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.

Even 120+ years ago most houses would have a fireplace in one room but it would still require money to buy coal to fuel it. Plus there would be the practicalities of sourcing coal, dragging it up 4 flights of stairs, maintaining the chimneys etc that meant poorer, older, and disabled people would have been at a disadvantage - same as today.

I grew up in a house with only one safe coal fireplace which was in the front room. We all used to huddle in there until bedtime, mum would put hot water bottles in the bed and take the chill off the air with a portable electric fan heater. It's not the same as 'no heating' I agree but I was used to waking up freezing cold and having to scrape ice off the windows

@Katypp
i am tempted to leave that group
it is unhelpful

"I struggle to believe there is anyone who really needs heating on 24/7 and two winter duvets with Teddy bedding right now."

Pleased to meet you!
I have the winter duvet on.
I have the heating on whenever I'm sitting down. It's 17C without heating. That's not cold if you're walking around, but it's too cold for me sitting down so I put the heating on. It takes 3 hours for it to get to 20C.
I think I need to buy an Oodie so I can be less cold during that time.

we used to bring logs home for the fire when we were out walking ddog with dm

i personally dont need it to be 20 degrees,
and i agree with a poster upthread that central heating makes me feel stuffy

The coal was delivered wasn't it so didn't the delivery man take it upstairs? Money, yes, that's a different matter, but the OP is about people HAVING fires.

We married very young. Our 1st flat had a large sitting room, a blocked off fireplace and a 2 bar electric fire - no other room had any heating at all. We froze and both of us had horrible chilblains. We loved going to work as then we were warm! Thankfully we only had to live in the flat through one winter.....

But I though so what can I do??? Just wait for the hot flushes to kick in in a few years?

We had coal fires in the 1960s until I was about 5 years old so I hardly remember it, but they were just in the rooms with fireplaces. Then my parents bought gas central heating which was much better. I remember the place the coal went in whcih later my father painted and became a large larder in the kitchen.

My granny was one of 10 chldren in a 2 up 2 down miner's cottage/. The had lots of coal (one of the perks of mining) never mind if you have so many people body heat is more of a thing.

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

Its completely different. If you don’t have mains gas connected to your home, you can’t have gas heating, central or otherwise. If you have electricity in your home, you have the potential to pop to curry’s and buy a heater which you can use straight away. If you don’t have electricity, that trip to curry’s would be a complete waste!

I also grew up in a house with no central heating. There was a single gas fire in the living room but no heating whatsoever upstairs. I had damp and mould on my bedroom walls. When I was about 16 and sitting my GCSEs I do remember having the luxury of a plug-in radiator. We grew up in poverty and neglect.

Very few houses have no heating whatsoever but it’s usually far from adequate. I don’t know why this is.

growing up we didn’t have central heating as a 70s new build. It was extra and my parents couldn’t afford it. We had an ugly fire thing in the living room referred to as the baxi burmuda and a weird light heater combo in the bathroom and that was it.

my current Edwardian house was never well heated when it was built. It’s got massive rooms, ten foot high ceilings and single fireplaces. The bedroom ones are so tiny that you’d struggle to get a fire going. They were only used when someone was seriously Ill in bed. Because it was quite posh for an Edwardian house it’s got a sunroom. It’s like a tiny conservatory that heats up with the sun. And would have let the occupants sit in there on warm spring days etc to make the most of the heat.

“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”.

That’s a whole new debate OP.

Although I agree that we all need to put our heating on (providing we have it) at some point. Not just to warm ourselves, but also to save our homes & possessions of damp …too.

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!!

By the same logic, people with gas central heating can say they have no heating. It’s not magic either; you have to pay your gas bill.

The homes weren’t as insulated back then though.
They would also not be walking around in t-shirts and shorts in the middle of winter.

Now we have things like double glazing and loft insulation which reduces our reliance on heat.

If someone wants to put their heating on then do it.

But they can’t moan about their electricity bill whilst walking around in t-shirts and shorts.

One poster said her DH refuses to wear a jumper indoors as it looks tacky - then more fool them.

If you want to save on your electricity bill then try adding on extra layers before turning the heating.

No one’s saying don’t turn the heating on.

But it is almost unknown for a home to have no heating source in the UK.

They will have been built with one, but the fireplaces might have been boarded up. I don't think any houses are built these days with no heating source at all. In fact I think putting in central heating would be standard in a new build now.

This takes me back! Was born in a terraced house, the only heating was a fireplace in the 'back kitchen', and we had a tin bathtub that was put in front of the fire once a week. Frost on the inside of the bedroom windows, outside toilet, mum doing the washing with a dollytub and mangle in the back yard. God, it makes me feel ancient, as if I was in Victorian times. When I was about 7 we moved to a more modern 1930s semi, and we were amazed at the upstairs bathroom and gas fire in the living room. When we had central heating put in it was as if we'd really moved up in the world.

Nope. Many homes had no central hearing, and no fireplaces. Even in the 80s my student house, built in 70s, with zero insulation, had 2 hot air fans in the walls - one on the landing and one in the kitchen. They were both useless (plus we were on a prepay). Ice in the windows and wearing lots of bedclothes were my winters there.

The coal was delivered wasn't it so didn't the delivery man take it upstairs?

No, they usually tipped into a bunker or coal shed in the garden or yard. Although in my current house it was tipped into the cellar.

@MrsLargeEmbodied it we are talking about the same group, you are right it is very unhelpful. Yesterday everyone was moaning about the media making things worse while simultaneously whipping them selves up into a frenzy about cooking in straw boxes and buying battery lights to save using electricity. It can be useful if anyone is struggling to make sense of bills etc but 99% of the tips read like Viz TopTips

But… some of them have not had heating?

"No, they usually tipped into a bunker or coal shed in the garden or yard. Although in my current house it was tipped into the cellar."

Yes, my grandparents had it in the cellar. They lived in a house though so only one floor to carry it up. My dgm lived there till her 90s so I wonder if she just used an electric fire at the end. Making a fire every day would have been hard work I suppose.

Agree. Living conditions for many were dreadful

There was also a post pointing out that a lot of these things are fire hazards. Some also don't make financial sense eg. using battery lights instead of electric - you still have to buy or recharge the batteries.
I think it's an interesting group to be taken with caution.