To wonder how long the no heating brigade will last when it turns cold?

[womaninatightspot]

I’ve been contemplating how much I can reduce the heating and electric throws. It’s chilly here today, sixteen degrees, but grey and drizzly. I’ve lit the wood stove, I do have a cold so maybe I feel more susceptible to chills.

I feel like I’ve fallen at first hurdle. Definitely going to be keeping one warm room in the house so it’s not just really unpleasant for the dc. I’ve recently paid 365 for four cubic metres kiln dried wood but it’s going to cost 1K to fill the oil tank for 1000 litres. Was a third of that last year.

East Anglia here, very damp at the moment. We’ve had the heating on for two evenings so far when we had people over, otherwise it’s just been Primark Snuddies and slippers but we’ve been fine. I’m drying washing on the line and on an airer then putting it in the tumble dryer for 15 mins just to make sure it’s dry. It’s a heat pump one though so not hideous.
wfh is interesting and probably when I’m coldest because I can’t move around but a hot water bottle is good.
its really not that cold here yet though, more wet and chilly.

We never have the heating on overnight though and everyone sleeps with an open window even in winter. When the heating is on its around 18 at the moment, when it goes below freezing it will be around 20 and we’ll still wrap up. I’m missing my gas fire though.

We are the same overnight however our house is nowhere near as warm as yours in the day so I imagine even at night yours would be an ok temperature!
I'm never cold in bed mind. Wear winter pyjamas, 10 tog duvet at minute and at night it's got down to 11 in the room one night and it's been fine. But I've got 15 tog if I need it

I don't have the heating on at night & the rad is turned off in the bedroom, but its fine having the window open presently as its around 13.5 inside but as it gets colder I will close the window some nights as to cold on my chest. I do air the bedroom in the day with the door closed

We only put the heating on between 5 and 10pm usually unless it’s absolutely freezing. My house does get cold but we wrap up. No idea what the temperature actually goes down to tbh. The 18 and 20 are just what I set the thermostat to for the heating.

I just caved purely for washing it’s been raining and raining. I’ve taken a meter reading and done a 1hr boost only by 1c it’s been 17 minutes and it’s nearly already heated that 1c and I’m feeling rather warm. The meter was spinning like crazy the first five minutes but when I last checked still hadn’t used a full meter unit.

So it took about 38 minutes of heating to raise the temperature by 1.5c. My meter was 00481 at 3pm and is 00481 now at 5pm although the red bit you don’t read has obviously moved I’ll take note of that part next time. A meter unit is approx 11.2 kWh so if we used a whole meter unit would be £1.12 but we tend to unit a whole meter unit a day anyway I expect tomorrow will be near 2 units after todays boost to dry the clothes.

I have been using the tumble dryer it’s rained for a week solid in not so sunny Scotland.

Same here @bloodyeverlastinghell - the rain is endless and my house was beginning to sink under the weight of washing drying over clothes horses.

I don’t have a tumble dryer it broke at our old house and unless I want to go “outside” to the utility I don’t have space

It’s quite mild in London at the moment but it was quite cold last week. I had a thread about heating, where everyone said that 16 degrees or less is quite balmy and they are sitting around in their T-shirts, so I thought I would try to hold off with the heating. My unscientific experiment proved to me that I need at least 18 degrees in the living areas to be comfortable, ideally at least 19 if I am sitting around trying to work. At night, in the bedrooms 17 is good for me, 16 ok, but at 15 is started to feel too chilly. At 15 it also felt a bit damp, which is not a good thing in a Victorian terrace house…

Ours went on yesterday as the air in the house felt a bit damp. It's only set to 15 degrees and on for an hour or two morning and evening but it has made a huge difference. The tumble drier has been used a couple of times too, which seemed disappointing but necessary.

Happy to see that here (East Anglia), there are a few dry(ing) days coming up. Last couple of days, I've relented and tumble dried and put on heating - both for a fraction of the time I'd have had them on for in the past.

Hoping for a few days of low energy now. I feel I've come a long way with not needing the heating on so much. Well, not wanting it on. But drying laundry is going to be challenging when the heating isn't on, but it's still too wet to line dry - I think I'll manage better when the radiators can help out.

DH has turned the heating up to 20. He can no longer stand me constantly wearing oodies and hoodies he wants the layers off 🤣🤣🤣. He's normally tight

I’m northwest and as soon as it hit november the house temp went down to 14/15 in a morning and it felt damp in the house. So heating had been on for most days. Just an hour or so once a day mostly but has made a difference. Despite it being warmer than usual without heating the house just won’t warm up past 16.5

Its been really wet so have needed the heating boost to dry washing indoors. Still airing the house daily.

Its 0 degrees and snowing where I am but I checked the forecast and its just a blip, warming back up tomorrow. Going to go spend part of the day at my friend's house who has district heating so his place should be nice and warm!

Dont need it for keeping warm as have throws etc, but need it for drying washing. A wet, calm winter is going to be a nightmare in terms of laundry

I think the consensus from us trying to reduce heating as we can't offord it is that 14 seem.so be a common cut off point. 14 is bare able but 13 isn't

16 is my lowest I will go but also have 5yr so house needs to be a little warn

plus don’t want damp

30m am and 30/60pm seems to be keeping under control

then has a 10.5 tog duvet which can add summer 4.5 so be 15 when proper cold /snowing

It's pouring and hailing with hail the size of peas!

Had to tumble dry hand towels, as they are getting wet and staying wet in the house and having to change them so often we are running short.

It's not actually cold enough to need the heating on longer than a couple of hours in the morning, so hope that running the dryer for an hour and a half isn't as horrific as turning the heating on un-needed.

You may consider it bareable but tolerating indoor temperatures like this, even when fit and healthy, can diminish your immune system and leave you vulnerable to respiratory illnesses.

Guess you've got to know your own limits. We are rarely ill. Heating was at 16 for a few hours a day last winter. If the heating cut into our food budget then that could also affect our health so all a balance.

16c for a few hours here and there isn't going to be an issue in someone otherwise healthy. But a prolonged background temperature of 14c is different and it's dangerous. Yes, when you are down to heating or eating it's going to be a balance but being stoic alone doesn't undo the damage, as it wouldn't if you could tolerate eating once a day for a prolonged period of time.

16 for a few hours a day means 13/14 or similar if we are home in the day on weekends or holidays.

No idea what our temp is (no thermostat), so I've ordered a thermometer so I can have a clue. In south wales and no heating on as yet... bit nippy but warm enough with a blanket.

Washing is drying on an airer (either on or by one of the vivaria) for a few hours, then in the tumble drier just to finish it off, or it smells damp. Maximum daily charge so far has been £6, on a day when two loads of washing had to go in the tumble drier. Obviously that is including running the vivs though, which is also increasing my background temp.