Cutting down on using heating

[Oaktree1233]

I was just thinking that if everyone used slightly less heat than in previous years this will ultimately be good for everyone. I’m trying to use far less heat not just due to cost but also because it’s using gas. I think that it needs to become more acceptable to bundle up in jumpers and blankets. Obviously, the ill and vulnerable or people with small children can’t do this as well. AIBU.

Im trying to think what we can do to lessen energy use. I’m waiting for more efficient solar panels to be marketed in the next 2 years but am really keen to get them. It would be good if there were more Government grants to make everyone go solar - think how much energy that would produce.

It's a great indicator that most of our housing isn't really fit for purpose. It's totally possible to build a house and use human heat and heat traps to keep it warm.

We have had damp and mould issues in a bathroom that we first attempted to keep warm. When fully ventilated it's not a problem, even if it's freezing cold.

We are just pumping away heat and money to warm up walls that ultimately leak the heat back out in our old property. There is some benefit in terms of heat living in a terrace. Cavity wall insulation can just introduce other problems. Passive houses is where it's at. Most housing is utter junk in the UK.

Depends on what their vulnerability is, doesn't it?

Vulnerable to what, for a start? Disease?

And I am struggling to come up with a vulnerability that prevents you from wearing warmer clothes or using a blanket and hot water bottle in the normal fashion (people who may or may not be "vulnerable" but who have certain disabilities might of course need assistance with dressing, making up the bottle etc)

For PP worried about hands, there are gloves (fingerless?) and wrist warmers, and for the face then masks (the wearing of which is a fantastic way to protect the vulnerable and the aged, though of course that benefit is less likely to accrue within your own home, unless you are in one of the (literally) millions of households which do contain someone who could be categorised like that)

I think the government should have a national insulation programme. It would lower household energy bills, go some way towards net zero targets and create jobs installing it. Yes it would need funding, no, I don't have the maths. But I would vote for it.

First world country life... Yay

It's the standing charges that cripple people with lower use
I can't cut my heating or electric use any more, usual total use is £3 a day absolute max inc standing charge

The standing charge is a travesty and should be scrapped.

The mould issue can be addressed with proper and regular ventilation.

I grew up in a house with no central heating we did not have mould as it was properly vetilated (my dad is a demon for opening windows)

We regularly got down to 7 degrees indoors last winter and that wasn't out of choice. Mainly because our heating system is so old, furred up and the pump / system is knackered. I could £25 on gas snd it would still be at 15 degrees.

Better use of money is on fixing up the house to stay warm but you need money to fix stuff too. Maybe using less gas is a luxury a lot of us can't afford. Not being snidey as I do agree with you. I'd just to be in the position to heat my house above 15 this year. I'm asset rich btw so not poor but there's no free cash to pay for gas or fix my house

But you still had some heating as well.
Heat and air is the best way to go. I do morning and evening short bursts, works great. Your dad was spot on with ventilation

It's been tried before, and is a dangerous plaster. Most popular insulating materials are carcinogenic, and PIR is horribly toxic and a nightmare on fire. Even though it's a good insulator. We'd be better to build new housing estates using innovative methods, and put to bed old housing stock. We could probably recycle these, into slabs and block work. Certainly scope for national plans and job creation. You can 3d print housing, this could use a geo-polymer using material from existing housing. But finishing at the moment still requires human labour. Plenty of scope for prefabs though.

When it gets cold, my lungs start to ache, and my hands lock up. So even if I wear a balaclava and fingerless gloves it's not great TBH. A badger has a better deal living underground. I lived in a 1930s detached property when growing up completely and utterly freezing most of the time, even with the heating on lots. Our 1900 terrace is better, but not great, and I've got 1ft of insulation in the loft.

Exactly. Not good breathing cold air especially for asthmatics

Thank you for all your comments and there is lots to think about here. Part of me wants to insulate as much as possible and keep heating costs down as I’m fed up with what happened last year with outside countries eg Russia determining our economy with oil and gas prices. Equally I agree that mould is highly dangerous and unpleasant. It’s also horrid having cold air up your nostrils. It’s hard to know what to do other than insulate, change windows and really think about when and how to use energy. I just want to do my big. Such a change from the 1970 when gas was on for so many hours in my parents home. I

Bit not big

I agree with you OP and voted YANBU because if you are able to be sparing with the heating then that’s great for you, planet and politics. But of course not everyone can because it is so dependent on housing age and type.
We have a large Victorian terrace, good that the heat stays in at the sides but boy it disappears out the front and back and through the floors! Fireplaces throughout, two chimneys, cavity under the floors and air bricks in the front wall - in the winter I can put my hand to the sitting room floor boards and feel the arctic draught coming straight up! We will probably look for another rug to throw down for that.
We have solar electric which is great in the summer but makes little difference in winter as our heating is still gas. We also use a log burner and occasionally the open fire in the sitting room. Whichever way we do it, it’s an expensive house to heat. Last winter and this, we are keeping the thermostat to 18 indoors and bundling up. We don’t have hearing on yet, we are only going to put it on November to February.
Also agree ventilation is key. Always try to open the windows in the day time only for an hour to air the house.

Wood burners are really bad for health and air quality levels. I really don't think they should be used unless people live in a rural area where their ability to access normal heating is poor or non existent.

Cutting down from 22 to 20 is massively different to cutting down from 16 to 14 for example. Whether you can cut down depends on what temperature you maintain now!

And as usual, we have people arguing about extremes. How about the middle ground? That's putting on another layer of clothes (or substituting thicker clothes for ridiculously skimpy clothes in winter), and turning down the heating a little (either slightly lower temperature, or for a slightly shorter time). That won't cause mould or the elderly to die! No sane person would suggest turning the heating off completely

I’ve been putting our heating on morning & evening for the past 3 weeks, there’s thick frost outside now and been relentless rain prior to that. I don’t want to be cold, I don’t want my house to be damp and I’ve got 2 young children who are vulnerable enough to viruses from nursery without adding a damp house to the mix. Were lucky our mortgage is cheap, we have decent income and our energy bills haven’t gone through the roof, I feel genuinely sorry for people who can’t afford to run their heating or are too afraid to turn it on, in the long run fixing damp & mould issues will be much more expensive.

@MotherOfCatBoy

in the winter I can put my hand to the sitting room floor boards and feel the arctic draught coming straight up!

Presumably you have bare floorboards rather than fitted carpets. They may look good, but are pretty impractical as you've found out. I do wonder if we're going to have a reversal of these modern fads.

Another fad that causes excess energy use is open plan everything - just think how much space you're having to heat that you're not actually using. Smaller rooms are far easier to heat and you can choose which to heat and when to heat them, also easier to avoid drafts etc as any drafts are contained in a smaller room.

The heating in my house is on whenever it drops below 20 right now I the day. It has struggled to keep it at that temp this morning and has been on since 8am.

I have a 4m old baby, have asthma and rheumatism, and I can't do much if I'm hacking up a lung and my joints seize. Plus my house is a nightmare for mold if it gets too cold in here, tried it last year by having the heat off entirely during the day while we were both at work.

At the moment I'm looking at ways we'll shuffle money around to pay for it this winter as I'm off on Mat leave and then once I go back to work we're sinking thousands into home improvements to replace flooring, loft insulation and windows and doors.

i HATE cold air around me when i am at home. No amount of jumpers will fix that.

"For PP worried about hands, there are gloves (fingerless?) and wrist warmers, and for the face then masks (the wearing of which is a fantastic way to protect the vulnerable and the aged, though of course that benefit is less likely to accrue within your own home, unless you are in one of the (literally) millions of households which do contain someone who could be categorised like that)"

I am not wearing gloves and a mask indoors. I refuse to be cold, it's just miserable.

God, this thread is depressing. And this is the 7th world economy?

No. You can keep all that, op. I like to keep my home warm.