For those who can't afford to use central heating this year - How are you going to cope?

[mama2moo]

We have 2 dd's - 3yo and 20mo and already owe money to our suppliers. We are going to have to be careful with not using the heating too much but our house is feeling cold already!

We have bought thermal vests, fleece pjs, fleece tops and extra duvets.

What else can we do?

TBH Im dreading it. By the 3rd week of every month we are skint at the moment.

A thing I've often wondered about, but never put a figure on, is use of the hot water tap for quick hand washes.

A flat mate used to use the hot tap as default for every little rinse ? often so brief the hot water didn't make it as far as the tap ? and you could hear the combi fire up every time for absolutely nothing.

I use the cold tap as default, and make a positive decision to change to hot if dealing with grease or whatever. I can't work out if this is saddo penny-pinching or actually quite worthwhile.

Hope you've had some useful tips OP.
Don't know if people have mentioned these but:
Woolly/fleecy hats that cover ears
Porridge, soup and hot chocolate (make a flask up maybe)
Do you have a slow cooker to make casseroles?
Go somewhere warm in the day - church drop-in centres, garden centres, libraries
go to bed early with hw bottle and good book

I've only skimmed but:

-A wool top layer of clothing, cotton lets out heat too easily
-Cover up wherever skin is thin, such as head, wrists, etc.
-Candles actually do produce quite a bit of heat in a small room and are cheap and at least look warm
-Home made handwarmers: fill socks or sew little pillows full of uncooked rice and then heat for a minute or two in the microwave. They're warm and feel lovely
-Move around as much as you can
-Lots of snuggling together under blankets

I'm going to go over and read the whole thread because we are trying to keep our heating as low as possible this winter...they're not allowed to shut it off completely because people would die, but we're trying to not have a huge bill.

Oh and these ! Rolled up towels work too. :)

I saved up put done oil in my tank before got to last year prices( predicted to hit )£1 a litre this year) but will still need to eerk it out

House is cold poor insulation crap boiler (LL is registered plumber so can officially do himself so means never and cheap as possible )

Well the boilers up the spout again no heating front room was 11.c this morning my room was so cold the metal push rims on my wheelchair so cold I had to get my son to pass me some gloves before I could grab and transfer am still wearing now

Dc under blankets in front room but not option for me as need to do stuff but because sitting down it's cold as harder to warm up

LL is away again been told he sort when back ( boiler is not in property it's in the yard at the back (dodgey set up ) ge back in 3 weeks !!!!

I can not wait till move end of January and have real heating

Yank

If you have oil heating you have no other option last year people could not get deliverays roads plus there was a shortage of supply or afford the mad prices so had no choice

You know what makes me really cross is that we had an extension built on our house and we had to conform to all sorts of energy saving rules, fit insulation, use special glass, special light fittings etc... and then they forced us to drill 4 inch holes in the walls to fit an extractor to the toilet and made us drill hundreds of holes in the double glazing for trickle vents. It's not like the rest of the house is new so there are no issues of not enough ventilation! The other day when it was windy there was a hell of a draft in our back loo.... even the cat wouldn't go in there to use her box. Thanks Mr Building Inspector!

Our energy bills come in at £150 a month dual fuel...

Thermals...I am in mine already!
Hot water bottles.
Try to stay in 1 room at night time - then heat just that room.
Hot drinks
If your washing maching has a short wash, use it for most things - mine has a 15 min cycle which is great for not really dirty stuff like towels, flannels, etc
Its tricky when you are in the house all day with small dc

On the oil price front, you can save quite a lot by buying in summer, I paid £600 for 1000 litres, it would cost over £800 to buy that now.

Thanks for the link to the halogen heater. I think I will get one.

V.cold today! Im sending dd's out to the garden in a mo with coats etc on!

I slept with socks on last night! Time to find my Slanket! Honestly, it is the warmest blanket ever!

Also, I have just seen wrist warmers. Im going to get some to try.

I don't think anyone's mentioned it yet but legwarmers are brilliant. I wear them in bed at night (you can tuck the leg of your PJs into them if the trousers are too short) and in the day too. They're good for covering up gaps between leggings & socks.

Baby leg warmers are good for babies & toddlers to wear under trousers. They make good wrist warmers for adults too, and can be put on LO's arms at night to keep them warmer when in a sleeping bag.

Shop-bought baby leg warmers are really expensive, but I bought lots of pairs of adult over-the-knee socks from Poundland and cut them down to size - works a treat for my DS.

Knee-high socks are good too.

Our loft bedroom was 13 degrees this morning although it felt like about 3 degrees. I made a 'tent' of our duvet and changed DS's nappy, put on his eczema cream & got him dressed underneath it. That'll save me a few pennies this year - normally I'd put the fan heater on to take the chill off the bathroom and do it in there.

Put your underwear / thermals / DC's clothes for the next day in your bed to warm up. You could do it briefly in the morning just to take the worst of the chill off, or put them in there the night before so they're properly warm when you come to put them on. :)

It occurred to me that rather than running the hot water for DS's wet wipes in the morning, it would be better to put some hot water in a small flask the night before - more efficient to boil a kettle than start the boiler up.

Split crotch fleece trousers are great for potty training / recently potty trained children - they can go on the potty without having to take off their trousers. If necessary you can pop a nappy over the top.

I'm going to experiment with putting an Ikea fleece blanket on top of the mattress, under the sheet to warm us up in bed.

If you don't use radiators for clothes drying, ceiling airers work much better than floor-standing ones.

When you have a hot drink, hold onto your mug till it cools down - it'll warm your fingers up.

If you accidentally boil a bit more water than you need, pour the dregs into a flask & pour into the kettle next time you need some water.

Try keeping a jugful of tap water on the worksurface for use for hot drinks - it'll take less energy to heat from room temperature than from the cold temperature outdoors. Keeping a lid on it will prevent condensation.

Keeping toilet lids closed and emptying sinks / baths as soon as you've finished with them will reduce dampness.

Anyone know how to produce drinks hot enough to warm up a toddler without there being any danger of them scalding themself?

I have just googled wrist warmers and am going to knit myself some! So easy!

Leg warmers is another great idea! Some great ideas there Angel.

Last winter I gave dd Horlicks at night. I used to make it so that it was tepid. (defo hot enough for a toddler who is used to cold drinks!)

throughout the summer DP has been making bricks out of old newspapers with the Ekobrick maker, we have eight hundred in the garage and each one burns for an hour

It also uses up all our shredded documents and hedge cuttings etc.

We also collect firewood throughout the summer from old trees and sawn up pallets etc to burn on our open fire so effectively our fuel is free. It takes work and planning though and not everyone has an open fire or woodburner.

Oh, and these foam floor mats are good for using on cold floors. They're cheaper if you buy in bulk - but get them from Ebay rather than the Early Learning Centre as they're about a quarter of the price. You can use them as play mats for babies or gymn / yoga mats for older children and adults. We keep one tile in the kitchen for doing nappy changes on so DS doesn't freeze on the cold stone floor.

Horlicks sounds like a good idea. Although it occurred to me that since DS still bf's quite a lot, he gets plenty of body-temperature drinks that way. :)

Odd socks are great for wristwarmers too - just cut the toes out. I have dodgy wrists and having warmers on them makes all the difference. You could probably use them as ankle warmers too for extra warmth without having to go up a size in shoes / slippers.

Haven't fot time to read the whole thread but at the moment aldi has cheap thermal sets for adults and children - you will find those very useful. they also have some sports fleeces in, and lidl are selling ski wear for kids - again thermals, padded ski trousers and polo neck jumpers (very handy layering item).
both stores may have some compression sportswear in which my husband tells me are very warm and light.
Have a look because they are much cheaper than anywhere else and good quality. Next week i think lidl are selling adult ski wear which may include nice socks etc. keep an eye on the websites for the special offers.

Ah no, don't go for the shortest possible laundry cycle.

The bulk of the power is used to heat the water, not turn the drum. So a longer, lower temp cycle is very much better.

Same for tumble driers, as someone said upthread.

i am thankful for this thread - my parents have had no central heating for 2 years now and i just couldn't understand how they coped each day - boiler broke and couldn't afford to replace it - we have a woodburner and luckily DH is very handy with a chainsaw but when in the house all day the wood doesn't give enough heat during the winter so we have to use coal. The condensation is what really bothers me as i think it can't be good for DD's health, i wipe it away at least twice a day DH thinks i am wasting time. i hate using the tumble so have to dry washing in the house - which adds to condensation. when DD is at school i have windows open to try to air the house before i light the fire for DD to come home. everything is so expensive! i dread this winter but thankfully we have a small house, with cavity wall insulation, just a shame we have single glazing, money tree hasn't started producing yet, must get fertiliser...

Our house did not have any insulation in the loft and the landlord said no other tennants complained before so he did nothing about it. Of course we had no way of knowing if this was true. Is fleece underwear any good? You know: vest and underpants?

Fantastic thread, so many good tips. I don't think it is sad at all. Up until 80 odd years ago, no one had central heating & the human race survived. I grew up in a house with no central heating and never felt like I was a victim or being badly treated.
My top tip would be trying as hard as you can not to get cold. It is quite hard work for the body to warm itself up, so if you can not get cold in the first place that works well. Thermal vests & long johns are great. I wear several thermal vests when it gets really chilly. They are made of such thin material these days, that you can easily get 3 sleeveless ones on under a shirt or jersey top. You can get them for the kids too. Try not to sit still for too long. Hoovering never fails to warm me up. Put on some music & dance about for a bit, go for a walk - anything really to get the circulation going. Drink hot drinks & eat warming foods. Use chilli, spices, ginger etc in your stews, make curries all these things help you warm yourself from the inside out.
There is no shame in not spending a fortune on heating. British houses are usually very badly insulated & most people are heating the air all around the outside of their house, as much as the house itself. They are the nutters! [hwink]

I know this thread is about not having central heating, but the British Gas engineer who is servicing my boiler says that he keeps his heating on at 17 degrees all of the time, rather than heating up the whole house from cold in the evening.

Oil fired radiators cost a FORTUNE to run.

I don't understand why anyone would not have an electric blanket.

Duvet sandwiches are brilliant, but difficult to get out of.

Apologies if someone's already suggested this: rather than only putting the heating on for short periods, try keeping it on all the time but at a much, much lower temperature setting than you'd usually have it at. We found it was better to keep the house at a constant, bearable (though slightly parky) temperature, than to have it get really cold and then have to try to heat it back up again for short periods. (We are on oil, not gas, and it costs us a fecking fortune anyway, but this did seem to work. Our house is old and prone to damp too, so if it gets too cold it can be really unpleasant.)

Ditto to thermals, large filling meals (soup, porridge etc), hot water bottles, blankets, WOOL jumpers (not your acrylic rubbish). Jeans are also impractical this time of year IMO (cotton? In winter? Really?) I lie in a 3 season sleeping bag to watch TV this time of year!

Can anyone talk me through the curtains over front door - how do you attach them ? Do you have two that you open and close ?
And does anyone know the effect on your central heating system of turning radiators off in certain rooms ?
We have a very old system and it gets air locks as it is ,which means that the terrifying red pressure/header tank thingy in loft has to be topped up ,which I am completely in horror of .
TIA

You can put an ordinary curtain rail over a door, like over a window, but it won't open and close with the door so is rather inconvenient.

A portiere rod attaches to the door & frame, and opens and closes with it.

I've finally cracked and switched the heating on. The house was 12 degrees this morning, and everyone bar DP has bronchitis now.We've tried all the tips on here, blankets, thermals, extra duvets, more insulation, lined curtains, thermal blinds...to no avail. We've had a hard frost every morning for the past week, and the laundry was frozen stiff on the line when i came to take it in. Even with the heating on, it's struggling to reach 18 degrees.

A lot of people are talking about drying their clothes in the winter and using a tumble dryer.
Tumble dryers absolutely eat money. I have just got the lakeland catalogue today (which normally I would associate with very expensive things) and they have a page on heated driers for clothes. They cost about £50 upfront which may be too much for some people, but then they cost only 5p-14p an hour to run and you only have to leave them on for an hour or two to dry your clothes. Maybe if it's too expensive you could buy it with a neighbour and share it? Just an idea.

So for example, see here.
Mind you, I might be tempted to actually get in it and warm up there!