The Lemon Fool

Anyone else managed not to turn on the heating so far this winter?

I've managed with a small electric foot-warmer for when I'm sitting in front of my notebook computer and a water bottle in bed. (Clearly haven't found a partner yet, else I'd have to abandon these practices pdq. )

Keeps the bills down. If anyone is familiar with the Cashflow game by Robert Kiyosaki they'll know that I'm heading for the exit of the rat-race.

Chris

Do you happen to have a thermometer to measure the temperature inside your home without CH?

I recall when our CH failed in mid-winter it got down to abut 50 F indoors but no worse than that. If I wore all my clothes at once I barely noticed the cold.

Lootman wrote:Do you happen to have a thermometer to measure the temperature inside your home without CH?

I recall when our CH failed in mid-winter it got down to abut 50 F indoors but no worse than that. If I wore all my clothes at once I barely noticed the cold.

Some of us do, as posted here recently. And it hasn't got so cold as to merit a winter-weight pullover, let alone heating, since I posted that.

The time you notice it is when you're under the weather (erm, no pun intended). I've never felt worse than in February 2005 when I had a nasty lurgy coinciding with a cold snap, and discovered the heating didn't work.

But I can't hold my hand up to the OP. I think I had a few bursts of it in that colder snap around late November, and I had it on for half an hour on December 19th to warm up after sitting all day with doors and windows being replaced.

Unfortunately not.

Being able to control each individual room by the minute and any temperature just by clicking on an app on the phone makes it too easy.

Even the bad side, paying for it is just another app on the phone.

The way things are going will I die if my battery goes flat?

Then again there is always that nice feeling when you go outside and it feels warmer than the inside.

Do you have a 4kw dehumidifier by any chance

Before Christmas I stayed over one night at a friend's house. He's rattling around in a detached house that is too big for his needs.

He stopped using his central heating when energy prices increased and only heats one small back room, with a small electric heater, which now serves as his sitting room.

The house felt cold to it's bones and I noticed that in what was his main lounge there was a dehumidifier running, nowhere near big enough for his lounge let alone the house. When I went to bed in his guest room I discovered that the pillows and bedding felt damp and smelled heavily of mildew. I had to put my bath towel over the pillows and needless to say it wasn't a comfortable sleep and so I left very early the next morning.

Over cutting back on heating can create a really unhealthy environment for the respiratory function and since a healthy environment requires a balance of warmth with ventilation I'd imagine that a rise in respiratory conditions are a consequential cost to the energy price rises.

Gerry557 wrote:Then again there is always that nice feeling when you go outside and it feels warmer than the inside.

We live in a 1790s house. It is surprising how its ability to retain that wonderful overnight coolness compared to the scorching summer heat outside is less appealing when you wrap up with hat and gloves, open the front door, and realise it is actually quite mild out.

We too control the temp in each room as and when needed, it was a lot cheaper than app driven hardware, a lot simpler to use, and we get free exercise doing it

Paul (heating on, gas use about 1/2 of last year, partially down to the builders removing a lot of the house so we're only living in half of it)

Your winter heating strategy sounds resourceful and cost-effective. It's like playing the Cashflow game in real life, working towards financial goals.

Dicky99 wrote:Before Christmas I stayed over one night at a friend's house. He's rattling around in a detached house that is too big for his needs.

He stopped using his central heating when energy prices increased and only heats one small back room, with a small electric heater, which now serves as his sitting room.

The house felt cold to it's bones and I noticed that in what was his main lounge there was a dehumidifier running, nowhere near big enough for his lounge let alone the house. When I went to bed in his guest room I discovered that the pillows and bedding felt damp and smelled heavily of mildew. I had to put my bath towel over the pillows and needless to say it wasn't a comfortable sleep and so I left very early the next morning.

Over cutting back on heating can create a really unhealthy environment for the respiratory function and since a healthy environment requires a balance of warmth with ventilation I'd imagine that a rise in respiratory conditions are a consequential cost to the energy price rises.

Couldn't agree more. My daughter lives in an old stone longhouse, stuck up on top of a hill in the countryside and however much she tries it is always cold. There is a constant fight against mildew etc and this makes her daughter's asthma even worse. She has at last been persuaded to get out of there - if she can even sell the money-pit - to a smaller but cosier "ordinary" house in a town.
Life in the south west might sound idyllic, but when I stay it's an eye-opener. Everything one might need is at a distance with almost zero public transport. The countryside consists of impassable barriers and narrow country lanes - oh so cute, but totally unfriendly to anyone on foot and usless for bringing up children. There are almost no footpaths across this country which is mainly farmland with no history of people walking it. The only peasants allowed on it were at the behest of the farmer, labourers or generations of very young children to collect piles of stones. Some were lucky enough to escape to towns or emigrate.

Well, I digress. What I've learnt is one should be very careful where one moves to and study the maps and local facilities carefully - especially if you have children or are elderly. OK, I know that's obvious!


Arb.

csearle wrote:Anyone else managed not to turn on the heating so far this winter?

Chris

I've no problem in putting the heating on. We heat our TV room and my art roomy to 20 DegC. I'm heating our conservatory today to enjoy with the nice surroundings of snow and get a bit of exposure to natural day light. Part of my retirement deal, not to scrimp.

By the way, energy is an incredibly cheap and amazingly good value for money commodity, for what it does. I don't understand why folkies resent paying for it. It's far, far better value for money than my Sky/BT subscriptions for example.

It might soon be an awful lot more expensive when we really start adopting mandatory net zero policy or Saudi gets trashed and then we will really have to save the pounds, in the meantime, enjoy !

Lootman wrote:Do you happen to have a thermometer to measure the temperature inside your home without CH?

I recall when our CH failed in mid-winter it got down to abut 50 F indoors but no worse than that. If I wore all my clothes at once I barely noticed the cold.

Sorry for the late reply. Yes, my Hive room stat. This winter it gets down to about 13.5°C by the time I return from work. If I'm feeling the need for more heat then I switch on an oil-filled mobile radiator like this to take off the edge. It usually pushes it up to 16 or 17°C. C.

Dicky99 wrote:Before Christmas I stayed over one night at a friend's house. He's rattling around in a detached house that is too big for his needs.

He stopped using his central heating when energy prices increased and only heats one small back room, with a small electric heater, which now serves as his sitting room.

The house felt cold to it's bones and I noticed that in what was his main lounge there was a dehumidifier running, nowhere near big enough for his lounge let alone the house. When I went to bed in his guest room I discovered that the pillows and bedding felt damp and smelled heavily of mildew. I had to put my bath towel over the pillows and needless to say it wasn't a comfortable sleep and so I left very early the next morning.

Over cutting back on heating can create a really unhealthy environment for the respiratory function and since a healthy environment requires a balance of warmth with ventilation I'd imagine that a rise in respiratory conditions are a consequential cost to the energy price rises.

Thanks to your good description I can quite picture the house. I am in a flat, with only one bedroom. That doubles as my office (well a desk, docking station for the notebook computer, and the seven box-files full of receipts expected by HMRC should it come a'calling). That is the room I heat, slightly. The lounge/kitchen usually has a couple of small windows open, which prevents condensation from hanging around. The bathroom gets some open-window time after (but not during) use. I did get some mould in the kitchen, but it turns out that water had ingressed behind the outside tiles and had, after sixty-odd years, made the inner walls damp.

The thing about not investing too much in heating is that opening the windows to lower humidity doesn't seem like an indulgence.

C.

scotview wrote:

csearle wrote:Anyone else managed not to turn on the heating so far this winter?

Chris

I've no problem in putting the heating on. We heat our TV room and my art roomy to 20 DegC. I'm heating our conservatory today to enjoy with the nice surroundings of snow and get a bit of exposure to natural day light. Part of my retirement deal, not to scrimp.

By the way, energy is an incredibly cheap and amazingly good value for money commodity, for what it does. I don't understand why folkies resent paying for it. It's far, far better value for money than my Sky/BT subscriptions for example.

It might soon be an awful lot more expensive when we really start adopting mandatory net zero policy or Saudi gets trashed and then we will really have to save the pounds, in the meantime, enjoy !

I'm picking up what you're puttin' down. In my case I am trying to live below my means, which involves not indulging in many subscription services. My main indulgence that would make a "normal" electricity bill (I'm on Economy-7 for all heating) seem anything other than a major expense is the cost of my flying hobby, the effects of which I normally mitigate against by sharing the costs with brave individuals, who fancy flying around SE England. C.

csearle wrote:I'm picking up what you're puttin' down.

Fair enough, I see where you're coming from. Budget priorities I suppose.

csearle wrote:
The thing about not investing too much in heating is that opening the windows to lower humidity doesn't seem like an indulgence.

C.

Despite working in social housing for most of my time in work I only recently came across the practice of "shock ventilation". I think some pointy heads have empirically determined that it effectively benefits humidity reduction without significantly affecting heating energy use.

The idea is to throw open lots of windows for 5 to 10 minutes each day during the damp prone seasons. Long enough to reduce moisture build up, but not long enough to lose thermal mass stored warmth of walls, floors, furniture etc.

Without knowing that there is a term for it I've occasionally adopted the practice by cracking open windows front and back as soon as I get up in the morning but before putting the heating on.

csearle wrote:Anyone else managed not to turn on the heating so far this winter?

Almost. After buying some USB heated inner soles last winter (£6.00. Plug them into an old iPad charger), I aimed higher and bought a heated vest this year:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08 ... UTF8&psc=1

Excellent. A nice gentle heat that lasts for about 6-8 hours on the battery I bought. No need for heating the house. Heat the body not the room.

Gilgongo wrote:

csearle wrote:Anyone else managed not to turn on the heating so far this winter?

Almost. After buying some USB heated inner soles last winter (£6.00. Plug them into an old iPad charger), I aimed higher and bought a heated vest this year:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08 ... UTF8&psc=1

Excellent. A nice gentle heat that lasts for about 6-8 hours on the battery I bought. No need for heating the house. Heat the body not the room.

Would you recomend the inner soles? If so, PLEASE give a link! Most of these things don't last very long.

Thanks!


Steve

PS I find that if I keep my head, neck, hands and feet warm, I don't have need of anything else and could walk around naked.

PPS Now heping police with their enquiries.

stevensfo wrote:Would you recomend the inner soles? If so, PLEASE give a link! Most of these things don't last very long.

They've been fine for the last two winters:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B ... UTF8&psc=1

I bought a pair of fluffy slippers a size or so too big to put them in. Found I needed to cut the toes down to the minimum (carefully - don't want to cut the filaments!) so that the warmth got to my toes properly too. And obviously as I'm plugged in to the charger, I have to remember to take them off before I leave my desk! Although if you forget it's fine really as they will just unplug.

csearle wrote:

Lootman wrote:Do you happen to have a thermometer to measure the temperature inside your home without CH?

I recall when our CH failed in mid-winter it got down to abut 50 F indoors but no worse than that. If I wore all my clothes at once I barely noticed the cold.

Sorry for the late reply. Yes, my Hive room stat. This winter it gets down to about 13.5°C by the time I return from work. If I'm feeling the need for more heat then I switch on an oil-filled mobile radiator like this to take off the edge. It usually pushes it up to 16 or 17°C. C.

At 13.5C and you say if you feel the need for more heat? My boiler broke down at the weekend and someone is finally coming to take a look today. I have a woodburner which I light around 1pm and that heats part of the house, my sitting room and hall at least. My house temperature only gets down to about 15C with that regime but that is too cold to sit in. However my secret weapon is that I discovered that I have a heating element in my towel rail in the bathroom. I had forgotten that. Makes for a decent heat in the bathroom. Trouble is that unlike my woodburner, there is no radiator effect. Switch it off and the room quickly cools down.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:
At 13.5C and you say if you feel the need for more heat?
Dod

I'm with you on this. My wine cellar ( the old coal cellar in the basement ) sits at 14C. I can't help wondering if there's a 4 Yorkshireman element to some of these posts.

Dod101 wrote:

csearle wrote:Sorry for the late reply. Yes, my Hive room stat. This winter it gets down to about 13.5°C by the time I return from work. If I'm feeling the need for more heat then I switch on an oil-filled mobile radiator like this to take off the edge. It usually pushes it up to 16 or 17°C. C.

At 13.5C and you say if you feel the need for more heat? My boiler broke down at the weekend and someone is finally coming to take a look today. I have a woodburner which I light around 1pm and that heats part of the house, my sitting room and hall at least. My house temperature only gets down to about 15C with that regime but that is too cold to sit in. However my secret weapon is that I discovered that I have a heating element in my towel rail in the bathroom. I had forgotten that. Makes for a decent heat in the bathroom. Trouble is that unlike my woodburner, there is no radiator effect. Switch it off and the room quickly cools down.

Dod

I just wear a fleece indoors. When I'm working I wear shorts all year around, building sites or domestics. I contend it keeps my BMR high enough to stop me getting fat. C.