Is your heating ON or OFF?

alittlebitofmagic

Just wondering about what olliebeak said. I remember as a child having no gas for a few weeks (one sibling was a mere babe) and the army were bringing sugar/gas etc into the village as we were snowed in. However, I remember having flanelette sheets, socks, flanelette pj's and even a bed cardi, lots of blankets in layers and a hot water bottle warmed the bed before I go in(mother would then take it as she was paranoid it would burst then she could snuggle up with it herself). One morning we had ice on the inside of the windows, but yet I was never cold.

So surely a young childs bedroom does not need to be 18 degrees if they have plenty of layers, do things like blankets under the sheets for extra warmth etc?

badmumof1

Having been up at 5am for the market this morning and breathing fog whilst setting up our stall i can honestly say our heating is OFF in this house too.
I also remember as a child when we had ice on the inside of the window but we just put another jumper on and got on with it.
My hubby will still walk around the house in shorts during the winter time and moan that he is codl and want to turn the stat up higher.
He is older than me survived the floods and has less brains

Belisarius

Off today & still fine. Even had the back door open for a couple of hours this afternoon. I'm finding it very peculiar, considering how cold a lot of people seem to be ... maybe York is just especially warm

flubberyzing

I'm afraid I caved last night! Came home from our local fair, rather chilled and just thought "stuff it, life is too short to be cold!" So I put the fan heater that sits by my computer chair on. I haven't put the storage heaters on yet though!

However, this post has made me feel a bit guilty, so I've turned the heater off again! LOL. I'm perfectly warm at the moment though. I've just had a big bowl of hot soup, that practically made me sweat! Plus I'm wearing 3 jumpers.

Olliebeak

alittlebitofmagic wrote: »

Just wondering about what olliebeak said. I remember as a child having no gas for a few weeks (one sibling was a mere babe) and the army were bringing sugar/gas etc into the village as we were snowed in. However, I remember having flanelette sheets, socks, flanelette pj's and even a bed cardi, lots of blankets in layers and a hot water bottle warmed the bed before I go in(mother would then take it as she was paranoid it would burst then she could snuggle up with it herself). One morning we had ice on the inside of the windows, but yet I was never cold.

So surely a young childs bedroom does not need to be 18 degrees if they have plenty of layers, do things like blankets under the sheets for extra warmth etc?

I'm sure that my children's bedrooms were less than 18C when they were young (we didn't have any central heating at all in that house) BUT they did have sheets, blankets, quilt and hot water bottle in the winter. Occasionally left the bedroom doors open and put a calor gas heater on the landing when the weather was VERY cold.

The temperatures that I quoted came from many websites and also based on my room thermometer indicator that I received from my gas/elec supplier.

ktpie

Belisarius wrote: »

Off today & still fine. Even had the back door open for a couple of hours this afternoon. I'm finding it very peculiar, considering how cold a lot of people seem to be ... maybe York is just especially warm

I think the house you live in makes a huge difference. We moved this year, we are only about a mile away from our old house but the difference between our old house which was north facing and didn't have cavity walls and this house which faces east and has got cavity walls is amazing. By now we would definitely have the heating on regularly but in this house we've only put it on a few times if it has been a dull day. As soon as the sun comes out it warms up quickly.

ktpie

Olliebeak wrote: »

The temperatures that I quoted came from many websites and also based on my room thermometer indicator that I received from my gas/elec supplier.

I think it depends what you look at as to what the recommended temperatures are, I had in my head 16-20 was recommended for a nursery, this agrees. But I think looking back you were talking about general bedrooms rather than nurseries in particular. Could be that they recommend slightly cooler for babies to avoid the risk of overheating.

Primrose

I certainly remember those flanelette sheets in my childhood. They were nice and warm but a nightmare for my mother to wash and dry in winter with no washing machine or tumble drier, especially during the immediate post war power cuts. I do think that cavity wall and good roof insulation makes a huge difference to heat retention in homes. Having been in our house for around 30 years now I think our roof insulation is below standard. As our loft is partially boarded over and absolutely full of stuff, it will be a nightmare to clear to top up the insulation. If only my OH didn't want to keep all those items which "might come in useful one day" !

Olliebeak

Just googled a few more sites:

http://www.sofeminine.co.uk/mag/mother/d2482/c63502.html

http://www.bumpto3.com/177.aspx

http://babycare.iloveindia.com/sleeping/cot-safety.html

http://www.babysafetemperatures.com/bedroom-and-nursery.php

General consensus appears to be 16-20C - so the 18C looks about 'spot on'.

Darned amazing that my three survived their early winters :rolleyes: - though one of their bedrooms had pipes running under the floorboards from the back of the living room fireplace to the bathroom - the other one had an open space below it as it was over the 'side entry'.

geordie_joe

Olliebeak wrote: »

General consensus appears to be 16-20C - so the 18C looks about 'spot on'.

.

I wouldn't set too much store by that. If you pluck any figure from thin air, get it on the news/in the papers a million web sites will repeat it as fact.

Now they are saying putting a baby in your bed is a factor in 50% of cot deaths.