Avoid using GAS and ELECTRIC !

mumzyof2

How do you all manage without putting the heating on untill November.. I started putting mine on last month for a few hours aday because it was cold and my downstairs is all open plan. Its set to maximum but im ashamed so tomorrow morning im going to turn it right down. CH is on timer now to come on about 4 hours a day, only set it tonight so i will see how we go tomorrow and hopefully reduce it. I have a 2 year old and 4 year old and dont want them getting cold. Going to put blankets under beds tomorrow for them and get my electric blanket out. Im ashamed!!!

cw18

My timer is set to allow the boiler to run the heating for about an hour in the morning and 3 hours late afternoon/early evening (I think)

But it won't kick in unless the hall is below 18 degrees (the level I've set the hall thermostatic control too), and even then most of the rooms also have thermostats on the individual radiators. Looking at the meter readings, I don't think it's actually kicked in at all this autumn/winter (other than a couple of days when there was a fault on the pump -- now fixed thanks to BG C/H cover)

In the main the radiator controls are irrelevant though, as we keep the doors from the kitchen and living room onto the hallway and my bedroom and family bathroom onto the landing open at all times (unless I need to keep dogs out of the kitchen while cooking/serving or the bathroom is actually in use), so the most used rooms run off the main house temperature anyway.

But we're really lucky that it's a well insulated modern house (6.5 years old), and the two bedrooms in use, the family bathroom, the living room and the dining room (currently in use as a 3rd bedroom) are all at the back of the house which faces due south with no obstacles behind us. So we only need a bit of sun like we had last week and we actually have to open windows as the house gets too warm just from that !!!!

mumzyof2

CW18 I live in a 2 bed terraced house that was all renovated about 18 months ago (i have been here a year). I dont have a thermostate.. I have a dail on my boiler that you can have turned up high or anywhere from high to low. I use all my rooms in the house and have a big bedroom and dd and ds have a smallish bedroom. I have a walk in shower which i use daily and all steam i let into kitchen (its next to kicthen) to heat kitchen up only room i rarely use is family bathroom upstairs.. only use it to brush teeth day n night as we use downstairs toilet and sink

Olliebeak

Mumzyof2 - it's a different matter if you've got young kiddies in the house - you can't afford to let them get cold. As adults we can monitor our own body-heat and should have the sense to know when we're getting too cold and put extra clothes on. Children need US to monitor their warmth needs.

Make sure that they wear warm clothing around the house when they come home from school. No point in them coming home and playing in shorts and t-shirts while you're turning up the heating. Fleecey jogging suits are great for this time of year, along with slipper-socks.

Make sure that they have a warm drink when they get in the house (instead of cold soft drinks) - one of my grandkids always asks for 'hot choccie' when he visits. Warming the actual bed (with a hot water bottle or rice/wheat bag) before they get in it, is also a good idea - can wrap their pj's around the hot water bottle to warm those up as well.

Fleecey blankets/throws are useful on the sofas (and not expensive) - especially for if they have a story before bedtime. They can wrap up warm and cosy while they're 'winding down'.

And don't forget the most warming thing of all - lots of 'huggles' (hugs/cuddles combo!).

cw18

Hubby used to insist the thermostat was as 22 degrees, but over a period of time (at our last house) I managed to nudge it down bit-by-bit to the 18 without him noticing.

When we moved here I set it to 18, and over the first winter he kept nudging it up.... only to find it had been turned back down again. I did relent and set the timer so that the heating ran for a bit longer instead, and that seemed to solve the issue -- not as much of an extreme between on and off, so he then didn't notice when it had kicked off as quickly (and I've since reduced the time it's on for), and I didn't feel it would use as much/any more gas than a shorter period at a higher temperature

If you're used to yours on a high temperature, then I'd be prepared to have turn it down in stages -- anything else and everyone is likely to notice it.

sammyjig

Olliebeak wrote: »

it's a different matter if you've got young kiddies in the house - you can't afford to let them get cold. As adults we can monitor our own body-heat and should have the sense to know when we're getting too cold and put extra clothes on. Children need US to monitor their warmth needs.

Make sure that they wear warm clothing around the house when they come home from school. No point in them coming home and playing in shorts and t-shirts while you're turning up the heating. Fleecey jogging suits are great for this time of year, along with slipper-socks.

Make sure that they have a warm drink when they get in the house (instead of cold soft drinks) - one of my grandkids always asks for 'hot choccie' when he visits. Warming the actual bed (with a hot water bottle or rice/wheat bag) before they get in it, is also a good idea - can wrap their pj's around the hot water bottle to warm those up as well.

Fleecey blankets/throws are useful on the sofas (and not expensive) - especially for if they have a story before bedtime. They can wrap up warm and cosy while they're 'winding down'.

And don't forget the most warming thing of all - lots of 'huggles' (hugs/cuddles combo!).

It depends on the children. I have two. DS (now 10) right from 8 months old used to cry if the heating was on in his room. He has ALWAYS slept in a freezing cold room. If I do put his radiator on he turns it off. At the moment he is still wearing short pj's and I have put his thick winter quilt on and he keeps moaning! I asked my health visitor when he was a baby as I was worried about him not being able to control his own temp. She said as long as the core of his body felt warm, he was ok. It's just the way he is! However. DD (now 7) loves to be warm and complains if its too cold. She is happy as long as she has thick pj's, thick quilt and fleeces.

morganb

mumzyof2 wrote: »

How do you all manage without putting the heating on untill November.. I started putting mine on last month for a few hours aday ... Im ashamed!!!

Don't be ashamed! We're really lucky because, since we bought and installed a chimney balloon, we've got a really warm house (on the whole) ... and we've got lots of fleecy thermal type things from when we went to Sweden last year ... not very attractive but no-one else sees them!! If my two were smaller I probably wouldnt' be going for the 1st November challenge ... I just feel we can genuinely manage without much effort.

2boysmum

I gave in and put my heating on for half an hour last night. Kids were going for a bath and the bathroom was freezing, we have concrete floors, half an hour was long enough to take the chill off. Forecast for today is to be cold though but only me in the house most of the day so won't need to use heating

nicki_2

I decided for a little luxury here this morning. The house was cold and damp when I got up so I put the heating on as low as possible in the livingroom & bedrooms for 30mins then switched it off. Must remember to put the curtain behind the frontdoor up tonight!
We're still layering, but its so wet here and I have enough of a damp problem without letting it get too cold and damp. :rolleyes:

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

sammyjig wrote: »

It depends on the children. I have two. DS (now 10) right from 8 months old used to cry if the heating was on in his room. He has ALWAYS slept in a freezing cold room. If I do put his radiator on he turns it off. At the moment he is still wearing short pj's and I have put his thick winter quilt on and he keeps moaning! I asked my health visitor when he was a baby as I was worried about him not being able to control his own temp. She said as long as the core of his body felt warm, he was ok. It's just the way he is! However. DD (now 7) loves to be warm and complains if its too cold. She is happy as long as she has thick pj's, thick quilt and fleeces.

We did'nt have heating when my children were small.They laugh about bath night even now,saying how it was like a military operation with mum putting one child in the bath,dad being ready to grab towelled child out of the bath and whip her down stairs to be dried and pyjamas on in front of coal fire,whilst mum repeated operation again with the other children.
They slept in an unheated bedroom and they still do as they can't sleep otherwise,they're just so used to it.In the winter they would have to scrape the ice off the inside of the windows to see out.When they wanted to play in their rooms,they would put on coats,hats ,gloves and scarves it was so cold sometimes.They thought nothing of it.The thing is all the other children in the street would do the same it was nothing out of the ordinary.If they went to play in the other kids bedrooms they dressed in their outdoor coats ect.
None of these children died or suffered illnesses because they had no central heating,just as we did'nt before them.We did'nt miss it because we did'nt have it.I brought newborns home to no heating and women had home births with just the coal fire in the bedroom lit for the first week,then no heating afterwards.
I know we have the luxury of it now but we can do without it even though it's nice if you can afford it.It's all a matter of attitude as far as I'm concerned.