my bedroom right now with the window open. The thermostat says 23C and when there's a gust of wind I am actually cold and get goosebumps. But I have always run cold. I have been checked out by the doctor many times and we can't figure out why. Perhaps my very low blood pressure? I remember from last year that my fingers would start to hurt and the tip of my nose would freeze when it got to 19C. I would wear my hood up feeling a bit silly.

I do hope the govt does something to help. Or perhaps people with no heating spend time at a community place that does have heating.