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.

Think it's a bit pointless making a big deal of 'not putting the heating on till after Christmas.. etc' unless you are literally not spending money on anything unnecessary (takeaways, coffee out, branded food the list goes on) the amount you're going to save is not going to be worth living in a cold house, and unless you're very much on the breadline (I know lots are) seems a strange choice and quite self harming / martyring.

Definitely worth working out how much you're actually saving by doing that, and seeing if there's anywhere else in the budget that could go first. For me a warm house is quite high up there in the priority list especially if you have kids.

We had a coal fire in 1 room. No central heating! We also, in heavy icy and deep in snow - have a paraffin heater for the hall.
We kept the empty tins of food and filled them with ash from the fire and potato peelings and put that on the fire to enable the heat from the coal to last a little longer. We made lots of soup.
Times we’re extremely hard. No work meant no money in the 60’s & 70’s due to strikes because working men needed enough to feed their families and of course women didn’t have equal pay. Then due to the First Lady PM. many areas became poverty ghettos. Oh I remember the cold in my bones and crying with the cold. Of course we layered clothing and wore hats and gloves and sat around the tiny fire. Money was just not there and there was no work. I don’t mean people being choosy about the work they did. There was NO work.
In Scotland, Christmas Day was not a holiday. Those fortunate to have work couldn’t take the day off. They worked with illness. This was when I was a child. If you didn’t work, you starved. There were some benefits in the form of food tokens and the parish clothed some extremely poor children. Pensioners were also expected to live on their Old Age Pension, no top up, just their pension. Times were hard and I don’t want this to happen again - but it may just happen.

Grew up in the 60's in Scotland. We had an open fire downstairs

Sp.you had heating. That was the point of the OP.

I grew up in a two-bedroomed bungalow with a coal fire in the sitting room. The other rooms were not heated, except the bathroom. My parents built an extension and I got my own bedroom. It had three external walls but no heating. At 18 I moved out and lived in digs for several years. We couldn’t afford to heat the places I lived. In one of them, the pipes all froze for ten days when there was snow on the ground. We had a calor gas fire in one room. It didn’t even begin to warm the rest of the house. I never want to be that cold again. Five of us in that house and I’m sure we had hypothermia.

You just don't get it do you?

Do you think that coal fire "heating" warmed up the house?

Do you think it kept the room warm all day?

Was it "on" when we got back from school?

It wasn't heating! It was just a coal fire that gave about a metre of heat. Me and my sister would be sitting in front of it shivering. Terrified our Nylon dressing gowns would be set alight and melt on us, but trying to get as close as possible to get warm. No fire retardant clothing in those days.

We weren't poor either, my father was an officer in the navy so I'm sure money wasn't that much of problem.

It was a coal fire, which could not be described as "heating", it just that - a coal fire!

Maybe we were unlucky and it was a shit one,

I'd hate to go back to those days.

@Slig thats in part the OPs point.

To only have an open fire in one room is not “heating” as we now know it.
BUT it is enough to stop you dying of hypothermia. People online and IRL suggesting that the response to the energy crisis is is just to turn off the central heating because it’s what was done pre 1980 are forgetting that there usually the house had an alternative heat source.

no central heating and Only having heat in one room from a coal/gas fire = Cold and miserable often but not lethal

no central heating and NO other source of heat in any rooms of the house = likely death from hypothermia

Only having a fire in the sitting room, unheated bedrooms and maybe a stove in the kitchen is the norm for those born before 1980 or there about. Even rich People generally didn’t light fires in bedrooms and I don’t remember it being that bad but we had plenty of coal and a decent fireplace in the living room. I do remember coming home to a cold house before we got the fire lit and not taking off coats/gloves. The difference that fire made to the whole house was noticeable (we did also have a two bar electric fire for dressing in the morning)

Are you arguing with people as a way to keep warm.

I had no idea people did. I have several close relatives 80 + who tend to feel the cold; none of them would leave the heating on at night.

I get the point the OP is making and completely agree. Sure, some people may have grown up in extremely cold houses, but that’s not the norm. You can make do with very little heating but it’s really not sustainable to have no heating during uk winters particularly if you don’t have amazing insulation. The house will get progressively colder and you will definitely get damp and mould.

Yes but also back then, there was no Internet or sky TV, online shopping, computer, games console times have changed now, people should beable to heat there homes, it get so annoying people harp on about how when they where younger blah blah, bet you people have heating now.

times have changed now,

Only they haven’t. We are back to heating individual rooms.

Actually I think you are correct, yes there will be a few cases of people not having any form of heating but the vast majority will have had something, somewhere in the house. My dad lived in an old terrace with no heating upstairs, it was absolutely freezing in winter so both my large dogs used to sleep on the single bed with me and we kept each other warm that way. 2 duvets one under us and one over. I hated it but I think people did live like that years ago and presumably some are now, if that's your choice great, but it wouldn't be mine.

However I agree that in the main people have a form of heating in a house or flat, and it is unreasonable to expect people to live safely, never mind comfortably without heating. There's a reason public health England suggests 18 degrees is a safe liveable temp, and if you have young or older rellies living at temps lower than this, please keep a very careful eye on them.
Unfortunately like many we can't afford 18 degrees but surviving somewhere between 15 and 17 degrees in the living room and its not too bad but i wear at least 4 top layers and fleece bottoms. Bedrooms colder though. Roll on summer.

I'd rather have the heating thanks!

I grew up with a home with heating, but it was a luxury as dad was a plumber. It's the only reason we had a phone too. Homes have nearly always had heating, but central heating, no. My late partner used to tell me she and her brother would snuggle under the covers when they were toddlers for warmth. Anyway, the real problem isn't the cost of heating, it's the massive rake offs the power companies are taking. We are one of the least dependent countries when it comes to Russian gas, and we've seen hikes up to 10 times more than countries who are heavily dependent.

I’m saying I think we will make it to after Christmas not because I am martyring it but because it’s so warm, there is genuinely no need for us to have the heating on and I suspect it will stay those kind of temperatures for a few weeks yet. Which will take us to Christmas. I wasn’t making a big deal merely making a speculation of when it will be cold enough.
even during normal years my heating wouldn’t have come on yet in the bedrooms given the temperature tney are at currently. Overnight the temperatures have risen without heating to 19 degrees. We were all outside in t shirts yesterday for hours. I was answering the question of those not using your heating yet what temperature is your house, and then making a speculation of when we may need to use the heating.
using heating in a house which has bedrooms of 19 degrees is just a total waste of money. And we are not flush enough to waste money. And yes, we have cancelled a lot of subscriptions and we don’t buy take away coffees etc as you listed. (Although that sentence is extremely judgemental, even poor people like a treat once in a while!!) Because times are very tight here for us, and while a heated home is important so if food 🤷🏽‍♀️ And tbh thats our priority. Even with having kids. lol.
And I’ve been monitoring our gas and elec use, our gas use since mid October has been £11. That’s about £50-£70 saving from normally using our heating. So yes, it’s a significant saving. That over the course of a couple of months will mean that after Christmas when it is cold, and we need the heating, we will be able to afford it.
maybe stop judging those who choose different priorities to you!
We’ve made the choice not to out the heating on yet, and actually it’s not even cold enough to anyway, and we’ve done that for the good of our household. Because surprisingly, we know our finances and we know what we can and can’t afford.

Those sort of comments are generally made by Tory apologists, like this mad situation where people are afraid to put the heating on is acceptable and ok. It’s not 😡

@saffy2
Fair enough if it's not actually cold! Was assuming most people wouldn't put it on unless they actually felt cold in normal times but maybe that's not the case. I've definitely been more careful about setting the temp to 18/19, in the past would probably whack it up to 21 or 22, but think resisting putting it on if the internal temp goes below 17/18 would be one of my last ways to try and save money! Lots of other things would rather cut back on first than having a cold house.

That a very accusatory response . The poster said she had no heating then she had no heating, no matter how unusual you find it . Guess what? For many years we had no heating either.Scraping the ice off the windows was something we enjoyed doing, we could scrape pictures using our nails. Congratulations on your fireplaces , that must have been nice for you.

And maybe you don’t know everyone’s positions. The cut backs have already happened here. We have already cut subscriptions, we have already lowered out portion sizes for adults (quite significantly) we have already begun using olio to try and reduce our food bill, we have already stopped all treats, we have already begun walking places so we don’t waste petrol, we have already told people there will be no Christmas presents from us. Not everyone has a choice, whether we would like a warm home or not is not really a choice for us. And so we are choosing that when it gets very cold and we have no option, we will be able to afford the heating. We will still then be having no treats and walking everywhere and having none of our subscriptions etc etc.
surely you can understand that not everyone has as much money as you and not everyone can just put the heating on when it drops below 18, and in not putting the heating on it doesn’t mean we haven’t cut everything else aswell. You seem to be assuming that our first move to save money has been to not put the heating on! That’s really naive!
mine and my partners evening meal last night was a pot each of coronation chicken free from olio…. We have taken many many many steps to ensure that our children are fed and safe and warm. I’d love to be as privileged as you and truly believe that people are being martyrs by not putting the heating on.

@saffy2
Sorry you are in that position! I did say in my first post that I realise lots of people are really struggling and will genuinely have to cut back on essentials / heating / find it hard to afford food.

But there are also a hell of a lot of people who are not struggling to that degree at all who also are 'trying to not put the heating on' around at the mo.

Back in the 80s my mum was a single parent with 3 kids and dad had disappeared in to the ether. She sometimes had 3 jobs to run the house. This was before tax credits and bail outs.

When she was without work we would be extremely poor. 2 or 3 items of food in house if lucky. Eating sugar butties and the like, no electricity for over 24 hours nevermind no heating. My mum fought hard to raise us and we all went to university, but it was harder back then, but to assume some people have no heating is the kind thing I expect from Jacob Rees-Mogg.

This thread actually explains so much.
I don't think I ever lived in a property with adequately sized radiators in UK, houses are always tad colder due to humidity, but you would kind of expect the nation to build to their weather. Then little things like the mailbox which is a hole to the front door creating more draft and cold.
Honestly, reading this, it's very eye opening about the low quality of builds (damp issues, inadequate heating, hearing neighours...)and life quality here in past and present.

Having a potential heat source, having an effective heat source, and being able to use a heat source are different issues.

Having a gas fire to put heat into a room is one thing, but not very useful if there's no spare coins to put into the meter to operate it. Or if it was condemned and not replaced. Same for any other heat source.

There are many people in the UK who have experienced winters without a heat source in the home. It doesn't help people to thrive though and returning to those days is far from aspirational and frankly depressing in the 2020s.

I'm 40, I have vague memories of being bathed in a baby bath in front of the coal fire before the central heating was restored. In 2000 in my student house the heating was inadequate as the house had been subdivided into flats, then converted back to a HMO. The small boiler was installed to work in a small flat and couldn't cope with a 3 storey house. Moot point as a housemate would always turn it off in minutes. I remember being astonished on a spring day that it was warmer outside than inside, and after that, I'd open the windows to let the outdoor heat in!
Not the same as no heat source, but people have lived through that.

My first house i can remember was a 3 bed victorian terrace in North London in the 60s. Yes there were fireplaces but they were boarded up and had gas fires downstairs nothing upstairs , bathroom was an extension on the kitchen with no heating.
The only people i knew with fires back then were my relatives in Wales.

You just don't get it do you?
Do you think that coal fire "heating" warmed up the house?

I'm not sure what you think I don't get? I grew up in a country where central heating isn't a thing at all, and it's cold as balls in winter, and I likewise had the single coal fire, bottled gas heaters, plus hot water bottles in the beds growing up. It was still heat sources - shit compared to my lovely, clean easy central heating, but heat sources nonetheless.