To just think fuck it now in regards to the heating?

[FuH]

I have a 2 year old who has chest issues. We've been in and out of hospital with him more times than I can count, he has two inhalers daily, steroids, children's nursing team who are regularly asked to come and see him etc..

It's always worse when it's cold. He's been really unwell again this past week and I was fretting about the heating, being home all day as he's off nursery, but needing to keep the house warm for him and I have just woken up this morning and thought FUCK THIS.

I cannot let my two year old child get even worse in -3 frost because I'm so worried about bills. I don't know what the answer is but I've decided from today that I'm not going to care.

Has anyone else just though 'fuck it'.

What a sorry state we are in.

It’s minus 4 where I am, so the heating is on.
DD keeps feeling a bit ‘off’ and I’m sure it’s connected to the heating being off, so bugger it ! I’ll pay it off in the summer.

You have to put it on for a couple of hours a day to look after the house and pipes.

Same. Currently sitting with the fire on because it was 15° in my house.

Eldest has tonsillitis, I am recovering from covid and dd is poorly with a heavy cold.

It's 0 where I am at the moment.

i do this! but when the house gets under 14 it takes ages to heat back up again and costs more! cannot win!

i save the heat for when the kids gets home though. I am going to get an electric blanket for myself though!

There is a mid point between leaving it off and thinking "fuck it"

Why not have it on with the thermostat at say 18c which should be enough to prevent illness, but less expensive than having it at 20c and think about having it on at strategic times but turning it off at times when you are active or out? You could also turn off radiators in rooms you don't use much or where you don't spend much time, and try to spend as much time as possible in an easy to keep warm room.

Are there places you can go to warm up? A regular Library trip? A visit to friends or family? A brisk outdoor walk so it feels warm when you come in?

It sounds like a lot of people are doing this. I don't blame them when health is at stake.

Dreadful state of affairs though isn't it.

We've been doing the same I have two young Dcs I'm not sitting in the house freezing cold.

I also love our home and don't want to cause bigger issues like mould damp burst pipes etc.

I don't want them to be wrapped up in clothing and blankets to try and keep warm.

Whilst it's not cranked up over 20 degrees thankfully it's still warm and that's the way we will be keeping it until spring.

Similar issue here. DS is 6yo and has asthma which is usually well controlled with twice daily inhaler usage. Since the colder weather and my reluctance to put the heating on he is coughing overnight again and his asthma is kicking in again. It took a long time to get on top of last time so I'm moving to the 'fuck it' camp too. Also have a 18mo but he seems okay so far (actually... the opposite issue in that heating tends to give him eczema!)

I WFH during the day and only heat my tiny office room with a plug-in oil filled radiator for few hours each day, and wear SO many layers plus a blanket over my legs. I'm happy to be cold and layer up, but once the kids are home from school/nursery we really do need to put the heating on for their sake.

We're currently spending around £7.50 p/d.

1930’s unextended semi (100 m²).
Zone 4 South London.
Double glazed.
10cm of loft insulation under boards.
Draft excluders in all chimneys, but still fairly drafty from wooden floorboards and gaps below skirting.

Heating set up
19°C 22:00 to 07:00
21°C 07:00 to 08:00
20°C 08:00 to 16:30
21°C 16:30 to 22:00

How are others spending so much?

Maybe check your boiler settings and balance your radiators? Is your thermostat in a room with TRV radiators that are set too low (the target temp will never be reached and the heating will never turn off)

OP, you don't need to heat the whole house; just the room DC is in.

Do what you can to limit dust and chemicals in the air he breathes. Damp-dusting all surfaces daily. Avoid airfresheners, sprays, smelly candles and laundry products, feather or real down cushions, pillows, duvets.

I was having the heating on for as little as possible, but as soon as it is turned of now it is 11 degrees in my house and it is so damp.
I only have a couple of radiators on as it is.
It takes forever to heat up as well, I do have a halogen heater that I put on if im on my own.

It's so bloody miserable, and I can just about afford the bills (atm).
I feel for the people that genuinely can't.

The reality is even if your bills go up again most will arrange a payment plan, I know being in debt is not ideal but nor is freezing our butts off

If you let your house cool, you have to put in exactly the same amount of energy, that has been lost, to get it back up to temperature - i.e. net saving of zero.

The only cost difference is due to thermodynamics - i.e. a hot object loses heat faster than a cooler object. If you let your house cool to 14°C it will lose less heat than a house being kept at 18°C. Is that saving worth the misery of sitting in a freezing, damp, mouldy house?

I think, but I recommend you test this yourself, that you'll use less energy maintaining 18.5°C, 24x7, than heating the house to 20°C twice a day and turning off the heat completely in-between.

Try taking a meter reading at a certain time (e.g. 4pm). Run your heating on the current settings for 24 hours. Then, tomorrow, change to constant heating at 18.5°C and take another reading at 4pm. See how much is saved by either approach.

I work from home. House was cold all day. Miserable. We all had coughs. I have the heating on all day now at 15 Degrees. Radiators warm. House warm. Not much more expensive than twice a day. It is worth it for me to be warm but I know I am lucky I can afford the extra.

I've heard this before but I read this morning that ML was on this morning saying this is a myth and it's cheaper to use the heating as and when you need it rather than keeping it on low all day?

My other issue is at the moment drying clothes! I want to avoid mould as much as I can especially given DS's issues but drying clothes inside doesn't help of course. I do have a humidifier already which helps.

I'm thinking now what's worse? Using the dryer and turning the radiators off in the rooms being unused or keeping all the radiators on and using those to dry clothes in the rooms I'm not using? Online seems to suggest gas currently cheaping than elec so would be cheaper to use the radiators rather than the dryer.

It's all so ridiculous.

Anyone who has a smart meter can tell you that's not true!

I would recommend you check your settings. I've posted my heating schedule for a bog standard 1930's semi. The house is lovely and warm and it's costing £7.50 p/d. I appreciate that £220+ a month is a lot, but we can afford it. I don't know how other people are spending £600, given how warm our house is.

Chimney draft excluders made a big difference in our house and reduced/eliminated the freezing draft (breeze) from the floorboards/skirting gaps downstairs to the bedroom chimneys upstairs.

We are doing a mixed approach. But to get rid of damp every day we open all the windows and doors in the morning for 20 minutes at least. The house immediately feels warmer ironically because the humidity reduces. We then put the heating or the fire on. The damp is the biggest issue- you can't get warm in a damp house I don't think.

I've been doing this too if we go out anywhere, opening the windows. Damp/mould would just make him 10x worse really need to avoid it if poss!

We don't have a tumble dryer, but I suspect that the running costs would buy a lot of heating.

I tried drying with my dehumidifier in the kitchen yesterday, it worked out cheaper than using the dryer.

Without heat or on the radiator?

12 degrees in the house when i got up yesterday,which had me coughing my lungs up. Today heating is on for an hour from 06.30 to 07.30 and will continue to be like that. Fuck it

Just reading the link PP posted about pre payment metres and the grounds for refusing them. One of these is an illness such as ashtma. I'm assuming a child living in the home also counts not just the bill payer so my son would qualify in that respect for refusing a pre payment metre.

Not that it's at that point yet!