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.

I think it's good that everyone will be considering their usage but having already been poor last winter I've found 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening to be the sweet spot for Dec and Jan for NW England and would find less than that very miserable.

Working outside the home I imagine I could skip the morning blast but when wfh it's much needed.

I have never previously budgeted heating. Had the thermostat set to 21 all year round and took a daily bath. Three months ago, I turned the thermostat down to 15 degrees. Planning to hold out until at least October before considering turning it up. Luckily my age means that my body temperature is the highest it's ever been.

Oh! Ingenious. Can imagine it works very well. But, yeah, like you, I'm not sure how safe it might be...

@Nanalisa60 , thats a good tip thanks, washing hanging up ,god knows when it'll dry. I was considering a heated airer but i really dont have space. Or a dehumidifier but not sure if they dry the washing..

Oh! A home made storage heater - I missed this. my first house was storage heaters using bricks I think? Heated on economy 7 rates. I think that would be good right now.... strange to regret losing that, it was a pain at the time!

If that tip works there will be no pebbles left on the beach!

(really not sure about the cans though!)

DH and I both work from home, so usually have the LPG gas heating on all day but that won’t be happening this year!
We’re fortunate to have a woodburner which we will have on low all day.

But they’ve saved up empty carling cans, filled with pebbles, glued them together and placed in front of the halogen heater. The cans heat up as well. Providing extra heat when the heater is off. Will only work in a small room.

This is such a dangerous idea, the glue, the beer cans, the heater, what could possibly go wrong?!

@limitededitionbarbie

It got really cosy one night when I my aunties 6 girls came over as she was going into to hospital to have a baby... still all in the living room. That night I was actually too hot and had to stand in the hall to cool down.

I can honestly say I had a happy childhood, we didn't have much but we made the best of it. Part of me thinks we have become more spoilt as population in general and we don't know how good we did have it. My children certainly don't know how good they have it.

Bit off topic but SNACKS, when did they become a thing? My kids have 25 snacks a day each, we had breakfast (sometimes 🤣) dinner and tea, maybe toast and milk if it was Tuesday and mum got her family allowance and that was it!! Feel like Peter Kaye but my kids don't know they are born complaining I haven't bought the right flavour crisp.

Dh has been talking today about it (he tends to let me get on with prepping for things but then row in late in the day).

He wants to get the dyson device that heats a single room and not have the central heating on when 1 of us is wfh.

My plan was the plug-in oil heater (that we bought when DD was born - almost 17 now), for the room that the working person is using for the day. Central heating boost in the early morn as normal, and again in the evening (on thermostat).

But the wood stove may be lit more often and do enough to heat the living space int he evening, hot water bottles in beds.

I think I've persuaded him. But won't be surprised if there's some kind of delivery in the next couple of weeks.

We're not bad on layers, blankets over knees while working etc.

My parents haven't had central heating or double glazing for over 30 years, just a log burner in the living room.
This would be a real source of worry for me if my parents

Why? I don't live in the UK, but logburners here do a great job of heating more than just one room. Even if they didn't, most people here only heat the room they spend most time in, and bedrooms are usually cold. And yes, it does get cold here in winter - I would imagine it's colder than some southern parts of England.

What an awful situation, saying on the news is going to be even worse than predicted. That total cretin Putin has a lot to answer for 🤬

We're in west lancs (Preston) and are still sleeping with the windows open. Our house is extremely well insulated but also open plan, meaning it feels futile to have the heating on as it all just rises.

We're planning to not have the heating on and instead use a portable electric heater in one living room and our baby's bedroom.

RE the carling cans -@Doingprettywellthanks I work in housing. Service user - is the correct term.

Some people are cold and very desperate.

Many of 'the no heating brigade' won't have a choice, and others will have it on a limited amount and worry. It really isn't a joke. I know a family who only put their gas fire on a few times a month. Wasn't worth putting their fridge in as all they had was milk in it, no spread, cheese, half opened can if something or veggies.

We’re in the South East. We have plenty of wood for our new wood burning stove, and the intention is not to turn on the heating at all this winter.

We’ll hold out to conserve the wood as long as possible, try not to light stove before 4pm, and as our house is absolutely tiny, downstairs will be warm and the bedrooms upstairs… well, we’ll mostly be in bed when we’re up there so it’ll be fine.

I think there will be the odd day when we turn on the heating in the kids rooms at weekends & that’s it.

BUT we have the stove, so that’s the big difference. We will be warm.

If you have LED bulbs they cost hardly anything to run. If you don't then changing them needs to be a priority, starting with the ones you use the most. It's going to be a tough winter, but at least having the lights on shouldn't be too much of an issue given the right bulbs.

I am sitting here with one 6w lightbulb on, which I can have on for (1,000 / 6) approximately 167 hours for 1kWh of electricity. If I had an old 60w bulb I could only run it for 16.7 hours for the same money. They make a big difference. HTH.

Spent the first two winters in this house with one open coal fire as our only source of heating. It was absolutely miserable.

Clothes felt damp when getting dressed. Could see the air when breathing out. Ceilings and walls of bedroom developed mould. Putting an extra layer on doesn't cut it. Its all well and good making a plan in August/September. It will feel very different in January after three months of possibly being cold with another two still to endure.
NW England here

Of you have a multi fuel.stove you could try using coal.instead of wood. We do and because it takes longer to burn we can fill.it up in the evening and it stays on all night so we dont need to put the heating on in the morning

Dehumidifiers definitely dry washing. We've used one for years because we don't have a dryer (no space) and it stops is getting condensation when we use it overnight. It only dries the side of the washing facing it if that's make s sense so all washing is hung on the airer at right angle to the dehumidifier then you rotate as it dries

We have a meaco low energy 12l. It kicks out warm air as well.so warms the rooms it is in. Cheap to run too.

One of my stoves is multi fuel. The installer told me that coal really burned too hot and wasn’t good for the stove and I’d be better to stick with wood. Will investigate coal though. It’s amazing how throw away comments stick with you, it’s been 7!years.

Had heating on for an hour last night as it was very cold. Damp outside.

Totally. We had no boiler for 5 weeks from Xmas last year until end of January. Thankfully during the day the temp stayed at least 6/7c but even with 2x1000w oil filled radiators and an electric fire in the living room it was pretty miserable and very expensive. Running those oil filled radiators cost us a couple of hundred pounds over those 5 weeks so when people suggest they are going to do this instead I am like 😱

I find it strange that we are being completely shafted in this country and some of MN responses are almost questioning why anyone would need central heating anyway. Bizarre!

I am one of the “no heating brigade” lol. It won’t last and I know it won’t.

However our gas usage over the last year was 17385kwh which is very high. I’m trying to see what the highest users are and getting washing machine (disabled member of the household so we do wash a lot of clothing) and guessing heating and hot water.

We are on a fixed rate tariff until the end of October and paying £82 a month which is covering our usage with the warm home discount but don’t think we will qualify for that this year as the qualifiers have changed.
Based on our usage I checked with MSE and got a figure of £430 a month at standard rate. I bring in £1100 a month plus we get around £650 in UC, DS gets PIP which pays for his animal therapy sessions.

We simply cannot afford to pay £430 a month on top of rent, council tax, water, food etc.

I can double the direct debit but suspect that’s not going to satisfy the energy company. MSE says not to cancel the direct debit but unless they set it at an affordable level for us.

My only options here are:

Reduce usage ….no problem with this but will involve experimenting a bit to see what our biggest use is.
Turn off the heating except for the coldest days and then just to heat the house through for 30 mins.
Buy a plug in heater and heat rooms before use. More for DS so he can have a warm bedroom.
Buy heated throws.
Pull out all blankets
Buy hot water bottles.

Doable but having lived in an unheated house in my old place when the heating regularly packed up I can tell you it is miserable. DS was a toddler then…..I used to go to bed when he did, pop him in my bed and cuddle him to keep him warm. I’d put a plug in heater in there for 30 mins before bedtime.

Within six months I’d had a massive mental health crisis….not just because of the heating but it certainly didn’t help me. And that’s the issue….this energy crisis was going to make everything worse for people.

Mine was set at 18 last winter for a few hours a day. My house is a cold house. My bills are set to be £570 a month in jan if I do that again this year!
Mine will have to stay off regardless. I cannot afford to pay that. Already working 50 hour weeks.