Cutting down on the number of rooms being used this Winter

[dottypotter]

Are you asking the family etc, to go in one or two rooms this winter instead of all being in separate rooms with heating and lighting on.
Having to think more now.
Is it necessary for everyone to be on different rooms using energy especially if say the TV is on in the main room?

Yes you do save money by only heating the rooms you're in, so long as you keep the doors closed on the unheated rooms.

www.theradiatorcentre.com/blog/article/63/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-turning-off-radiators-in-rooms-we-do-not-use

Will Mrs Danvers be mounting guard in it? 😉

Yes, I'll turn off heating to all the bedrooms and the east and west wings as we only have the centre bit...

Oh wait - ill be just using the exactly 3 radiators we have, in precisely two rooms out of 7 (plus hallway and landing) we have here as little as possible. Like every year.

Doors shut, windows closed, the house will gradually get damper and colder and we'll hope the weather warms up before the damp and cold damages the property. (It will be damp because I can't afford the dryer and clothing won't dry outside for much longer, if I could hang it out of course, which I can't).

We have a 3 storey house and only heat one floor. The bedrooms, bathrooms, stairs and utility room are all unheated.
We keep the internal doors shut.

We always do this. Our heating hasn't gone on yet as the weather has been so mild. I do think it's sensible for the fuel security of the UK and to avoid black outs that we all rethink our consumption.

Is it not better to keep the rooms you don’t use on a low setting rather than turning off the radiators?

Yup. The mould issues next year will be... Unimaginable. Many houses are already shite build and damp.
I am still confused about how country in wet climate can have houses not built for wet climate!

www.axa.ie/articles/property/10-easy-ways-to-prevent-mould-growing-in-your-home/
I lost wardrobe of stuff to mould once. Remember that not heating can cause you WAY more down the line.

*heating and ventilating

I've already asked the servants to close the morning room. And they needn't think they are getting fuel for their garretts this winter. I'll need it all to keep the hothouses in flower.

Turn off too many rads & boiler will struggle to go into condense mode due to too much heat returning, whatever your boiler is sending out, it needs to return at least 12degrees cooler on return to start condense mode, otherwise it’s wasting fuel

being as our house is two rooms downstairs two bedrooms upstairs and bathroom we just have all the rads on at a thermostatic central controlled heat and timed for one hour in the morning so house is warm to get up to and one hour at night so house isnt too cold before we go to bed bathroom rad isnt on i open the window to air it so would just waste gas heating it only two of us here though

Christ no , unless you live in a mansion there is absolutely no point in this type of behaviour .

Damp in rooms you don’t heat will surely be a big issue in most houses. I’m sure moisture collects in the coolest areas of a house and I can’t see shutting the door stopping this.

All bathroom extraction should now be single room heat recovery units and stop removing all your heat to the outside, at least with a SUHR unit you get some of it back & it really does make a difference, for very little outlay

I was talking to my ex husband about this as he was always obsessed about our energy bills years ago when they were relatively cheap. I was thinking about turning the radiators off in the cellar and the bedrooms we don't use but he said it wouldn't be a good idea as the cellar would get damp and anyway heat rises so wouldn't save that much anyway.

How true this is, I do not know, but I wouldn't want a potentially expensive damp issue to sort out.

just the right place to if possible install a heat recovery unit. It will look after the mould by constantly getting rid of stale air & then putting some of the warmth back in the room.

Same.
We won't be using the dining area nor formal drawing room except for Xmas day.

Moslty throughout winter we will stick to the first floor kitchen, snug and winter family room.

Mogsrus

Is a heat recovery unit a dehumidifiers?

A dehumidifier is exactly what it says it’s like a fridge in reverse but you have to empty the collected water on the machine unless it’s piped outside. SUHR are fan units some with two fans some with only one. The stale air is drawn out through a core inside the unit there is always residual heat in air. Then heat is transferred to the core & slowly heats up. The fan after a while goes in to reverse and delivers
new air from outside but collects all the heat on its way in from the warm core so in effect returning some valuable heat back

We only have a kitchen and a living room, plus bedrooms. The hallway doesn't have a radiator and the bathrooms have never actually had the radiators on while we lived here (4 years now). Bedrooms are only used for sleeping and only the DC bedrooms have the radiators on because I prefer to sleep in the freezing cold with blankets.

Not sure which rooms I could sacrifice further!

We are space-rich but income-poor!

We've closed up the three spare bedrooms and bathroom on the top floor, just got the rads on low to keep away condensation. We've done the same with the side annex which houses the laundry room, storage and gym.

We might put the kids in the same room on the middle floor come December time/minus temps.

Downstairs has high ceilings and is open plan so not sure what we can do there to close off parts of the house.

Cellars are meant to be cold and damp aren’t they? I’ve never heard of radiators in a cellar.

Damp in our house was only an issue where warm air got trapped (in bags) against a cold exterior wall, or in rooms where people sleep (breathing out moisture for long hours).

I've not had any damp problems in completely unused, shut-off, unheated rooms. Closing the door to the unheated areas is rather important.

We don't have the radiators on in spare rooms. We put them on occasionally just to keep the damp off.

We tried switching radiators off in the spare bedroom when we moved here in 2008 and were dealing w the credit crunch. It ended in mold so now I would go for minimal daily heating and ventilate everything. Maybe in a modern house that wouldn't be necessary but we live in a 1930s semi.

No, as our house is an old terrace in a very wet part of the country and would suffer with serious mould and damp problems if we did this.