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 a council house, we had one electric fire in the living room but there was no heating anywhere else in the house. None upstairs at all. I remember mum used to take the electric fire upstairs and put in on the landing so we had somewhere warm to get dressed after a bath (on Saturday). This was the 1960s and the 1970s.

I don’t remember the cold much but I remember the ice on the windows and wearing a coat a lot. I shared a bedroom with three sisters so I guess our body heat kept us alive warm.

We had a gas fire installed in the 1980s, which was much better. Still nothing upstairs. The council finally installed central heating in all the houses in 1988. Nottingham this was.

You understand a fire heats the room the fire is in? And you can't 'leave it on' overnight. We had a fire in the living room. Still had ice on the windows upstairs in winter.

You seem to be saying that if poor people still had fireplaces in every room, then they could send their children out for firewood, or burn the furniture and this would be a solution to fuel poverty?
This is the message I am getting from this post..

I moved into a rented, bright and sunny tenement flat with friends when I was 21 in June 2008. It was big and spacious, nice than my student flat had been, and very attractive with large (single pane) sash and case windows.

It wasn’t until one particularly cold evening several months later that we suddenly realised it had no radiators or storage heaters. The wind came through the sides of the windows and the curtains moved with the breeze. The fireplaces were still there, but boarded up.

We had to go out and buy plug in radiators which did very little to heat the giant rooms.

I hear it all the time so maybe op does as well

'oh they will be fine, people never used to have central heating '

Perhaps that's the issue with this thread. If yiu haven't heard people say this, you don't see what the op is talking about. They are saying this is not only a hard attitude to taje but also factually wrong. Ok, houses didn't use to have central heating.... but they used to have working fireplaces

No she isn't.

This is a TAAT.

The thread that's provoked this one is one in which (surprise!) she accuses people of lying that they sleep with a window open even when it's cold. And states that "nobody sleeps with the heating on" because houses are heated enough during the day to not need to.

On the other thread, incidentally, not one person has said they lived in a house with no heating whatsoever. They have said much the same as people on here- it was fucking cold because there was maybe one coal fire in the kitchen or one paraffin heater.

OP is GF.

of course,
homes have always have heat of some sort, on the whole
in fact my dm lights her fire and still maintains she hasnt put the heating on!
when she moved house she had the fire opened up but previously growing up all we had was a coal fire and a couple of storeage heaters, no gas central heating -
it is the gas central heating that has taken over

when we had our gas boiler broken, i envied those with an alternative source of heat, ie an open fire,
we did borrow a electric heater however that cost worried me

Wow. This thread has proven to me how absolutely bonkers people are.
And that apparently half the UK had homes in the 50's and 60's with no fireplace, no gas heater, no stove, no paraffin stove.
I'm really sorry everyone I had no idea that literally everyone grew up in near freezing conditions, so yep, it's totally acceptable for people to expect to do that this winter.
I was wrong, clearly.

Race to the bottom you know before central heating many children and the elderly developed chest infections. It's not a good thing to back to the old days.

Some people do genuinely live like this op. About 5 years ago, I bought a house in absolute squalor. The elderly owner had lived there until recently and I was gobsmacked at how she survived to a ripe old age. She had refused to move out apparently until she went into a care home. The open fires were unusable and the only source of electricity was a very old socket, the sort with with 3 prongs sticking out, in the kitchen. No other source of electricity or any lighting either. It had rising damp and the roof let in water.

I don’t think people did cope terribly well. Cold means damp and that wasn’t good for children. I remember my primary school teacher treating chilblains in the mid sixties.

My council flat (built 1937) in 1980's South London had a gas fire in the living room and no other heating. Boiler broke in October, council finally fixed it in January, so hot water from a pan on the stove only.
Loads of properties were 'modernised' in the 60's and 70's with draughty fireplaces boarded up and a three-bar fire was great, if you had money for the meter.
One of the reasons we were so skinny back then was the amount of time we spent shivering,

Lighting a fire is a mission

It's not just a bit of firewood and away you go

You need to purchase a fair amount of stuff

Wood ( used to buy bulk logs from local wood yard) a trailer full. We all have trailers to fix to our vehicles? Do we all have a tow bar even these days??
Coal....how much is a sack? Can you still buy in a sack? We had a coal man come round weekly
Kindling...sticks, small bags are 3 for £12 locally
Firefighters
You need newspaper
Safety and cleaning equipment too

And someone has to clean the grated and set the fires up. It was a bloody mission!

I couldnt agree more with this, its just a goady thread,I was happily reading till I got to the point op advises people to y'know 'just work more' to afford the heating this winter.

When my dd was born in 2001 I was living in an old workers cottage, we had 1 open fire in the kitchen and NO other heating, but my exprience is surely made up, lies even!

Ok, houses didn't use to have central heating.... but they used to have working fireplaces

Bangs head against brick wall!!!!

Many homes had no heating that included no fire places, no radiators, no gas no central heating, we had literally NO source of energy to provide out home with heat.

Bloody hell it’s not rocket science to understand some homes had no heating at all!

Its interesting as i read it a different way. That in the uk there has never been a point where you would expect to go through winter without heating your home as homes have always been designed with a heat source. in some instances poor people couldnt afford the fuel and it wasnt seen as a good thing then so shouldnt be seen as a good thing now

Also you need to pay for a chimney sweep!

Expensive game these open fires!

People are bonkers for sharing their experiences about how they grew up?
Clearly different to you so lying?
You accuse people on the other thread of lying as well.
It's not "people" who are bonkers.
You should try educating yourself.

Did you read my post? I did not say just work more? I suggested people contact their energy provider for support, contact citizens advice, seek extra benefits? One option I mentioned was working extra hours because yes for some people that might help?
I never said 'just work more' so why have you put that in speech marks?

Op solution was 'work a few more hours'

Is overtime readily available everywhere or are businesses cutting back on it?

OP stop telling people 'nonsense' or 'they must be misremembering' because their own experience isn't yours. Yes, of course I agree with you that no heating whatsoever is an extremely bad situation, and yes, of course we get it that in the past whilst an awful lot of houses didn't have central heating, they did have some of their form of heating most likely in the form of fireplace(s). BUT it's also of course entirely true that some people's (quite a lot of people's actually, sadly) upbringing was so poor that they were either in a 'modern' but poor house for it's time in say 60s/70s/80s that didn't have fireplaces but also didn't have central heating and they were too poor for parafin/electric/gas heaters, or no central heating in an older house that had a fireplace but they were too poor to light it. Surely you can understand that??

This is an important thread but I think the issue is less whether there were homes without heating and more that today, given that little thing called ‘progress’ (whether supposed or real), all people should have the possibility of being warm. My mum is 76 and she says she wants to break the radio at the people saying you can live without using your heating, or without modern conveniences, she said back in her days bronchitis and pneumonia were a big issue and as soon as my granny and grandad had the opportunity to have central heating they were ecstatic and relieved. She said tumble driers were revolutionary because drying clothes on a line and then in front of a fire or then on rads meant it took days to have actual warm dry clothes or sometimes you had to weigh up that it was slightly damp and wonder were you risking again pneumonia. As someone who is broken hearted that they likely caused their kids’ chest issues because of living in old houses with damp and going without heating sometimes for weeks because of money let me say nobody should have to tough this out, energy and money should be saved in other ways if there are no other options and going off the subject those oil protestors should tell us how to heat houses of people who can’t afford eg solar panels and other new modern heating

I have lived in a flat with no hearting (when I was 18 so just over 20 years ago), it was awful and I became very unwell, the inside of the windows were frozen, the walls were damp and I used to have to lie in a hot bath to keep warm. I ended up with bronchitis.

I grew up in a house with just a open fire place, i can’t remember being that cold, we had electric blankets which helped hugely.

OP seems to think that a gas fire lit in the living room magically heated all the rooms in the house with a warm glow or that heating was not affordable.
Lots of fireplaces were boarded up by the 60s so mainly unusable anyway.

‘heating’