Avoid using GAS and ELECTRIC !

mardatha

Me too PG. Although I just have a notebook page, count the units every sat morning, work out the price, and add a running total. But today I got a shock with BT, they are trying to get everybody to change to the same system of DD monthly and I told them where to go.

Lalaladybird

I have the heating on all the time now because it is chilly and I have a toddler that I don't want to feel the cold and/or get ill because of it. But the gas meter is just whizzing round all day:eek: and it freaks me out a bit:o. How did you do it before central heating? People survived without it! So, I'm sure we can too, if I could have a few suggestions and reassurance I'd be so grateful:T

lala xx

Lady_K

Lalaladybird wrote: »

I have the heating on all the time now because it is chilly and I have a toddler that I don't want to feel the cold and/or get ill because of it. But the gas meter is just whizzing round all day:eek: and it freaks me out a bit:o. How did you do it before central heating? People survived without it! So, I'm sure we can too, if I could have a few suggestions and reassurance I'd be so grateful:T

lala xx

I lived in a house with no central heating years ago and it was absolutely terrible. It was a single brick end terraced house with no double glazing, no draught proofing and no loft insulation. It was so cold I ended up bringing my bed downstairs in the living room where the only gas fire was. I was a single parent with 1 daughter at that time and it was awful bringing a child up like that.

I think before central heating was invented people had coal fires which did also heat upstairs to a certain extent by the chimney getting hot upstairs too.

They have some great ideas in this thread though. Although I wouldnt try and not use gas or elec all together though because it effects the building, damp and mildew etc

mardatha

Yes that's true re the coal fires. And cold isnt the problem, damp is . Damp causes illness. But a few layers of good warm clothes on a healthy toddler is ok. And slippers.

beautiful_ravens

Drying washing in winter : I do about 2 or 3 loads of washing a day (theres 5 of us) and in this weather thats a lot of drying dilemas. I refuse to have a tumble dryer. My soloutions are

1. I strung 4 strings across the garage for less important dryings like blankets/sheets/rugs/ or any stuff thats not needed quickly. It comes back in for an airing when its as dry as its gonna get. As I have alot of outbuildings, theres other places where stuff can hang up on coathangers.

2. I bought a lot of door hanging hooks which stick out about 6 inches, and are for coathangers, and they go on everyones door with the wet clothes on coathangers on them.

3. I hang stuff above the radiators from the curtain poles because I dont like blocking the radiator heat in any way, but still want the rising heat to dry stuff. I keep certain rooms free of this, because it looks messy and I get annoyed! Mostly stuff hangs overnight when no ones around, and it catches the moning heating 'shift' aswell. Then I move them to a door hanger.

4. I use an old style wooden clothes horse (the concertina type which bite your foot when you take them down!) but I hang everything on coathangers on the clothes horse, as you can get loads more on it and the clothes are more 'free' and dry faster.

Basically, I have a drawer full of coathangers, and all the wet stuff gets hung around everywhere on them, it works pretty well even when the heatings not on.

Coathangers are a necessity around here!

Hope that all made sense.

posted that here as reasons not to run a tumble dryer or turn heating up!

Sylvan

Lalaladybird wrote: »

I have the heating on all the time now because it is chilly and I have a toddler that I don't want to feel the cold and/or get ill because of it. But the gas meter is just whizzing round all day:eek: and it freaks me out a bit:o. How did you do it before central heating? People survived without it! So, I'm sure we can too, if I could have a few suggestions and reassurance I'd be so grateful:T

lala xx

Decades ago (:eek:has it been THAT long?), when I had two toddlers and a baby, we had an incredibly cold winter - thick ice on the insides of the windows, brrr.
I moved all four of us into the room that had the only fire and I also kept them in those blanket sleepers all the time. Do they still make them? Sort of babygros made of blanket material with elasticated cuffs and plastic feet, in sizes from 0-6. (And I slept fully clothed:rotfl:)
Also, lots of layers work better than just one thick one, because they trap air between them and it acts as an insulator. Thick woolly tights under socks and trousers, vest under t-shirt under jumper under cardigan...
And caps. Apparently you lose most of the heat through your head.

The other thing is, running and jumping and bouncing around generates heat

gravitytolls

As little as 15 years ago, we had one gas fire, baby gros of the kind you just described, and lots of layers, extra blankets, hot water bottles etc.

Now, we have central heating, but it costs a bomb, so when we decided what to do with the empty hold that used to be a fire place, we opted for replacing the open fire, discarding the option of a gas fire, and we use the fire all day, and only don the heating if it's very cold upstairs.

sandraroffey

the very best money saving OS for heating BEFORE central heating? only heat the room you are using.

i well remember having my dads old army great coat on the bed in the middle of a very cold snap. made a great extra blanket. hot water bottles of course, warm jimjams; best thing to sleep in, in the cold winter (for the kids) is an old track suit!! not the new type nylon ones; but a fluffy fleecy one and you can always get them in charity shops. and those fluffy sleepsuits? my grandsons wear only them, bought them in woolies last winter.

pagangirl

sandraroffey wrote: »

the very best money saving OS for heating BEFORE central heating? only heat the room you are using.

I learnt that trick from this website - although I only have a 1 bed flat, last years combined bill was £150 for winter quarter - could not afford to heat whole flat with this year's price rises, so only heat living room. Kitchen is warm anyway, other rooms are baltic, but have blanket under sheet on the bed, quilt and 2 blankets on top. Have been so warm, not needed hot water bottles yet!:T
Did read on here that a spare duvet under the bottom sheet will make bed a lot warmer, but at my age I have my own central heating system and couldn't cope with that much heat !!!:rotfl:

jscalow

my imeasure results for this week are-

Last week you spent:

• £9.87 on gas
• £8.04 on electricity

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (18 weeks ago):

• £126.19 on gas
• £149.16 on electricity

As it has been so mild I have not needed the heating on full last week when at home so my usage was a little bit smaller, however this is not demonstrated in the figures because....
after heating my custard on xmas day I left the gas hob on low until 10am the next morning ! Thats 2 units of gas used, but the kitchen was nice and warm.