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'm with OP here. Depends what year you are talking about. And how far we go back. How old is the poster? Yes of course some posters, depending on age will not have had central heating. But if you had no heat at all. Then presumably it was due to poverty, or abuse, or both. Because as another pp pumpkin said :

"think the real question is, is this aspirational in 2022."

Of course I do believe posters. I had central heating. But my Dh didn't. He was cold, had ice on windows. I didn't. Of course I believe posters I'm not accusing anyone of lying.

What I'm saying is that things have moved on. What might have been allowed in the 70's and 80's, even 90's isn't ok now. Yes there are many families in poverty now. But if I heard of a poor young child in an inner London school being permanently cold at home, now, of course I believe it. But it's not right, is it.

None of us 'ideally' should live like that in 2022, should we?

My relative bought a 1930s semi four years ago that needed full renovation. An elderly man had lived there

Your statement is quite sweeping. When I was a kid, and this was only in the 90s, all we had until 2003 was a log burner in the dining room. Because of the set up of the house, the warmth didn’t reach upstairs to the three bedrooms and the bathroom and I’d have to get dressed under the covers. I could have jumped for joy the day my mum said she was buying central heating 🎊 🎊 Yes, we could have had plug in heaters upstairs but we didn’t. Mum was a single parent and couldn’t even afford to buy them, let alone run them 🤷‍♀️ It was only after she went to uni and got a good job that she could afford the central heating.

We had it for cooking when I was young/child. House had gas added later on but not all the way up. Multigen house, heater in a basement (including old coal one), GPs with gas just above it and us with freaking heavy bottle on top. Annoying

So was there maybe a particularly bad period when open fires went out of fashion and before people had central heating? The 70s?
We had an open fire in our council house in the 70s/80s though and my grandparents' older houses had open fires. The upstairs ones had been blocked out.
I have thought to myself before how awful it is really that the Romans had central heating and I think there was some at the Alhambra Place as well and then it took us until the 80s/90s to get it back!

Yes, and lets not forget all the people who died or burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, chimney collapses etc etc because of unsafe and poorly maintained fireplaces and chimeys.

But you had a form of heating, which is the OP's point.
She's not saying that everyone had heating in every room.

Sorry posted too soon....an elderly man had lived there alone. It had no fitted kitchen, no double glazing, no central heating and although there were a couple of fireplaces it didn't look like they were in use.... It was so sad to think he had lived like that.

I was brought up in a similar way but I wouldn't wish it on anyone else.

That's very unusual.
Every house would had fireplaces in the rooms {If an old house}

Grandmother's house had a coal stove in the kitchen area, {cozy} and the rest of the house had bar fires {electric} ..Frost on the inside of the windows was the norm for many people before the advent of double glazing and central heating.

Paraffin heaters were used a lot even in the 1980's..far from ideal as they make a lot of condensation and smell unpleasant.
Hardware shops used to reek of paraffin.

Hot water bottles were normal...as were dressing gowns in chilly house.

Fascinating viewpoint here, we've not exactly excelled ourselves at heating innovation.

I spent two winters without heating - yes no heating at all - in the flat I lived in 1999-2002. It was a victorian conversion flat (blocked up fireplaces), and it had central heating - but the entire central heating system was broken and we couldn’t afford to get it fixed. Those two winters were utterly brutal. I had cold showers and there was frost on the inside of the windows each morning. The third winter I lived there, the heating was fixed - and the difference was bliss.

think the real question is, is this aspirational in 2022.

This, 100%. Of course some people have had no heating. For that matter some people still don't - have you never heard about dodgy landlords? I was at university with someone who was living in a garage with, quite literally, no heating (and her LL wouldn't let her plug in an electric heater either). There are people who rent out garden sheds to desperate renters.

And if you go back in time, yes, of course people didn't all have cosy wood fires. If you think about the fact that some people used to sleep standing up in rooms fitted with ropes you could drape yourself over, so as to cram more bodies into one space ... how can you possibly think everyone had a hearth of their own?

The point is that all of this is that, in 2022, in a rich country, we ought to have left all of this in the very distant past.

House down my road, 80s build, no rads, no electric heating, no fire place. Literally no heating whatsoever. Currently on the market so you can see this on rightmove.

@Gwenhwyfar i agree, but the warnings would not be needed if people didn't post such silly things in the first place.
I think it would be useful to reframe energy costs tbh. With the price guarantee and the rebate, most people will not be paying much more than they were last year, especially as many people have taken steps to modify their usage anyway.
How much did your heating cost last year? Instead of staring at the smart display in tears because of the cost, it would be more useful to frame it as how much extra is is costing this year. Energy wasn't free last year. The shower that's just cost 50p probably cost about 45p last year, so it's 5p extra, not 50p extra.

Yes we had one Rayburn and no radiators so all the warmth was in one room . It was horrible . Especially at night. And when we had a bath we used to run to dry off in front of the Rayburn . We did survive though .

I have thought to myself before how awful it is really that the Romans had central heating

Very rich Romans had underfloor heating, and then only downstairs.

Why aren’t you listening to people? Just because you can’t believe that this was their reality, it doesn’t mean it’s untrue.

You’re coming across as obstinate and a bit thick 🤷‍♀️

I grew up in a cold house...Breath pluming in the winter, indoors.
It wasn't nice, especially having a bath ..Brrrrr

Flanellette [?] cotton sheets were used in winter, as they don't 'Strike cold' like ordinary cotton sheets so.

I truly thought I'd left those days behind , of having to worry about putting heating on, but not so with the horrendous profits being made by energy companies and their sheer greed.

A flat I lived in, in the late 1990s, had no heating whatsoever. It was damp and freezing. But it is certainly true that such places existed then and I'm sure they still do.

"Energy wasn't free last year. The shower that's just cost 50p probably cost about 45p last year, so it's 5p extra, not 50p extra."

Yes, but it's interesting to be more aware of it I suppose. It might help with people misunderstanding and turning off things like the TV that cost peanuts.

According to some posters you actually did have heating because currys sells electric heaters. Its exactly the same as having gas central heating fitted in your home, who knew!

I grew up in the 60s.

My grandparents had oil fired central heating, probably going back to the 30s, with huge radiators like the ones at school. But they were only downstairs. They ran off the Aga. In summer there was an electric stove so the Aga could be turned off. The bathrooms had a dimplex heater and the bedrooms had little two bar fires set into the old grates. There was never heating in the bedrooms overnight but they had electric blankets.

In the very early 60s my parents' first house was probably 20s built and didn't have CH. There was quite a fancy electric fire in the sitting room, an open fire in the dining room, a bar heater in the kitchen and my parents' and my bedroom had gas fires. My father used to put on my fire when he got up so I didn't have to get up in the cold.

After that their houses had CH.

My first flat was built without CH in 1960 and I had it fitted after the first 12 months of living there. I managed with an electric fire in the sitting room, a blower in the bedroom and a dimplex in the bathroom and by putting on the ove and opening the oven door to warm up the kitchen. It was bloody cold and the leccy bills were high that winter.

My first house was late Victorian and whilst it had CH I know it wasn't put in until 1983 and was installed by the firm who installed mine. The main reason I bought the house was because it had the original fireplaces in the sitting room, dining room, and the two biggest bedrooms.

I think people conflate the lack of CH in the 60s and 70s with an idea that there were no alternatives to keeping warm. There were however a lot of reminders to close doors to keep the heat in because hallways were often not heated, thick curtains and draft excluders. I don't recall family ever keeping the heating on overnight and there were exhortations to wear another jumper.

The heating never went on before 1st November and I recall feeling the cold of an enamel bath on my bottom despite the hot water.

I recall being very cold at school in the 70s.

Only 5% of homes today do nat have a central heating system.

"Literally no heating whatsoever. Currently on the market so you can see this on rightmove."

It will have sockets for electric heaters and other type of heaters can be brought in so I suppose someone will buy it if they can afford that kind of heating.