Is your heating ON or OFF?

Cherryfudge

A friend who works for the Met office says it will be colder on Saturday - in the meantime I got a line full of washing almost dried today, despite it being November. I was busying about with various jobs so I didn't put heating on till evening, and that was because I had people round. I thought it was getting colder a bit later, and realised I'd left a window open upstairs!

mumf

It’s very interesting as to how people stay warm,or feel warm or cold. We are all different! I also find it interesting that the majority of people  consider *heating* to be general gas central heating ( GCH). We don’t have that,as we are all electric.For 25 years though we have always had solid fuel in the rooms downstairs. The cottage is made of small rooms with doors,which really helps with warmth.In fact ,regardless  of heating the temperature measures at 16 degrees C average whatever the weather.Our youngest daughter lives in an open plan house,and to us it feels like a football stadium heat-wise! 🤣However,my illness means I no longer have the energy for chainsawing logs ,moving coal etc. It’s my baby,and my wife hinted that it needs altering.For her convenience.So last week my mates came in and we ripped it all out etc. and have replaced each fireplace with ‘pretend’ - remote control! - wood burners. Electric. In each room we have wall mounted panels anyway which were there if we didn’t light a fire. Upstairs the same panels,along with infra red in one very small room. 

    So are we turning it on? Yes. Is it costing? Of course. However,we have never heated room(s) all day long. I would generally light a stove at 3pm each day and when really cold ,both. Across Winter the wood cost zero,but coal - now- £20 a week on average ( 30 kg).We have accounted electricity use for heating since the new installation and it amounts to less than £2 per evening. Let’s round it up and call it £14 a week. As I sit down a lot because of illness,I use one of those electric throws . About 3p per hour! They are great,and the dog and cats like it too.😆.

Auntycaz

I leave mine set at 15/16 on the thermostat and it cuts in and out as and when. I turn it down to 13 when I go to bed. I find that keeping it at a fairly constant temperature is better than letting it get really cold and then turning it up high. When the weather gets colder or if I start to feel too cold, I can always turn it up for a bit. I have built up a fair amount of credit through the summer so I can turn it up without worrying about the cost. My DD has a heated throw and says she wishes she had bought one years ago,  

Cherryfudge

After a beautiful mild day, tonight is clear-skied and bitter. I'm sure the heating will be on tomorrow.

Rosa_Damascena

Cherryfudge said:

After a beautiful mild day, tonight is clear-skied and bitter. I'm sure the heating will be on tomorrow.

It's mild but breezy this evening, lovely to have the sun out all day and the clothes were 3/4 dry when I brought them in at 4pm. I count that as a win for November.

Aldi has heated blankets in the middle aisle atm.

Wednesday2000

Rosa_Damascena said:

Cherryfudge said:

After a beautiful mild day, tonight is clear-skied and bitter. I'm sure the heating will be on tomorrow.

Aldi has heated blankets in the middle aisle atm.

In the Chalkwell branch?

I lay on one of the Aldi heated blankets earlier (well, yesterday now) and they are great. I might take a trip to Aldi!

catz4m8z

Wednesday2000 said:

I think I will start putting my own dehumidifier (not industrial sized!) in the room to dry my laundry on the rack. I read that tip on this forum.

Mine has been a godsend in the winter months. I just put all the laundry in a small bedroom and the dehumidifier dries it in no time!


Seems like my house is crap at retaining heat. I have an electric heater on for a couple of hours a day in my main room and it barely changes the temperature and then it goes right back down straight after! Its currently 14.5C in my sitting room which does feel chilly.
I rely more on layering up though. Ive just ordered a couple of fitted fleece jumpers to add to my base layer of t-shirt and leggings then I wear big fleece pj's over the top then an Oodie over that. Heated blankets are brilliant but I like stuff that will travel with me!!

Cherryfudge

catz4m8z said:

Seems like my house is crap at retaining heat. I have an electric heater on for a couple of hours a day in my main room and it barely changes the temperature and then it goes right back down straight after! Its currently 14.5C in my sitting room which does feel chilly.

I think your insulating layers (on you!) sound perfect - I'm another who likes to be able to move after I've layered up.

Your comment about the house not retaining heat got me thinking. I don't know the science of it but it seems to me there must be reasons this is happening, and if there are reasons, somewhere there is a solution, or more likely, several partial solutions.

One room in our house gets colder because it doesn't get as much sun, and there's not a lot we can do about that, and when we moved here several decades ago, there wasn't the money to do much, but we saved up and put double glazing on that side of the house. The old single-glazed windows let a lot of draft in as well as being thin. Nowadays I might even be looking to triple glazing, but the windows are still doing well and making a big difference.

This article has some ideas about why houses get cold: windows are one of the reasons. Solutions range from large scale and costly (new windows) to smaller scale and instant: block any draughts, hang thicker curtains, shut curtains at night, put clingfilm over the panes with an air gap between film and glass.

More recently we discovered that a tendency for the wallpaper to come off in our colder room was because damp was seeping through the ancient plaster. There's a bay window made in an old style where it's a single layer of bricks, so DH is slowly working around that area taking the old plaster off and dry lining. Each little bit that gets done means the room is less damp: it doesn't feel damp but books and furniture show signs of damp.  

I suspect one of the problems is we have too much stuff in there - it impedes air circulation. That's my problem to work on. However, damp cools places down. Also any gaps around pipes, doors, window frames or under skirting boards, will let cold air in. I used to block these with kitchen paper dampened and scrunched into place - making do with what I had, but better than the cold air coming in!

The article above suggests floors let out about 10% of lost heat. I'm sure this will be discussed somewhere on the forum - but how about cardboard under carpets (someone warn me if this is a fire hazard)?

If you have high ceilings, that's likely to be where heat is going - my parents actually had some ceilings lowered for this reason (that house had very high rooms).

I wonder if it's worth looking into a different way of heating the room, maybe something like having your dehumidifier in there so the air is drier? You could combine that with your existing heater, or if there's something that produces a little heat like a slow cooker or fridge - an unusual solution but the background heat may mean your electric heater doesn't have to work so hard.

I have no technical knowledge so these are just thoughts - but it struck me as a problem with a solution somewhere.

It would be great if others could come up with thoughts, not that you won't have thought of things already (I'm aware we can't know all the details and you may have tried everything or not be in a position to do what people suggest) but there must be so many people in this position and perhaps the mass-brain of MSE can put information out there that will help someone.

Primrose

I think the point about floor insulation is well made.  When we first moved into this new build house many years ago the ground floor had wooden block flooring which  we kept uncovered apart from a couple of small rugs .  We absolutely froze in winter.  Our feet & legs  were always miserably cold.  We then had  fitted carpets with an undetlay and the difference in winter was noticebky Improved.  We,re hoping the existing carpeting "will see us out" but if it ever has to be changed I would seriously think about having an extra layer of some kind of insulated underlay added.

as you get older and become less mobile  you inevitably spend more time in a seated position.  Having  feet and legs in contact with poorly insulated flooring inevitably cools your body down.quite  quickly.

Cherryfudge

Primrose said:

as you get older and become less mobile  you inevitably spend more time in a seated position.  Having  feet and legs in contact with poorly insulated flooring inevitably cools your body down.quite  quickly.

.Apparently it can make quite a difference not to be touching the floor if you have to sit: use a foot stool, cushion, stone hot water bottle etc. to raise your feet off the floor.