Not going to put the heating on this winter. How to keep warm

[ClementineKelandra]

I will have the heating on for one hour a day in the evening so the kids can shower but then after that the heating and hit water will be completely off.

I just need to get some ideas for keeping the house warmer once the weather turns.

No never been skint - yet. You never know what's around the corner, I suppose.
Perhaps this is more helpful: be careful of having an hermetically sealed unheated house. You might do damage to the fabric which will cost your re in the long run. And living with bubble wrap on the windows, isn't that just a bit odd? Seriously, I do wish you well if it's a cold winter.

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Yes, very clear that you've never been in a position where you simply can't afford to heat your house.

I hope you are never in that position, but if you are I hope no one sneers at you in the way you are doing so now.

Back to the topic...

If you have tiled flooring in the kitchen it turns as cold as ice in the winter and the cold can even go through the soles of shoes. So put down some door mats and rugs where you stand at the sink and worktop, and under the table.

Frankie good idea! We have tiles and I have regretted it ever since they were laid!

we're all close to financial problems. All it takes is a bad illness or injury; redundancy or unemployment; a turndown in business; a separation or divorce.

Ups and downs can happen to anybody.

"tea-lights and lanterns in the front room while reading, watching tv etc is actually fab."

No it isn't - not at all. Candle light hurts my eyes and isn't strong enough for me to see by.

"I am not a huge fan of bright lights and find that we only need a few tea-lights to keep the place lit well enough to read."

I love bright lights. I am very short sighted and don't see well in dim light. Candles are only for power cuts only in my house.

I'm certainly not sneering. I was brought up in a house with only two coal fires and the only toilet was at the bottom of the garden. This was in the 60s. We didn't have bubble wrap to put on the windows. Just frost on the inside
Really, I don't think I should have to resort to pythonesque 'you were lucky' type stuff to justify my credentials.
Nobody needs bubble wrap on the windows I have had a state education and worked for 30 plus years and never claimed anything from anyone. No children and good health. I've been lucky. I'm not denying it. We just used to put extra layers on and keep one room warm. Totally the norm then.
Current joint gas and electric £120 per month. About average I would think for 2013.

bun I was talking about my own view though. There is always going to be someone who doesn't like a particular suggestion, and that's all it was, my view, my suggestion, and I love candlelight so that particular way of saving on bills is a great one for me. And I wasn't offering this suggestion to you, but to the OP. who might, or might not love bright lights or candlelight.

Great ideas on here! We should all be doing most of this anyway, not whining that 'the government' should subsidise energy use - the planet cannot sustain everyone having central heating 24/7. Like others, I grew up in a house where only one room was heated with a gas fire - we just wore more and warmer clothes.
We wear layers in winter, cuddle up on sofa under blankets, keep doors shut, curtains closed, etc. Our energy bills are minimal - we always get British Gas checking we are not fiddling the meter - just use energy sensibly, as if is a dwindling resource (which, in fact, it is).

This thread has made me look at how we use our resources. We have too many lights on in rooms that are not being used this evening, so I have gone around and turned them off and given dh a bollocking

the window film is not bubble wrap, it is a thin clear plastic sheet rather like cling-film, and almost invisible. On a £ per comfort rating, it is excellent, though good loft insulation saves more because roofs are a lot bigger than windows.

OOI, a 3kW electric heater (or tumble drier, or washing-machine during its water-heating cycle, or an immersion heater, or a kettle) uses 3,000watts, though not usually running for long, that would cost about 36-45p an hour depending on your tariff.

A typical energy-saving light bulb uses about 15Watts, though you may have more than one in a room. You could have 200 lamps burning to match a fan heater. The cost of running energy-saving lighting is fairly insignificant. Obviously if you have halogen spots or downlighters you may be using ten times as much to light a room as they are far less efficient. If I turned all the lights on in my house (which I don't), that's 17 lamps which would cost me about 3p an hour, so I'm not much concerned about them. Energy usage on heating and cooling is far greater, so good insulation is really important for energy saving.

Previous posters have mentioned most of my winter warmers, eg lined curtains, door curtains plus "sausage", as much insulation as possible etc. I've worn hats indoors for many years, and recently been impressed with (fashionable!) fingerless-mittens and wrist-warmers, easy to knit/sew. Buying winter boots slightly large means there's room to add either thick socks or sheepskin-type insoles, both easy to wash and keep fresh, and a supply of hot drinks is really helpful on cold days.

I hesitate to add final suggestion, but on cold nights in a cold bathroom, there's nothing to beat the apparent warmth of a fluffy cover on a loo seat.....

Ah, there's a thread stopper, showtime! You do have a point though, and they can be washed easily enough.

Earlgrey You can get fixing kits for your washer dryer so that they stand on top of each other. This saves space, obviously and you have your laundry all in one place. However it won't work if your washer is under the counter next to the sink. It might help though

I just watched a film on Facbook, which showed how to make a heater for a small room, using a bread tin, four tea lights, one small terracotta flower pot, and one larger one. You put the lit candles in the bread bin, place the smaller flower pot over the top, and block the hole so that the heat can't escape, and then place the larger flower pot over the top, leaving the hole open. It creates a convection effect so that the heat from the candles heats the room.

And then in the summer, you can use the same terracotta pots to make a "pot in pot" cooler - win/win!

DH bought some fleecy mattress covers from M&S to go under the cheet - toasty! Also use flanelette sheets rather than cotton.

Thanks Debs, unfortunately we don't have enough height to stack them due to the windows. Plus the plumbing is under the kitchen counter so would required a major reshuffle.

When stacking, the (light) drier goes on top of the (heavy) washer so plumbing usually unchanged.

If drier and washer are same brand, the manufacturer probably offers a stacking kit. I know Bosch do.

There are universal kits but I don't remember seeing them in UK.

If we wanted to stack them, we'd need to move the washer as its in the middle of the kitchen and would look v silly!

On your top, wear 3 underlayers (under your normal clothes) of cotton, soft thin wool, cotton to trap the heat. You'll look a bit bulkier but it'll keep you warm.
On your legs, tights, socks and leggings.
Keep a hot water bottle or microwavable heat bag.
Electric blankets would be great.
Hats, scarf and gloves if you can see your breath!
Flannelette blankets are awesome too!
Hoping for a mild winter for you x

Window insulating kit in Aldi atm for 4.99.

Found these instructions for making a microwaveable bed warmer. You could probably find some old sheets in a charity shop (or Fabricland sell some very cheap sheet fabric) to use for the fabric. Rice from Lidl/Aldi or Asian grocer.

I'm planning to make a couple- we took off our electric blanket as we found it made the memory foam topper uncomfortable.