Visiting friends’ freezing cold houses

[Lardychops]

Yet another evening visiting a friends’ house for a mid week catch up natter and couple of drinks, 7.30-10pm type affair. Absolutely fucking Baltic with no heating on Went to the loo, radiator like ice not even warm from maybe having clicked off at 8.30/9pm
Home warming up in bed.
Baffling as this seems to be the case with loads of our friends - all not short of a bob or two, nice holidays, homes, cars etc especially as half of us grew up with sod all and often joke about our relatively impoverished upbringings by today’s standards ( myself included which is why I hate hate being cold at home)
I mean, even at my skintist as an adult with a young family, making sure the meter was plugged with 50p’s so the flat was warm for visitors would have been a given

After having grown up with chilblains in winter as a kid I just don’t get the freezing cold house thing when it doesn’t have to be.

I think people genuinely feel temperatures differently. Bigger people tend to be warmer and those with a fast metabolism I.e athletic people colder. People usually say our house is too warm so opposite issue. I have a fast metabolism so usually cold.

i find the opposite. People who move around more feel the cold less. The sedentary are chillier.

Maybe they think they are helping to save the planet.

Maybe they do not feel the cold like you.

I recommend thermal under layers in the winter. Particularly if you know somewhere will be chilly.

Wearing more clothes doesn't work because you are breathing in cold air so it lowers your core temp . Op I just wouldn't go again until at least spring .

I like 17/18 during the day and 19 in the evening so not super warm. have been to friends houses and my nose has started to run and I’m sitting in my hands to keep them warm so asked them to put the heating on.

This! My DH is bigger but feels the cold more because he’s sedentary!

I cannot bare the cold, it makes me miserable. One of my ex friend's apartment was always freezing even with guests over and I stopped going as much because I'd feel so unwell. She had more disposable income than I but spent it differently

I still think it's rude to allow guests to be cold.

Of course it’s not irrelevant - I’m not going to sit in my own house at a temperature that makes me feel unwell.

I used to live in a country where the government decided only the northern half was allowed central heating. When I lived in the southern half i bought a small electric heater- but I remember visiting a friend's parents in the countryside a few hours away for a few nights. I have never been so cold!

Everyone wore coats inside- i was only warm in bed (eventually), in the bath, and when we cycled to play outdoor table tennis. It was a real wet, damp kind of cold as well.

I make sure the heating is on when visitors are here. I would rather them be too warm than cold. It’s miserable.

I get migraines on over heated houses. By overheated... I'm meaning 20+. Our CH goes up to 18 in the evenings and mornings. If we were having a party it might get higher.

Incidentally, my teenager finds this to hot and wanders around in shorts and tshirts.

Layers are fine if it’s September and trying to put off putting heating on when there’s some sun outside, but it’s January!!!

my mum is the best entertainer ever- she’ll automatically ask is it too cold so you want the heating on and then do you want tea. You shouldn’t be freezing when you’re meant to be enjoying yourself (obviously different if they can’t afford)

99pwithaflake

Of course it’s not irrelevant - I’m not going to sit in my own house at a temperature that makes me feel unwell.

I don’t think op was looking for stifling hot, just not freezing cold!!!!

But what’s stifling hot/freezing cold is very much down to the individual.

I get a headache if our heating goes above 19 but other people have referred to that as Baltic on these threads before 🫣

99pwithaflake
but nobody’s going to freeze or boil at a mid range temperature. I mean properly shake with cold or feel like they’re going to puke, because in everyday life most buildings won’t have they’re heating on max and it won’t be off for days at a time

Just read through all the heating threads on here - people are regularly told their houses are freezing and/or unpleasantly cold at 18 degrees.

This is the thing, there is no universally agreed definition of 'mid range'!

This is my worry. I've moved to a new house which is old and it's bloody cold here. I've had the loft insulated but I can't get to grips with the best way to heat the house. I've asked two neighbours since their weather is the same as mine and one has a house almost identical in size. One keeps it on all the time and the other puts it on for an hour when it's cold.

With having the kids here for about six weeks and it being really cold, I've had the heating on more but the bill is four times usual. Not sustainable. I've read about heating the person and not the house and my heated blanket is great, but then I have a friend saying I'll get damp. Temperature tips would be great too if the consensus is have it on more.

Any tips would be great, thank you.

This is what we do, we would much rather be a bit warmer than normal than our guests be cold.

Exactly 🫣

If I went to a house kept at 22/23 degrees I would have a banging headache and a sore throat within the hour, whereas other people would be sitting there in jumpers and slippers.

My sil does this, she says it’s as she doesn’t feel the cold. But she does, you can see she’s cold and they sit there in their fleeces. My house is always warm, I dislike a cold house and I think it’s bad for your health. Very rarely rhe heating will click off and I forget and she will say it’s cold, and it’s 22 degrees, but in her own house apparently 17 is toasty. She loves a warm toasty house, just doesn’t want to pay for it.

Yeah honestly I think it’s impossible to say. What were your friends wearing? I think some people do feel the cold a lot more, but as I am not one of them, it’s impossible for me to know if my house is too warm or too cold. It’s plenty warm enough for me, DH and the kids right now, thermostats in various rooms are generally around 18-19, but that seems to be cold for some people 🤷‍♀️

No one has ever kept their coat on here but then quite a few of my friends live in quite old, draughty homes and comment on how warm it is in our house! Whereas others would maybe think it on the cold side. I don’t adjust temperature for guests as it’s always comfortable for us and it wouldn’t occur to me to guess whether X guest runs hotter or colder. You can’t please everyone!

Also unless you have individual room thermostats (we have smart radiator TRVs) it’s impossible to say what the temp is in each room. Our main thermostat in hall doesn’t really bear much relation to what the temperature is in all the various rooms in the house. So a large pinch of salt when anyone says their whole house is 23 degrees or whatever.

Not rude enough to keep your coat on 🤔. My BIL’s the same, when I used to visit him & SIL, there’s no way my coat would come off! When they mentioned it I would tell them I was chilly & would take my coat off when I’d warmed up a bit. I’d go home & be shivering all night. They’d sit in the dark too, They have plenty of money for everything else, but for God knows what reason they won’t spend money on heat or light. I don’t go any more, it’s so uncomfortable sitting there freezing.

After a friends shoes off housewarming, post renovation 20 years ago with perishing cold [if beautiful new oak] floors I take small ballet slippers with me everywhere. I was so ill after that night and its really stuck with me.

Being cold is the one thing that gives me bad memories of my childhood in a very badly insulated house. DH regularly attests that it's warmer outdoors than indoors in my parents house even in summer. I don't visit in the winter any more. I can recall getting dressed for school with my siblings as a primary aged child in the kitchen because it was the only heated room [gas burner heater] in the mornings. It's my biggest priority when house hunting. Will it be easy to heat and have reasonable running costs because I am not living in a perishing house ever again.

@ OP - I'd have put on my coat. It's one thing to be British and polite if you think funds are very tight, otherwise no.

I have a friend like this. Her living room is always really cold but I noticed she has some pretty decorative throws over her sofa. Apparently those were not intended to be used as blankets over my legs while I was there. It’s going to be a while before I’m invited over there again! 😀