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.

So I remind you of a neighbour who both had heating and have plenty money so they could use their heating. I can see how someone with no heating and no money can remind you of someone with both central heating and the money to use it, very similar situations…

Only on mumsnet would a fridge be considered a sufficient source of heating for a home 🤣

No we didn’t have an oven or grill in our home, it was a shared flat, there was a shared hotplate in the small communal kitchen and a microwave.

I've lived in houses with inadequate or nonfunctional heating at several points in my life. As a kid, the central heating basically didn't work - we had a conservatory on the south side of the living room which warmed the downstairs up quite well, & an open fire, but the boiler was inadequate & my parents couldn't afford to get it mended so we had hot water usually but the radiators were invariably cold. My room (north facing) was bitterly cold & my best ever present was an electric blanket.

I lived in a house as an adult where the boiler was so antiquated that it was basically breaking down, there was almost no hot water pressure even if we turned the heating off. The bath outlet pipe regularly froze up & would gradually thaw out overnight, we'd wake to the sound of it suddenly draining in the wee hours.

We haven't turned the heating on yet. Thankfully our living room & bedroom face full south & we're not overlooked. Lots of blankets though.

I was born in the 1980s BTW.

I suspect that it's comparatively cheaper to buy an electric heater now than it was in the 60s/70s. My first washing machine in 1982 (combined washer/dryer) was about £400; the last one (just washer) bought in 2015 was about £390.

If having electricity in the house means you have heating (despite not having a heater to plug in)

Does that mean you also have air con? After all you just have to go out and buy the air con unit.

And by that logic do I have an air fryer? I mean I have electric sockets in the kitchen so all I have to do is buy the fryer.

And if the answer to those 2 is "no" then how does a house with no heaters have heating? (A fridge isn't heating ffs. )

Can’t remember the details but remember being a bit put out that we wouldn’t be watching it!

AuntieDickhead if you have electricity and a plug you have the ability to run a heater without intallation then I would say you have the potential to heat.
Likewise you'd have the potential to run an air fryer, whereas clearly if you have no electricity, you do not.
So the only thing stopping you heating, or for that matter air frying, would be a) you don't want to or b) you can't afford to.

Well exactly. I have the potential to have heating/air con/air fryer.
I don't actually have any of those things.

So I remind you of a neighbour who both had heating and have plenty money so they could use their heating. I can see how someone with no heating and no money can remind you of someone with both central heating and the money to use it, very similar situations…

Ah yes, but she definitely had an ingested bedroom according to her!

Well exactly. I have the potential to have heating/air con/air fryer.
I don't actually have any of those things

You could have them for a relatively small outlay though.
On the other hand, if you are in a modern house with no fireplace and wish to have a coal fire, you're going to be moving house, doing a major remodel or burning your house down.

But by the same token that means that everyone who doesn’t have mains gas or who doesn’t have electric fire as a fixture, doesn’t have heating.

Well yes. But that's not what PPs have been saying. They've said "if you have electricity you have heating" which isn't true.

No it doesn't

I suspect that it's comparatively cheaper to buy an electric heater now than it was in the 60s/70s.

1960s. 55 models to choose from 8/8 (<44p) to £7.

We spent all school holidays with my grandma. She had a biggish older house that had no heating upstairs. She'd get up before us every morning and go and turn on the gas fire in the back room ( we never went in the front room except at Christmas)

There was a electric grill above the door in the bathroom but no heating in the separate loo which was always freezing.

However she did have electric blankets which were a novelty in the seventies. It was our job as kids to run up the cold stairs to pop them on half an hour before bed.

In the morning if we kids woke early and wanted to play or even read in bed we'd get fully dressed first.

Grew up doing that! We only had a toilet on our floor; shared a bathroom with another household on the first floor. Certainly wouldn’t have used their toilet except when having a bath!

I haven’t had the hearing on all winter. Thermal clothes (brand new ones) on eBay are very cheap. I hate the gross feeling of central heating, it makes my skin flare up. I’d rather be colder than have the heating on. We aren’t in Canada or Russia fgs the weather here is not that cold.

Can you explain in the light of your previous post?

@etulosba but weekly pay for an unskilled man was probably less than £12/13 pw. Few wives worked.

Once rent, bills and food (relatively pricier than now) were paid, there would be little left. A fire may well have been bought on "tick".

The nice fire in that ad would have been the equivalent of about £250, so half a week's take home still for someone on £24/30k. The fact is that one can buy a plug in filled electric radiator for about £50 or less nowadays. 9 Bob was probably equivalent to £50 nowadays.

"Does that mean you also have air con? After all you just have to go out and buy the air con unit."

Well an air con unit is expensive and complicated, but you could buy an electric fan (of the type that look like heaters or even are heaters too) very easily and it would be ridiculous of you to say that you can't have an electric fan because it didn't come with the house.
It's a bit like claiming that you have to boil the kettle on the stove because you can't be bothered to go out and pay £10 for an electric kettle.

"We aren’t in Canada or Russia fgs the weather here is not that cold."

You can only speak for yourself. People's bodies are different. I am cold.

Absolutely.
Doesn't change the fact that an obnoxious OP on more than one thread calls anybody telling their story of what it was like liars.
While others insinuate that these same posters are harking back to some halcyon days and calling those who today can't afford to heat their homes snowflakes.
Because that's what both threads the OP is on have done.

Poster A "can't afford to have the heating on, my child is cold at night, what can I do"
OP "Nobody needs the heating on at night because the house will have warmed through during the day"
Poster A "did you miss the bit where I said I can't afford to turn the heating on?"
OP "that doesn't mean you don't have heating" <head-desk rinse and repeat>

Followed by:
Poster B: "it was the same for us in the 60s, ice on the inside of the windows etc"
OP: liar!!!
OP's supporter "you saying I'm a snowflake for not wanting ice inside my windows?"
Poster B "er, no"

Etc.

"They've said "if you have electricity you have heating" which isn't true."

Oh FFS. If you can manage a short trip to the shops to buy a heater or get it delivered, you have heating. Almost everyone can do this so yes, if you have electricity you have heating.

"They've said "if you have electricity you have heating" which isn't true."

I would read that as you have the potential to have a source of heating.

No one makes UK look like 4th world country better than mumsnet does....

Also, bloody hell! Were they genuinely building houses here in 80s with no source of heat except potential plug in heaters? Like nothing included?! That's just ridiculous, but looking at some of the planning now... Not much better