Is your heating ON or OFF?

LazyLizzie

I found how much my gas and electric bill was when I had the heating on all the time, it was £400 for 3 months, I'm guessing that's really bad?

Thanks for all the replies about the frozen pipe thing, I'll carry on trying to having the heating turned off then.

Having the heating off seems to be saving money in two ways. Because the house used to always be boiling hot, my husband used to have a fan on all night(sometimes up to 12 hours), but now it's so cold he doesn't use the fan anymore, so hopefully we're saving gas as well as electric, yay!

BitterAndTwisted

Well, it's not REALLY bad if you can afford it. It seems a lot to me but I'm almost penniless.

I gave in and put the heating on for an hour this afternoon so I could have a bath. Temp is back down to 13 degrees now. It's odd but it's stopped feeling so chilly so I think I must be getting used to it. Still got my thermals in reserve and if the temps are going to be any colder I might just pop them on and keep them on till February. I haven't used my electric blankie yet either, the hot-water bottle is fine for now.

lostinrates

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Well, it's not REALLY bad if you can afford it. It seems a lot to me but I'm almost penniless.

I gave in and put the heating on for an hour this afternoon so I could have a bath. Temp is back down to 13 degrees now. It's odd but it's stopped feeling so chilly so I think I must be getting used to it. Still got my thermals in reserve and if the temps are going to be any colder I might just pop them on and keep them on till February. I haven't used my electric blankie yet either, the hot-water bottle is fine for now.

I am using an electric blanket before and first in bed. the cats think its heaven!

13 degrees can feel wonderful these days . New low today in the kitchen of 5degrees. The woodburner is strugling to light, so I think the flue must have been a bit cold, but its going now, so we should be toasty warm soon. Once I have the siting room warming up I'll open the door to the dining room so that that gets a little warmer air too.

Cara21

Gosh lostinrates, I am in a way glad to know I am not the only one with extremely low temperatures in the house. Woke up to 4.6c in the bed room this morning.
Must admit I am living in a glorified shed with tin walls and not much else. LL seems to think this is perfectly ok for someone to live in.
Even with the central heating on I don`t seem to be able to get that part of the "house" above 10c.
It does get me down however and people stop visiting me this time of year because they can`t stand the cold and drafts.

lostinrates

Cara21 wrote: »

Gosh lostinrates, I am in a way glad to know I am not the only one with extremely low temperatures in the house. Woke up to 4.6c in the bed room this morning.
Must admit I am living in a glorified shed with tin walls and not much else. LL seems to think this is perfectly ok for someone to live in.
Even with the central heating on I don`t seem to be able to get that part of the "house" above 10c.
It does get me down however and people stop visiting me this time of year because they can`t stand the cold and drafts.

can you draught block with curtains? stuff against draughty walls? Droughts in the cold are a pain aren't they!

I'm hopingwe'll have heating next winter, not least as I'm considering getting a lodger, and I couldn'tdo that without heating.

laurenweird

Hey all!

We are on a meter so I'm always aware exactly what we are spending and I was shocked when we went through £20 of gas in 4 days last week!

So I vowed to keep the heating off most time and wrap up warm! Haha, this week I've had hot water bottles out. I've digged out sleeping bags for my little girl and boy at night (Ohhhh, they are so warm, I'd forgotten!!) and lots and lots of layers! I think I've spent about £5 in five days instead, which I'm pleased with in these cold months

Question - what do you guys do about drying clothes? I use the heating and the radiators and with four of us in the house I find I sometimes have to have the heating on all day to get the clothes dry....even if I don't need the heating on for warmth! Any ideas??

lostinrates

laurenweird wrote: »

Question - what do you guys do about drying clothes? I use the heating and the radiators and with four of us in the house I find I sometimes have to have the heating on all day to get the clothes dry....even if I don't need the heating on for warmth! Any ideas??

if its dry, even if its cold, stuff can dry outside. wash sparingly and timeyour washing for dry days.

(we bought a tumble dryer for the first time this year when we realised we were going to be without heating, i still ainly dry outside though.)

prepareathome

laurenweird wrote: »

Question - what do you guys do about drying clothes? I use the heating and the radiators and with four of us in the house I find I sometimes have to have the heating on all day to get the clothes dry....even if I don't need the heating on for warmth! Any ideas??

A lot of people say a dehumidfier is great for drying clothes as it sucks the damp out of them but not sure how much it costs to run. As we have no space for even an airer without us or dogs getting tangled in it I have a tumble dryer - the condensing type, so it warms the kitchen up as no other heat in there and oven being a wall one, it has a fan that cools the cupboards so makes it even colder in there. I find the tumble dryer if I dry using low heat, even though it takes longer to dry the clothes doesn't cost anywhere near what it does if I use high heat, we are on a PAYG meter, have had one about 30 years as suited us as hubby on weekly pay, and I am putting in £20 a week but usually have about £6 or so left. Got to decide whether to stay on this or not as in April if hubby still has a job they are going on to monthly pay :eek: We have our thermostat on 18 all the time so heat comes on when it falls below. We are going through about £10 a week in gas, but we use it for hob as well. Everything else is electric including water.

carefullycautious

I still put washing out if there is the slightest breeze and make sure I fetch back in before the temp drops in the afternoon. This prevents them becoming damp again.

i do have a small tumble dryer for when weather is too bad but try not to use it too much. It is good for finishing off clothes that have been outside and only partially dried.

I make sure I iron well and have been known to use hot water bottles to warm/air clothes

mrsr

I used 2.71 in gas last week I expect it will be a little higher this week ,I had to put CH on for a while yesterday for the dogs.We got caught out in the rain while I was across the fields with them,two of them are poodles and when they get wet there fur just clings to them and they get very cold,there both toys but the little girl his tiny only 11inches so it's worse for her,the third one is a lab cross this was the first time out in the rain with her we only adopted her from dogs home five weeks ago ,she was ok while she was running around but not happy walking back.Oh had three warm towels ready from airing cupboard for them,forgot about me though I was just as wet and freezing cold.lol