9 degrees inside - is it now a false economy to not put heating on?

[blanketseverywhere]

I'm trying to get by without putting heating on. According to the smart meter, it's currently 9 degrees in the sitting room (north-facing). The house feels very cold, but if I sit in the kitchen (south-facing) in many layers, with scarf and fingerless gloves on etc, it's not unbearable for WFH. In the evening I can use blankets / hot water bottles etc while watching tv and have two duvets on the bed at night.

However, at what point will temperatures of this level start to damage the house - or me? I feel achey all the time which I think is from being 'tense' in the cold, if that makes sense. I also have a constantly red and running nose / scratchy throat although I don't really feel ill.

I'm not using the tumble dryer so drying washing inside most of the time, although do try and keep windows open for air circulation... but then that makes it colder! I don't think we have any damp but I'm worried about the house constantly being cold - is this an issue in itself?

Is it going to get to a point where it's a false economy not to put the heating on because it will possibly be doing damage to the house, or should I carry on trying to hold out if possible and just carry on layering up? I realise this probably sounds a bit daft but I really don't want to store up even bigger problems!

I think the putting the heating on for an hour is a false economy. The heating has to work much harder to get the temperature up. A thermostat set at a certain temperature doesn't have to work so hard. Some on MN I suspect are being martyrs. Being cold is utterly awful id rather eat beans on toast everyday Vs being freezing and miserable.

Ok unless you really can't afford it please heat yourself.
There has been all sorts recently on this.how it's really bad for your body to get this cold.what stops or faults working.what is "given up" to save vital functions.mentally too.
If this is caution you've gone too far.if you can please please start heating.it effects lots more than you think.

A recent online article showed a laboratory test with a healthy male

Was that the one wearing shorts and an unbuttoned shirt?

Op I don't have one yet but as people said previously I think a dehumidifier would be a good investment as well as an electric blanket at least for children.

This isn't you op but I'm on a heating group where people are turning off the electrical board at midday and going the entire night without heating at all or electric . children are eating salad's with head torches strapped to their head's.

Surely going the night without heating isn’t extreme though? I would have thought most people go the night without heating.

Eating food with a headlight strapped to your head is on a completely different level of course. It’s hard to know how many people this is necessary for because of course there are a lot of people cutting back more than they need to (and then for those who can’t afford it at all).

This!
Many are forgetting that the actual standing charges are insane before you even use energy, so the " just use a half/quarter of what you used last year" suggestions don't take this into account
Just as everybody's homes/lives/priorities/BUDGETS are different.
I would rather eat and wrap up warm than prioritise bricks
ie. skeleton sat in corner, ooh but at least the house is fine
Also, the council flat I live in is completely uninsulated and there are many hundreds of them in many areas exactly the same. My heating is not staying in the flat anyway, turn it off and after 20 mins it is freezing again, I am heating the atmosphere outside so excuse me if I seem reluctant to care for me and not a building which should have been demolished a long time ago
I get quite emotional thinking of the elderly and vulnerable this winter
We did not do this to ourselves

@Wishawisha

No but everything off from midday and DC eating salad with torch strapped to head

So we spent the winter with no heating, wearing coats indoors and creeping around upstairs with torches at night time. Now that is fucking miserable and why anyone would choose to live like that when they don’t HAVE to, I have no idea

your experience is the reality of living with no heating on , it’s very difficult , but what I’m seeing lately is people often romanticise the past. Like it’s something cozy and quaint .

How many layers of clothes is it acceptable to wear to be able to be comfortable at 9 degrees?

That head torches most likely costed more than lighbulbs for a year...

Warm Home Prescription is an innovative new service being piloted by Energy Systems Catapult and a select number of NHS regions, helping vulnerable people with both low incomes and existing cold-sensitive health conditions, to stay warm and well at home, and out of hospital this winter.
Millions of people in the UK have health conditions – such as respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses – that are made worse by living in a cold home. With over 10,000 people dying each year in England and Wales – as a result of living in cold homes.
This pilot study aims to determine whether it is more cost-effective to help pay the heating costs of vulnerable people than it is to pay for their care in hospital if they fall ill – saving the NHS money overall and reducing pressure on frontline staff.

Just read this new scheme.

I had no heating for three days over the weekend as the boiler broke. We have a gas fire so was able to keep the one room warmer, though it did drop to about 15 degs overnight.

It took an absolute age last night to get

Are you worried about the bill, or can you physically not afford your bill? Because they're very different things, if you can afford it put it on and keep an eye on it. Quite a few of my friends who can definitely soak up a higher energy bill are sat in their houses absolutely freezing because of the constant media coverage of the cost of living crisis.

Obviously if you absolutely cannot afford it, it's a different matter, in which case, maybe put it on for an hour a day so you don't cause permanent damage to your house, and then for you hot water bottles and blankets. Contact your energy provider too, and tell them you can't afford the bill and see if they can help you.

... I was joking. This is clearly martyr post. No one would would actually live in temperatures the same as outside AND still do a job unless they had severe mental health issues

Are you claiming the £6 a week work from home subsidy? If you’ve never claimed it then you can get it backdated about 2 years. It’s not loads but it helps. My work used to do it automatically and it was about £80 every 3 months but they’ve just stopped doing it but you can claim through the HMRC which I need to get onto.

@blanketseverywhere I'm really glad you started this thread. I can cope with cold as I'm very hardy and also menopausal, and am really struggling financially (but don't qualify for additional support for long and boring reasons) - but I don't want the house to suffer too. It's already very old and has historic problems with damp. It's 10 degrees in here at the moment and I'm sitting it out with a hot water bottle and three layers, but I absolutely don't want to do that if it's storing up expensive problems further down the line.

I don't agree that being cold makes you ill, though. I grew up in a freezing cold farmhouse and have barely had a day's illness in 50 years.

....the temperature back up, to even a reasonable 18 degs and the bedroom was colder than that. It was on for about 6 hours. Letting a house get really cold and then trying to heat it is a real false economy.

Some of us are already eating (Lidl - 23p) beans on toast every day already. Just saying.

It's not as much as you claim - it's £6 a week that's deductable from your taxable income. For worker who has 4 weeks annual leave a year, the tax benefit is:

Basic rate taxpayer:
(£6 x 48 weeks) x 20% = £57.60 pa

Higher rate taxpayer:
(£6 x 48 weeks) x 40% = £115.20 pa

If your employer gave you more than that, that will have been an allowance that was specific to your employer, probably part of your contract.

Hot water bottles, heated blankets, and other point source heating solutions... these suggestions are all missing the point. At 9 degrees the house will be getting damp through condensation. It will be slowly affecting all surfaces, and it will lead to damp.

Sacrifice a couple of lesser used rooms. But get the rooms you use up to at least 16 degrees.

If anyone genuinely can't afford to heat the rooms they use to this temperature they need to speak to their energy provider, and if they can't help then their GP too.

If anyone is doing it from money anxieties, and there's a lot of this about, then they need to get help. This is the sort of anxiety that will kill people this year, through misguided frugality.

That's the article I was looking for to quote - it says that below 10 degrees causes your circulatory system to work a lot harder and your brain to work slower.

Your employer can pay you the £6/week and you won't be taxed on that amount.

It's like mileage. If you're employed you can be paid the 45p/mile and not be taxed on that amount. If you're self-employed you avoid paying the tax on 45p/mile of income.

No, it wasn’t specific to my contract. We got exactly what we were entitled to. As I said, it was approx £80 every 3 months. I’d have to get my payslip to confirm the exact amount.

You might as well go and live outside at that temperature. But seriously, please put heating on if you can afford to. It's not good for you or the house to be so cold all the time.