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.

Our house hasn't got below 17C in the daytime or evening yet and we have the heating off altogether most of the time.

Imagine being a prepayment customer right now. No choice about it, when the money runs out the gas and electric are off for those people. Nothing they can do about it

@FuH Yes, we were religiously checking the smart meter IHD but we WFH a lot so it was getting ridiculous how often we checked it. But we've reached our 'fuck it' moment now and I've turned the IHD around so the display's facing the wall and we can avoid looking at it every 5 minutes. Just leaving the thermostat on a low, but comfortable-enough temp all the time now, and what will be will be...

We don't have the worry of a toddler's health now though so it must be super hard for you to navigate this for your wee-one's sake, especially over the next couple of weeks during cold snap. Agree with PP's - maybe focus on heating one or two rooms only as a compromise. But at the end of the day his health is priority and the last thing you need for him is mould.

Heating very much on here. Have you all checked how much each extra degree is costing you? I was actually pleasantly surprised - after all the doom mongering it wasn't as much as I feared it might be.

I admit I've not even entered my reading yet. I don't want to know right now. It won't change the fact I need the house warm for my child but it will cause me stress just before Christmas which I don't need or want.

Is your 220 just for gas ?

If I was 220 a month for gas alone I would not be able to afford that on top of the electric costs too
I’d be around 400 total

I won’t be keeping my heating on all day , 1 hour in the morning then 4-7 each evening.
And that’s pushing it.

it was -5c here this morning walking to school

Laundry on an drying rack in the middle of the room, dehumidifier about a foot away from it..

I kept the kitchen radiator on, my central heating was using about 3kwh an hour all in to heat my hall and living room (I'll have a look later at what it uses with the kitchen radiator off).
It all dried within about 6 hours.

Thanks will try this. I always worry about not using heat to dry the clothes that they might smell. Will give it a go though with the humidifier.

Dehumidifier*!

Make sure you keep the door and any windows closed!

Yes, dehumidifier is great for drying clothes, it is a godsend at the moment!

We're trying to keep the temperature above 17.5, we've not long had a new boiler and a Hive thermostat so trying to find the balance of what we can afford vs how cold we can stand it. Hopefully the extra efficiency of the new boiler plus swapping to showers run off the combi rather than an electric shower will give savings that will offset at least some of the increased costs. That and the old boiler was costing over £10/mth before the latest increases, just on the pilot light.

Last year was awful as we really restricted heating use while DS was in school and it was miserable. This year DS isn't going to school so I won't let it go as low as it did last year, but we do have to keep an eye on the costs, especially as we'll need it on more in Jan/Feb. I'm trying to keep gas and electric at no more than £7.50 a day - which seems crazy when I look back at last years costs.

I really worry for those unable to pay for heating unless they don’t pay for food and essential clothing. But anyone else not at least heating one room in the house to 18c has their priorities wrong. You are gonna get sick and the vunerable are gonna get more sick. Unless the alternative is starving you need to keep warm.

1. You pay for basic food, loo roll and soap, washing powder and period items
2. you pay for 1-2 changes of essential clothing to keep you all decent and warm
3. you pay for power/heating to keep at least one room in your house at 18c for the time people are up and awake in it and 15-18 when asleep for vunerable people (kids and elderly and sick) and everyone stays in that room most of the time

this is what you need to keep alive. Why anyone would spend money on anything else at all before they have sorted the above confuses me.

not putting heating on in order to save money unless it is literally a choice between not buying basic food/clothes is taking unneeded risks with your and your families health

Then you pay the rent, (rent after heat as it will take a few months for you to be evicted and that’s better than dying of hypothermia now - and living in a shitty council bed and breakfast if you are evicted is also better than dying of hypothermia)

then you pay for anything you need for getting you to work to earn the money to pay for the above

then you pay for anything the kids need for school/homework as they need

then you pay for some nicer food and some more clothes and toiletries

then some Christmas presents for the kids

Then heat some other rooms, maybe pay the water bill (they can’t turn off water as easily as power) and then buy some other stuff as you want

so yes turn on the heating in one room/light a fire/put on the electric heater now if you are trying to raise children permanency in temperature below 18c

Heating on.Am not going to freeze and get mould in the house!!Worry about the bill when we get it !If we can't pay we can't pay 🤷‍♀️

Not a clue really, it’s gas heating.

I’m on a standard tariff and do live in a pretty large and poorly insulated house, with an old boiler.

Heating was on 8 hours that day, usually on 3. Cost per smart meter was £10 more than normal, so £2 an hour for heating as everything else was a normal day.

This will be a very long winter.

Yes.

Electricity is currently £100 p/m. DH works from home and we have a 7 month old. Our 3 year old is at nursery. We managed to reduce it a fair amount (30%) with some smart plugs to turn off DH's IT equipment and server when not in use.

Metric Gas meter on 30/11/22 = 08601
Reading an hour ago 08/12/22 = 08654

53 units is roughly 585 kWh = £60 = £7.50 p/d.

Boiler flow temperature is set to 60°C
Radiators need to be balanced, but not too bad.

Heating will probably be a bit higher over the next week, but our DD with EDF is £250 and we've got £400+ surplus from the summer.

It's crazy. I was born in Siberia and everyone's apartments were always toasty warm. We wore t shirts at home all year round.

Ours is on..my 2 long term lodgers are ill..one has covid...the other has awful headaches....my aunt left us 23k recently....i dont care if i spend it on keeping warm.....!!

This from around 14 mins or so has quite a lot of good tips, especially on the impact of adjusting the thermostat

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dmnfxj

As an aside, since I've started sticking to the recommended 21° living room / 18° bedroom temps, my terrifying coughing has just about stopped.
Worth it I think.

If I still had central heating I would drop the overnight temperature and put warmer PJs and an extra blanket on. Maybe as low as 15c, you can get toasty warm under the covers and just need to make sure you aren't breathing really cold air. I would do the same at any times the house is likely to be empty, eg if everyone is at work/school.

I wouldn't go over 20c at any time, and if I was trying to save money I would have the temperature lower during times I am home but active, but only a couple of degrees lower.

I'm using storage heaters now so don't have that level of control

@ThisGirlNever your first post was really useful, thank you. You're not on a cheaper fixed tariff though are you?

There was another thread on here with posters testing keeping heating on low all day vs use only when needed and a lot of people were finding that there wasn't a massive amount of difference in price (these were from people with smart meter).

I wish I could but I'm on a meter so if I say fuck it and leave it on all day I've used all my credit and it gets switched off until I top up an Di just don't have the money to keep topping it up :(

No. We're on the standard ofgem rate. Our supplier went bust and we were transferred into EDF.

When our 3 year old was born I spent quite a bit of time researching how the boiler worked how to balance the radiators, etc. I did my best, but it certainly wasn't a professional job. Our bills actually went down when we switched to 24/7 heating.

Another issue, with intermittent heating, can be caused by incorrect flow temperatures. The boiler going full pelt for extended periods can cause the return temperature to rise above the condensation temperature. That can cost an extra 10%. If the boiler is misconfigured, but is only doing small top up burns, that will never happen - which is why it can be cheaper to just run 24x7.