To explain to people that UK homes have never 'not had heating'

[KweenieBeanz]

People keep responding to those worrying about energy costs, don't worry, homes never used to have heating, people survived, just don't put your heating on!
Home did not have central heating. Instead, they had fires and heated individual homes. People did not live in homes with no heating in the UK.

In the UK during the winter if a home is never heated even by late November /December temperatures inside will have gradually dropped to a temperature that's too low.
See the info here: www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and-support/heat-and-health#:~:text=Below%2013%C2%B0%20%2D%20If%20your,recommended%20night%20time%20bedroom%20temperature.

There is a huge difference if you even use your heating for just 1hr a day, topping up the temperature to stop it dropping so rapidly.

People need to stop acting as though those struggling just need to toughen up, 'wear more layers' and cope with the heating off this winter as a solution to energy costs, as it's simply not feasible, and it would be better for people to take action now to let their energy provider know they are in fuel poverty and need to access help.

I get fed up of people assuming that we all had heating. I grew up in a house WITH NO HEATING.
We scraped the ice off the insides of the windows to see out in the morning. I shared a bed with my DM until I was in my teens, for warmth. If it was very cold we each had a water bottle.

We live in a building with communal heating so have no choice when it comes on. It's normally on at the start of October but it's not in yet and you can really tell that the building needs a blast of it. It's not about us feeling warm necessarily but the fact that everything is so damp, the wood in the doors is getting warped etc

@KangarooKenny So you never had a fire place? Never ever lit a single wood fire, ever? I'm intrigued. Even tiny two room cottages from the 1600s had fireplaces. And every Victorian terrace I've ever been in (100s) had a fireplace in at least two rooms. My previous 1930s semi also had one downstairs and in the main bedroom. Downstairs one was still useable when I left in the late 90s. I don't disbelieve you but it's highly highly unusual not to have had even one fireplace.

Just interested. When was this, was this usual in your area, was there no open fire? No paraffin heater? No nothing? Were there other things going on like little food etc,neglect ? We had ice on the windows but we did have an open fire in one room in the 60s and 70s.

Must have imagined by childhood then 🤔 we had no heating or hot water, some homes had no heating at all was quite common in my area of Scotland!

No, the fireplaces had been ripped out in the 60’s. The house was meant to be fitted with heating but DF decided to leave and pursue a woman.
DM wouldn’t have afforded to use any heating anyway. She could only afford to put the immersion heater on once a week for my bath and to use the rented twin tub. In fact I remember being washed down, while stood in the washing up bowl, on a couple of occasions as DM felt it was too cold for a bath.

No fireplace? Nonsense. Even bloody cavemen lit fires!

I grew up in a house with no central heating. There used to be ice patterns every morning on the bedroom windows.

But, we had an open fire in the main room and a sort of enclosed fire box on legs (not sure what it was called) in the scullery, this also heated the water.. The airing cupboard was very large, so we used to get dressed in there. There was an electric wall heater in the bathroom. This was in south London.

My house doesn't have heating now 🤔

Sorry kangaroo Kenny but you are remembering back to childhood. You could easily just not have realised that occasionally an oil radiator was on, or a gas fire or something. The house would simply have not been livable with NO heating at all. Might not have heated every room but I bet there was a stove or something giving out some heat, somewhere.

No fireplaces Tereseta? A fire is heating.

There was no oil radiator or gas fire, or anything. What part of ‘there was no heating’ do you not understand ?

I grew up in the 60s we had two gas fires down stairs . We had fire places upstairs that were boarded up so not usuable. This was an old victorian terrace house.
It was freezing in winter , even with the gas fires on, it is totally incomparable to central heating. You obviously have no idea of how cold it could be unless you were sitting next to the fire

No heating in our house. We had a fireplace that had an electric fire in but my parents were addicts and it got sold and never replaced. All five sibling piled into one bed at night. U ok to certainly made me more resilient to the cold.

My grandparents only had a fire in the living room and it was used. I could feel the difference in the whole house.

I live in a 3 bed Victorian semi and we have three chimneys. There would definitely have been three fire places downstairs, kitchen, dining room and living room. And I assume at least two fire places upstairs, the two main bedrooms.

I lived in a house that sounds as cold as @KangarooKenny’s. There was no heating at all upstairs. But we did have a fire in both rooms downstairs. So I do get what @KweenieBeanz is saying. There was heating in that respect.

but even with heating available, thousands of people die from hypothermia every year in the uk.

But still not the same as people using no source of heating at all. People are being advised this winter to not use their heating. Putting on a gas fire for a bit in the evening makes a big difference to no heating whatsoever.

I don't think we want people to be living with no heating in the 21st century regardless of individual experiences. This has made me sad, I remember the chilblains on my mums feet from being on the cold floor in the kitchen. I am worried about families I know with health issues where they need their houses to be warm and ventilators for their children to keep them alive. I know it is derailing the thread but it really isn't all about putting extra jumpers on.

I get fed up of people assuming that we all had heating. I grew up in a house WITH NO HEATING.

Does that mean you had no electricity? Or was your family too hard to buy and run an electric fire?

When I was a child, most households eschewed both coal and electric fires in favour of the paraffin stove, with lorries delivering up and down the street on a daily basis. My aunt had a gas fire in her living room which was thought very old fashioned until these things came back into vogue in the 1980s.

We had no heating. Literally no heating. This was in the 80/90s/ millennium. There was an old open fire they used when we were babies occasionally, but from age 4+ never again. The only gas fire in living was condemned and disconnected for the next 20 years

My parents live in the same house now and still no central heating. But they now have a gas fire in living room and plug in electric heaters sometimes.

we were always ill. Frozen. Mould. Damp. I left asap after my 18th birthday

I just hate people being advised that it's feasible this winter to not use heating.
In many homes, now that we have central heating, fireplaces have been blocked up, and gas fires disconnected, leaving people with no back up if they choose to try and leave the heating off.
If you have no money for the bills you probably can't afford to go buy an electric heater or oil radiator.

Why?

Not even a plug in heater?

I grew up in the 1980s in a house without central heating. There were two gas fires downstairs, that was it. The bedrooms and bathroom were freezing, and in winter the pipes often froze so we had no water.

It was miserable and I hated it.

OP, you make a good point but then throw buns at ‘unbelievable’ posters. What’s your point? To start a fight in an empty room… preferably one with a fireplace?

Nope, we are a terrace that is well insulated. Use condenser dryer in peak of winter to help heat down stairs (and dry washing).
If it gets really bad we borrow mil oil radiator but the last few winters have been mild.