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

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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!

Sounds like you have an old gas meter that measures per 100 cubic feet of gas.

We have 11 radiators in our house and if we switch them all on the ones right at the end of the line do not get warm even. We have switched them off. We currently have 6 switched on. We only heat one bedroom and the bathroom to dry towels. We went away for the weekend and the heating was not on. When we got back at lunch time yesterday the house temperature was 12C and the heating struggled to get up to 17C for the rest of the day. We turn the thermostat down at night to 15C and it copes with that OK.

Yes. Least 23yrs old. Prob 33+

It could be your radiators may need a flush out, to remove any sediment causing a blockage. We have 14 radiators in our house and one of them didn’t get warm and some only got warm in parts. DH bled them but the problem still persisted so he called someone in to flush out the system. It was a full days job and cost £500.00 but it cured the problem, the house is much warmer now, the radiators are working as they should.

Sometimes they can just be inadequate.
Mine get hot but are just inadequately sized for the room. Which sucks

I don't have central heating, just electric, so I have become hardy to the cold due to the cost. In fact this year it is quite nice that we're not such a tiny minority!!

However I think you are nuts having no heating at all at the moment.

If you have gas central heating put it on with the thermostat at say 15c if you are worried about the cost. It really won't be on long to maintain that temperature during the day and will make such a difference. I find 15c is a real tipping point from just a bit chilly to unpleasantly cold.

I am amazed that you don't have mould yet, and expect that you will do very soon if you don't change something.

Consider a dehumidifier too, but check that you get one suitable for colder temperatures as many aren't very efficient when it is cold.

I feel for you OP, many are just not getting that you can't just use something you know you can't pay for
I have a relatively new boiler but my council flat has NO insulation at all, it warms up when it is on but turn it off and it's back to freezing in minutes. I do not feel I am being unreasonable by not using it to literally pay to heat the outdoors and buy shareholders a new Ferarri
I use it only when DGS is here

Mine get hot but are just inadequately sized for the room.

We did the calculation when the heating was installed and needed a huge boiler for so many radiators so decided to go for the cheaper options - turning radiators off in rooms we don't use, draught excluders, closing doors, two duvets on the bed,. Watch where the cat chooses to sleep, that is the warmest place in the house. ;-)

My pump was broken so that's why my radiators suddenly wasn't warming up. The engineer also said that if the heatings off all year it sludges up more. I think I'm going to put it on once a month every month for a hour from now on. Strange how we can all tolerate different temperatures. 14 was OK for me but 13 was intolerable. Now the heating is back on 15 suddenly feels less comfortable than it was before it was switched on..

Yeah we did calculatins on the part we refurbished and it's so different!
You can have closed inds, closed door, hot radiator and it's meh. Meanwhile twice + as size downstairs is nice and roasty. Just cheap rads from pre-previous council ownership

I'm with EoN, and I can choose to use the £66 on either the electricity or gas prepayment meter.Does anyone know if a small oil filled radiator (don't know about wattage) set to 18 degrees thermostat overnight would cost less than having the gas central heating set to come on overnight between12pm-2am and 5-7am?

as i don't have a thermostat for the boiler

Electricity costs about four times as much as gas. For the same price you could heat four radiators with the boiler. How many do you have?

It would also keep the house generally drier and more comfortable.

I think you should concentrate on getting a thermostat.

Have you got an electric clothes drier? Use that to keep warm during the day. Stay warm in bed with more layers of clothes and bedclothes. Only use the central heating if you must for a couple of hours during the day and see if that works.

@GerronBuzanDoThaWomwok I can't answer your question fully, sorry, but we use oil storage heaters rather than gas central heating too. They warm the rooms really well and evenly, and keep them mould free. We also have to as don't have either a timer or thermostat on our heating system. Two other things to consider - letting rooms warm up, then cool down doesn't help with mould much, as when cold the moisture just recondenses, for however many hours until the heating comes on again. Also, oil storeage heaters are very, very efficient at turning electric into heat. Boilers are a bit more hit and miss. I can only imagine our 1996 back boiler is pretty inefficient. So the savings of using gas over electric would be less. Unfortunately, although electric is more expensive kwh for kwh, there are lots of other factors at play, so the yes or no answers are hard to come by.