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 grew up in the 50s. No central heating, freezing bedrooms etc. But the difference being, we COULD get warm. A coal fire in the living room, and a combustion fire in the kitchen ( which heated the water too)..... At least then you could "walk into warmth" unlike now.

Suddenly lighting a fire and burning your books and your coffee table in a fireplace that's been boarded up for years and you've not had it swept before chopping your table to bits because you can't afford a chimney sweep is a house fire waiting to happen.

Tbf if you cant afford any heat source eg a plug in heater you're unlikely to have books & a coffee table surplus to requirements or an axe to chop things up!

We turned the heating down, even though it had already been on a low-ish 18 degrees. It became so damp, mould started growing. The only way to get rid of it is to turn your heating on or get a dehumidifier, which runs on electricity. What are you supposed to do??? There's just no way to cut down on energy costs.

Heating is a must where the climate is colder than UK. It becomes a matter of life and death.

Just as an example, I did a homestay with a family of Chinese peasants in the winter; they had no electricity but used a traditional source of heating where the coal fire from the kitchen was pumped into a large communal bed, which made the room warmish. Old people and young children practically lived on those beds.

I think the UK can get away with such poor heating because the level of cold won’t kill you … well, I’m sure vulnerable ppl did die in some of the situations described

My mil hasn't switched her heating on yet but the house retains heat well, gets the sun & she has put on 2 fires. It's warmer than mine if I don't put on the CH & 3 x the size!

No.
They are saying they had no money to make the source work.
No paraffin for the heater
No coal for the open fire
A water heater switched on for half an hour so you can bath your child isn't going to get rid of the ice inside the bedroom window or the mould on the ceiling.
On THIS thread, and on the one she's on about the toddler, nobody has said anybody needs toughening up or that it's OK to live like that, though oddly, the OP does herself, saying assertively that nobody has the heating on at night, or needs to. (maybe she's accusing them of needing to toughen up) So, yes, arguing with herself really.
Etc.

Nobody needs a coffee table.
Probably most furniture in a house could go if it was a matter of life and death.

And people may be able to buy a heater but if they can't then afford to run it how will it keep them warm?

We had no central heating and steel frame windows which held the cold. It got very very cold! I remember the central heating being installed. Along with the big cast iron radiators that went out for fashion but are back again now
These last few years I've had a job visiting families. Still lots of rented houses without central heating. People use the gas bottle fires which take up space, aren't always safe and tend to add to damp problems.

There is literally a post about house having no heating sources here😳

Well if we are talking just about this thread and one other, you may be somewhat right, but talking overal, "no heating, we survived, stop being weaklings!" Is very common cry out online at the endrgy crises topics. That includes mn....

The halcyon days of open fires

We all knew some family who had a kid burned ( usually a nylon nightie at fault)

The spitting and how fires started from a small chip thrown out

Not idyllic at all really. House fires were common. People could lose it all in minutes

My first house had a gas fire in the living room which had a back boiler for water. The back boiler broke irreparably during one winter (luckily had an electric shower). It was horrible and bloody freezing, and coughs and colds were permanent. We put central heating in and transformed it from damp & cold to warm and cosy. I can't believe this is what we're going back to and some don't think this a problem. Nobody gets a medal for being the coldest or having the hardest childhood! We don't send kids down mines anymore either.

Why are some posters claiming houses without heating don’t have electricity? In what world do electric wires heat a building?

Because if you have electricity, you have heating. You have the potential to buy an electric heater and plug it in. OK, it costs money, but so does running a central heating system; it was never free even before the recent price hikes!

We had electricity, we did not have heating. Its no different to saying if your road had a gas supply you had gas central heating.

if you have electricity, you have heating

What nonsense! You have to actually buy a heater, and pay to run it - simply having electricity doesn't mean you have heating, it's not magic!!

I grew up in the 80s, no heating upstairs and just an open fire in one room downstairs which unless you sat 6 inches away threw out no heat.

To me it was normal and it does mean I have very low heating costs now as I can't bear houses which are too hot.

Read your last sentence. I had NO heating. No electric fire, no coal fire, no gas fire. NOTHING.

We can all go back to how people used to heat their homes in the 50s but the reality is that we are no longer living in the 50s. Most apartments and houses don't have fireplaces because dwellings are smaller and the price of wood has sky rocketed anyway. Many of the old Agas ran on coal, which is impossible to imagine today when we are trying to get away from fossil fuels.

We can't compare how people lived half century ago with today, it's an absurd proposition as societies move forward, never backwards.

We can deal with raising energy costs by contacting our MPs telling them we are sick of their incompetent arses, and be a bit more personally proactive by installing solar panels if you live in a detached house, wear a double layer of warm clothing at home, use hot water bottles in bed and throws and blankets when you are sitting on the couch watching TV. And that's about all you can do if you want to minimise energy costs today.

Your house was supposed to have fire places though. More an exception to the rule due to modifications.

I am intrigued about the Scottish houses with no heating.

The fire places were bricked up. Just having fire places in the wall is not a source of heat.

We can't compare how people lived half century ago with today, it's an absurd proposition as societies move forward, never backwards.

Progression is a good thing, I'm not sure why so many don't understand that.

My 1930s house has full central heating. When we moved in (in January), we didn't realise the boiler was broken. We were buying from a couple going through an acrimonious separation and the lady who was still living in the house seemed to have very little money left. When we had the engineer in to replace the boiler he said it clerlhadnt worked for some time. They may have had some sort of electric heaters, I don't know, but the house was absolutely freezing. The walls were freezing to touch. We got as many electric heaters in as we could which wasn't too bad but the house didn't properly feel warm until we had the new boiler and radiators 6 weeks later. I cannot imagine how miserable it is living with no heat source at all. I guess if you are in a flat or terrace it might not be too bad as you can benefit from others around you heating their homes, but the outside walls of a semi or detached expose you to more cold.

Even worse was no hot water. That is a truly miserable existence.

"OK, it costs money, but so does running a central heating system; it was never free even before the recent price hikes!"

Yes.

And people who could not afford to run it went without heating.

The number of posters that I've seen this year declare that they haven't had the heating on at all this year, as if it is some great feat of stoicism, only to declare that they have managed to get by with 'only' a log burning stoves does make me laugh.

On the other hand, I can well believe that some people have lived without any heating at all through winters. What I take issue with is this idea that this lack of warmth through winter was endured without hardship or affect. As though you can glide through a winter immobilised under blankets, shivering through ice on the windows, living with the ache in the bones when you can't warm up, that living with the words 'I'm so cold' rolling around in your internal monologue like a perpetual itch that you can't scratch without any harm or deprivation - let alone the proven physical effects that reduces the immune system and cognitive function.

We only had one gas fire in one room until 9 years ago. The other rooms and upstairs never had any heating.

It depends very much on the house as well. Not having our heating on in November and December certainly wouldn’t make the temperature of our house drop that cold. Our house is still at 18/19. The heating will be set to 16 when we do eventually put it on so it won’t even kick in until it gets much, much colder outside.

We had a coal fire on the kitchen and in the front room . Eventually we
got central heating that was run off a back boiler from the coal fire. Downstairs was always warm but upstairs was freezing .