My walls had water running down them this morning

[Cudz]

Can only afford to have the heating on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. This morning in both mine and DS's bedrooms there was water running down the walls and all over the ceiling. I could see my breath when breathing. Me and my dp both work full time. How the hell have things got so bad that we can no longer to afford to have a home thats just a safe temperature (not even warm, just safe!). This is just so so depressing 😞

Can you just not breathe at night?
I am sorry it is so shit for people right now. it has been a very severe cold snap for a number of days now and I just hope it warms up asap.

i have houseplants that are supposed to absorb water and each morning I go round and mop up the condensation and ait the rooms.

If you can stretch to a window vacuum, try and get hold of one. Some are around £25 but like dehumidifiers I'm not sure if stocks are low.

You can use them on the walls as well as the windows and it removes the moisture from the environment better than drying with paper towel/towels. Cheaper than a dehumidifier too.

I'm confused

Obviously you weren't paying £0 before so I don't get the logic to use up to the £66 rebate per month?

What were you paying before the hikes??

My comment wasn't intended as passive aggressive it was a practical suggestion.

I would turn off the radiators upstairs and have everyone sleeping downstairs in one room together. For DC if you have a tent or even a play tent (or can borrow one) I would put it up for them to sleep in. It makes an enormous difference. We did this when we were without heating for 10 days in the middle of winter.

@crimbocountdown no I obviously wasn't paying £0 but as I've explained my supplier went bust and I've been moved onto another supplier where everything (included the daily standing charge) is way higher than I was paying previously. As I've also explained this means that my monthly gas and electricity bill is over £300 in minimal gas and electricity usage. The £60 doesn't even touch it!

I hear you, we woke to ice on the inside too, I was widowed earlier this year and have gone from two incomes to one and costs are spiralling.

Who have you been moved on to? I did a recent "what if" as my fixed rate expires soon with British Gas and wanted to plan for what I'm likely to be hit with and at current prices can expect to pay around £250 based on my usage for last year (when there was 2 adults, 1 WFH, 3 kids, lots of baths etc)

Who are you with OP

We got moved to Octupus.
@crimbocountdown who was that with because as 2 adults and 1 ds who uses minimal gas and electricity as possible we are over £300 per month?

If your daily standing charge is £1.30 there's something very wrong - it's almost double the price cap/energy price guarantee.

You can buy insulating lining paper for the walls, which should help with the condensation problem (we have the same on a very exposed corner of our house). Research into something like this:
www.toolstation.com/graphite-insulating-lining-paper/p19476

Appliances Direct appear to have stock of some dehumidifiers if anyone is looking for one.

I bought one from them recently and it arrived the following day despite me only paying standard delivery.

www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/ct/heating-and-air-conditioning/dehumidifiers?tref=apdtabac&webSyncID=c2e8e7c0-c35c-0dc6-8923-73d9ed2d194e&sessionGUID=4e7bcb65-cab6-e1b2-6416-0bc4c9a9dac0

Depending on your meter it might not show the standing charge. Ours doesn’t. It shows actual usage and when the bill comes through vat and standing charge have been added on top.

we are also at around £1.30 when we get up. That’s the fridge, freezer, Wi-Fi etc running from midnight til 7am

British Gas

In fact I've just re checked on their website - putting in my address and usage from last year (family of 5, lots WFH, no "rationing" of heating ie have it on whenever we wanted) and they said it would be £280 per month

My usage for 2022 is forecasting to be lower as husband left a few months ago and it's surprising how much his nightly 1 hour baths cost in gas!

So I'd estimate it will be £250 a month or so or lower for 1 adult 3 kids, house heated to 21 degrees 6-8am and 6pm-10pm - no lower than 17 degrees overnight, WFH, tumble dryer running most days

I sympathise op, it's utterly crap. We are paying £240 a month dd on a duel fuel tarriff, Barely using the heating, reduced the thermostat to 18 degrees (which is bloody freezing anyway) reduced baths, reudced tumble drier use. I am lucky that we have a wood burner to keep warm and dry the house out. It's freezing at the moment and if we just had the central heating we would be in the same boat as you. This time last year we were paying £150 a month dd (which was already a rose as we'd come off a fixed rate) the year before that it was £85 per month dd (and had been around that for years). We are using way less than normal (apart from this week where I've been using the tumble dryer again).

The government payment doesn't really make a dent in that rise, whatever way you calculate it.

I don't want this to be a pity me thread as honestly I know so many are far worse than me this yeat

Actually they aren't. I live in an area with plenty of poor households, working and not working, and they do not have water running down the walls.

Do you own or rent? If renting, it might be better to move, because the property has a damp problem not purely related to heating. If you own the property, and can't afford to resolve the problem, it might be better to sell (unless this only happens when the temperature is minus 7, which is rare).

Oh and I don't live in a new build - house is about 60 years old 3 bed semi

Meaco has these in stock - under £200

Having water running down the walls is definitely linked to the house not being warm enough. I spent several winters with no heating on because I simply couldn't afford it. This year, I'm putting the heating on whenever I want to and there's no more damp on the walls.

@Era oh I had assumed that was the daily standing charge but you may be right in that is just the midnight to 6am usage

We own the house. We haven't had this problem before this winter, but that is probably because in previous years we've been able to afford to have the heating on more because it was more affordable then. Plus this last week has been exceptionally cold too

We have the heating on for most of the day and still have water on two outside facing walls. It's not excessive and we've used antimould paint, used extra heaters and dried it off and it still comes back - It's baffling. Possibly is guttering so dh is going to get a ladder to have a look.

The heating being on or not is not the cause of water running down the walls. It's not condensation caused by you breathing cold air out at night. That's incorrect - and unscientific.

There are several problems here.

Not having heating is terrible. I'm very sorry things are so tough for you OP. I'm not in the UK so can't offer practical suggestions re suppliers etc.

My heating has not been working for a few weeks, I finally have a plumber working on it, some improvement but needs a bigger piece of work which will be hopefully done next week. It's been horrible without heating so I utterly sympathise, and if you can't see a solution that is hard.

However, you must get a tradesperson in to address the damp / water ingress. It could be due to poor insulation, tiles, guttering etc. it won't improve, heating or not, so you need to diagnose the problem.

I hope some of the other posts re affording heating will help. You need to have a certain amount of heat to keep well.

I would stop trying to heat the whole house twice a day - completely pointless.

Heat one room to live in and keep that warm for the whole day.

It might be alleviated in that the heat will dry it out, if it occurs.

It's not the cause of it tho. You should be getting advice on the cause.