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!

Not the best advice!

You will need a swept / functioning chimney and don’t burn damp wood, it’ll cause a lot of smoke, tar and causes chimney fires 😧

We have all been given £66 towards electricity until at least the spring so use this to heat your home. If you can invest in a dehumidifier this will remove the damp air.Damp air from washing makes heating a home so much harder.

@AnnoyedHumph that is potentially dangerous advice. A chimney needs sweeping and wood needs seasoning. Soft woods such as pine are too resinous to burn for heat. Burning the wrong wood at the wrong temperature leads to tar build up and chimney fires.

I wonder if there will be some people who spend less on heating than they did last year

@blanketseverywhere A lot of people do ongoing maintenance to their homes whereby they improve the insultation, get windows double glazed, or at least draught-proofed, and do some prep to save energy.

Have you done as much as you can?

Also, you must live very far north if it's 9C inside your house!

Context is everything here- is it your own home, what have you done to make it more energy efficient (ie ancient boiler replaced? etc.)

Have you checked indoor humidity levels? Over 70% and you are risking your health due to mould growth. Buildings should be kept to a minimum 15oc as well.

I think many people will pay less. I mean the actual cost not the direct debit. We were paying £150 a month DD. We changed over to monthly billing and last month we paid £70. We have had the demudifiers on more this month but have started using a stove top kettle and saving the excess water in a thermos for washing up/ shaving etc so it should be similar this month.

There's no thermostat, so the heating has to be manually switched on or off at the boiler when it's needed. It's probably part of the reason I let the house get so cold as there's no automatic switch-on, iyswim. Plus some of the radiators are stuck in 'on' mode even when the rooms are unused.

Kindly- you and whoever you live with need to take control of this and invest a bit of time and money into making it more energy efficient.

Get a plumber in to assess what needs doing and even paying him may be cheaper than living with all those outdated systems.

I haven't mentioned it because, for many people, the extra £66 won't make much difference. It's maybe an extra hour of heating per day. Not enough to warm most houses or get rid of the damp or the mould.

You seem to be totally oblivious to how many people in this country are having to live. For many families, every single bill has gone up - electric, heating, food, rent/mortgage and even childcare - where do you think all this spare money is going to actually come from?

Thing is, it's not just heating, is it. It's hot water, too. This time last year I was putting about £40pm in my gas meter, and that was with a bit of heating (maybe an hour or so a day). Now I'm putting about £120pm in, and that's with no heating so far.

Then there's the same again for the electricity.

So we've gone from about £80pm altogether to almost £250pm, with no heating as yet. And with cutting down our electricity (one lamp in the living room, oven used minimally, no fire, etc). A pp suggested that an extra £120pm on top of that for heating would be affordable. How?

When people talk about the £66pm as if it's the magic cure-all, they might like to consider that even without heating (and to use our flat as an example) that still leaves a £100 shortfall compared to last year. Add heating onto that and it's an extra £220pm to find. And that's on top of the huge rise in grocery prices and everything else we have to accommodate.

People are not being martyrs.

Unless it's heating or eating then get that heating on girl!

That sounds really cold.

We're setting the thermostat to 17 and only turning it on for half an hour in the morning and an hour or two around kids' bedtime, and that's actually not bad (I don't need gloves or blankets but do wear a fairly chunky fleece indoors) - but even that still seems quite extreme compared to what most of our friends are doing, and is nowhere near the temperatures you are living at. Even with the heating off in the day it hasn't dropped below about 15, and if it did I would turn the heating on again.

Even at that temperature I'm finding laundry takes ages to dry unless I can put it out, so I've been turning the heat on for a bit longer if we've got laundry just out of the machine - or tumble drying it a bit to get some moisture out before I hang it. I do think there's a real risk of damp/mould if you aren't careful.

It does sound a bit extreme unless you really have to (and even then it might be worth looking into whether there are any local authority grants or other sources of support to allow you to put the heating on more).

This woman and her family are existing in 9c temps. They are currently at a very real risk of hypothermia - lighting a fire is the safer option. But even then, chimney sweep is £60 once a year.

Seasoned wood just means that it has been dead a long time. It's easy to find it in woods - but tbh if we are down to gathering wood from parks to burn, the OP may as well quit her job because she's living in the same temps as a homeless person

An hour a day is considerably better than nothing so yes, it does make a difference.

I can’t believe it took this long for someone to point out the actually quite generous government support. Sunak will pretty much wholly cover our heating costs this winter.

I know so many people being tight with the heating who can very much afford it. It’s baffling.

I read an article which said that around 17° is the lowest before your body starts going into cold defence mode.

We’ve had the heating on for a month, for about 3 hours a day. The bill is just over 90 pounds, just for the gas only.

Lighting a fire in an unsafe fireplace could risk a house fire, not a cheaper option. Most sweeps are about £75 nowdays. Finding enough seasoned wood in a park or woodland with the right moisture content to prevent tar build up would be unlikely without a trailer or pickup.

If you are putting £120 with no heating you need to look at a massive overuse somewhere.
We have 2 showers, cook on gas cooker in the evening, sometimes twice a day and heating on for half an hour in a morning and hour and half in the evening and are on about £3 a day....
There is 2 of us, but 2 more showers, for example, for 4 deb household will not make it to 120 without heating.

Saint Sunak is absolutely not 'pretty much wholly covering our heating costs'.

I explained in my last post how much of a shortfall that £66 still leaves. For those on a low income, and having to pay more for their fuel because they're on prepayment meters, putting the heating on will be a rare luxury. There's hundreds of pounds a month still to find, even with that help.

Of course it's better than nothing, but people still need to weigh up the pros vs. cons.

An hour of heat a day when your house is already 9 degrees inside won't do anything to get rid of the mould or the damp - so some people would rather spend that £66 on more directly beneficial things - and some have no choice but to spend it on other essentials instead.

Whereas if you're house is sitting at 15-16 degrees, an hour could bring it up to 17-18 degrees which would feel considerably warmer and make a big difference.

Three adults here, and we're on prepayment, so we pay more. We also don't have a shower so have to have baths, which cost more as more.

Sounds like you need the heating on. How can your clothes get dry inside?

I’ve put my tumble dryer in the kitchen instead of the utility & it warms the whole room up. I use hot water bottle all day as I work from home & do have to reheat it a couple of times. In the evening I’ve been using a radiator to heat one room. I’ve not yet put the main heating on yet but I think I’m am going to need to start doing it for 1 hour in morning & 1 hour in evening.

Just keep an eye on your meter and the bills. Keep well op.

“Our” has a personal as well as collective meaning.

Unless I’ve missed it the OP isn’t on a prepayment metre and appears to own their home, which they managed to purchase recently suggesting adequate financial health.

I mean electric radiator & tumble dryer is on drying my clothes as well as warming my kitchen at the same time.