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!

All this "hair shirt" attitude to heating is nuts. People will make themselves ill. If you cannot afford to heat your home please seek help from your supplier. Otherwise put it on.

case and electric prices have gone up by 141% so what cost £100 last year now costs £241

so to spend exactly the same as last year you can use 41% of the power you did last year
so if you had heating set at 20C for 1 hour in morning and 3 in evening for the same price you can now but it on for 25 minutes in the morning and about 1 hour 20 minutes in the evening at 20c but if you set at 15 or 16c you could do about 2 hours a day
9C is dangerous to health and buildings maybe not for a few days while you are away but from now to next March definitely, having to have mould treatments and re plastering etc on top of poor health will cost you more in the long run than 2 hours heating per day.
an employer is generally advised they must keep at workplace at 16c when workers are mostly seated ie in an office
please use some heat an electric blanket might keep you warm but it won't dry clothes or stop mould or humidity

your clothes will start to smell from not being properly dried soon, if you don't dry them within a day or two. No idea why you are living like this unless you are very impoverished, and of course it's storing up problems for your health and your belongings and house, you already feel ill all the time!

Putting the heating on will be cheaper than needing to redecorate your house when it gets mouldy or treat your roof rafters for woodworm who thrive in unheated properties

That article is an eye-opener!
I'm peri-menopausal and have always had poor circulation anyway. My hands and feet are always freezing and I get chilblains but tbh I've always had those I didn't think it was that unusual! I think I've got used to a certain level of coldness but it's probably not healthy. It's definitely not fun.

You're already damaging the house and yourself. Homes need to be 18 upwards.

Please put it on, I made the mistake of not having it on the other night and had water running down my walls!!

I think a big worry with living in a completely unheated home OP, particularly one where you're drying washing indoors, is damp and mold. If your house is 9 degrees the air you're breathing out is much warmer and will condense as it cools, forming droplets that will create damp in your home. The moisture from the washing will also condense, as will heat from cooking, and soon your home will be damp, as well as cold. In damp conditions, mold grows and mold is very bad for human health.

In the past, when people didn't have central heating, that didn't mean they had no heat at all. In most cases, homes had a fire in the living room, so there was a warm room to sit in and in which to dry laundry. If you don't have that, it will be bad for your health and also for the livability of your home.

Yeah I came here to post that article. 18 degrees minimum. www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63602501.amp

never mind treating wet or dry rot which costs thousands to treat and timbers need replacing as they can collapse ( ok that won't happen overnight but lots of abandoned unheated houses the floors collapse because of this it takes months if not years to get to point of collapse
but you need to do the maths
while your dad would have had ice on bedroom windows we would have slept under blankets with hot water bottle and downstairs there would almost certainly have been a warm kitchen kids then did not live in their bedrooms they were for sleeping in only playing homework ec was done downstairs so they heated one room properly

They did a test at 10 degrees and noted the changes in the body.
That's such a misleading article. The man is in his shorts and open shirt. If you're wrapped up warm, it's just not the case. Otherwise, you'd never go on walks in the winter! (Obviously, I'm not saying it's good to have the house that cold. But there's no point in causing extra worry.)

Some insurers say that homes should be kept at a minimum temperature of around 12-14°c else pipes should be drained if stood empty. That's presumably the point risk of damage to the property increases.

I've always used that as my guide anyway so have the heating set to click on once it gets to down to that if the heating is otherwise off.

Could you get a heated blanket like this? www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08C4S4VYX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm not sure how much it costs to run but I just bought one for my Mum who says it's wonderful and she puts it on her lap throughout the day. Or you could put it on your feet to help with chilblains.

Honestly I think an hour int the morning and evening to help with damp is essential.

Heating should be one of the first priorities, after obvious things like food, medication and rent/mortgage.
It's bad for your mental and physical health to be that cold.
If you really can't afford to put the heating on, is there any other way you can cut back? If not maybe you need to approach services to help.

Do you actually have a tumble dryer? If you do, you really need to also think about whether the potential damp problems you might be causing your house are worth the savings of not using the dryer. It costs around £1-2 for a cycle with the tumble dryer. We try and dry things outside on the line as much as possible, and then put them in the tumble to finish them off if they're still not dry (or when its torrential rain). We're using it far less than we used to (we used to never hang the washing out in the winter!) but we're still using it when we need to.

I think a lot of people overheat their houses and make out that anything under 20 degrees C is life threatening.

If you are healthy and not old/young this is not the case. But, there are physical limits and of course everyone has different personal preferences.

For me I don't like rooms much below 15C if I am in them. Am willing to tolerate lower temperatures in various rooms if they are not used, but I don't think I would want them below 10C.

9C, no. I wouldn't want to work in a room that cold and I suspect that is far below the temperature the vast majority of people would view as sensible work in.

As someone else said, you can use the heat at a rate of 1/4 what you were last year and pay the same price - my guess is unless you were really frugal last year then this would produce a decent temperature.

I get your point. I had same discussion with my husband the other day that there is no point not putting the heating on (or putting on demand, not when temperature drops below certain level), because it leaves the walls cold and you don't make any savings anyway, as running the boiler in the first hour when i.e. there is 16 degrees at home, is the most expensive anyway. We now set thermostat for 18 degrees at night and 18.5-19 during the day.

Agree with the other posters, you are not doing yourself any favours. I'd turn the heating on and set your thermostat low. Our is at about 18.5 but quite honestly, it's a cheap, not terribly effective thermostat and the radiators are old so we tend to fiddle with it a bit. Also, ours is downstairs which is generally colder so when the heating is on, upstairs is a bit warmer.

You could go a bit lower than we do or I'd consider a small heater you can put on in your main room as well. So main heating set at 16 or so and then a little heater for the room you're in to go on for an hour or so at a time to heat things up.

It needs to be 12 degrees minimum to avoid damage, pipes bursting etc… although it’s 15 to avoid mould building up.

You need some heat, op!
www.bbc.com/news/health-63602501

If you're happy enough with a coldish house, then I'd put the heating on and keep it at around 16 degrees.

There's no point just putting it on for an hour, in most cases you spend more trying to heat up a cold home in an hour than you would keeping it at a maintenance temperature.

My heating is on about 17 at the moment. It comes on at about 7am, and goes off at about 9pm. The boiler comes on for about 20 mins first thing, and then for about 5 mins every hour for the rest of the day, when the temperature drops below 17, so thats 90 mins of boiler over the course of the day, and a reasonably warm house all day, compared to running the boiler full tilt for an hour and it probably still not getting above 14 degrees.

Boilers aren't designed to run full tilt regularly. In usual use, they do short bursts to top the temperature up. Running it non stop for an hour will shorten the life of your boiler, probably costing you more than the gas savings.

And not having the heating on at all will hurt the health of both the house and you, especially if you're drying clothes in the house.

Please put the heating on, if you have chilblains you are suffering IMHO. Unless you are absolutely skint you are harming your health and probably damaging your home. I really don't understand the martyrdom of people who think that not putting the heating on makes them superior to those of us who like some comfort. Harming yourself helps no one.

I think that would be worth doing as a balance between maintaining temperature and keeping costs manageable. If you're still feeling achey then, you can think about whether it might need to be more.

At the beginning of this crisis I was very much the ‘I won’t put my heating on, a hot water bottle will suffice’ but I’ve had to back down on it and I’ve started putting my heating on, an hour in the morning and a couple in the evening. It’s not because I can’t stand the cold but I can already see it’s going to be detrimental to my house. I’m going to have to take a deep breath and deal with the costs but the heating can’t not be on for the entirety of winter.

Is there a reference / source for that please? I'd like to show this to my DP

Where do you live Op? 9 degrees is pretty much outdoor temperature. I personally wouldn't let the inside temp get below 15 degrees centigrade if you are working from home, you will be ill.

Can you heat the room you are in if you can't afford to heat whole house?