Elderly OStylers please keep warm

Sue14

I hope your FIL soon makes a full recovery and keeps warm once he is back home.

My dad is 87, and lives alone since my mum died 11 years ago, so I constantly worry about him especially in the winter, but he always has his heating on when needed. When he moved into his flat last year, I made sure that the heating was set to come on at regular intervals during the winter so he wouldn't get cold, and I don't think he knows how to turn it off, so I know he will be warm if I can't get round to check on him. Also he now wraps up in layers of clothing, as I've advised him to do, but before he moved I often went round to his house to find him wearing just his underwear, or a dressing gown, with the heating and gas fire full on!

bluebag

Quite often I have found older folks don't feel the cold despite body temperature and room temperature being very low.

Often I have visited the elderly to find no heating on and the place stone cold. When asked why they have no heating on they reply ' I don't feel cold '

A room thermometer showing a 'safe zone' is good as they can check if the room is warm enough rather than relying on their poor internal thermostat.

bluebag

Seakay wrote: »

Unfortunately "unlikely" means that there is no way of knowing who the exceptions are, and so the careful and frugal will continue to suffer as the profligate and those who do not plan will not. Also, would be interested to know the research that informs your statement.

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/utilities/gas-bills.html

vanoonoo

I hope OP's FIL is doing better today.

Keep warm everyone and be a good OSer and check on those around you x

[Deleted User]

well I do turn my heating on as and when its cold as my joints just won't work properly if its too cold.I have found that by swithching it on for an hour at a time at various times of the day it 'tops' up the heat in my house I had the walls insulated and double thickness insulation in the roof a couple of years ago along with a new boiler my home is rarely cold.As I am in and out for most of the day I have a tempreture gauge in my sitting room and as long as its 19-21 in there I know my house is warm enough .I am lucky in that when we downsized 17 years ago we thought to buy the best house that we could to avoid heating problems Our previous house which was lovely was on the edge of a golf course and in the winter when the wind blew down off the course it was freezing and even with double glazing and thick curtains and CH we were always cold.In my tiny house now its smaller but far more economical to run.I pay by D/D throughout the year so during the winter I always have a surplus amount to cover really cold weather.I am at the moment around £160 in credit for my gas so a good stock of credit in case of a cold snap.This was so useful a couple of years ago when even the south east had bad problems with being snow bound.Heating is one thing I just can't compromise on as it would affect my health too badly.My two DDs would go nuts if I started turning it off and was cold.I also cook hearty warming soups and stews and 'tummy warming' food in the winter.But I do have friends who do have to choose to heat or eat and I think its so sad for them.Often they end up sitting in the library as its warmer there than in their own homes

dandy-candy

bluebag wrote: »

Quite often I have found older folks don't feel the cold despite body temperature and room temperature being very low.

Often I have visited the elderly to find no heating on and the place stone cold. When asked why they have no heating on they reply ' I don't feel cold '

A room thermometer showing a 'safe zone' is good as they can check if the room is warm enough rather than relying on their poor internal thermostat.

This is what my FIL kept saying to the ambulance men and hospital staff. I think your idea about a room thermometer is very good.

My DH got back from the hospital about 4 hours after I had left, and said they have moved his dad up to the intensive care unit. I know the very sound of that upset my DH, but i'm really glad he is getting 1 to 1 nursing around the clock. We will visit as soon as visiting hours start today, fingers crossed he perks up quickly.

Popperwell

I have three thermometers:eek::o 97p in Tesco's...they are magnetic so you can attach them to something or they have a little stand a bit like a photoframe so you put them on a desk or something similar...

One in the bedroom I am in, one in the hall and one in the fridge freezer at present.

Hope your FIL improves soon...

I have manged to get my food store into soon kind of order and most room tidied...need to vacumn later...and then I can start to go through some house clutter in my own leisure. And then things aren't too bad...

Heating still off and I have known it be colder...I can't say what the heating bill will be for Winter yet or for the utility company to work out what I use yet as my contract has just started for duel fuel and so I have not as such built up any credit or equally if I don't need to use it...I will build up some credit in the coming weeks/months(I hope!)

gayleygoo

OP I do hope your FIL is recovering, how scary!

My granny got a free room thermometer last year from the council, which I thought was an excellent idea as she knows she should put heating on or light the fire if it "goes into the blue bars"!

Not all elderly people live in small, easy to heat houses either. OH used to be a coalman and is now a postie, and says there are a lot of elderly people living in big, even huge houses - often very old houses - by themselves and they'd be hard to heat properly in the winter, and not much can be done if they don't have the money. Each winter in his colleague magazine, there are stories of elderly people who've been saved by postmen when no-one else was there to check on them.

Our baby monitor shows the temp in our LO's bedroom and lately it has been 8 or 9 degrees in there at night. Health visitor told me off once but we make do with blankets and warm jammies! We have heating oil there but its only on two hours a day because I don't know where the money for our next batch will come from. We're not as fortunate as our young, single friends who get heating money from the dole to spend on drink, they live with their parents FGS.

annie123

gayleygoo wrote: »

Our baby monitor shows the temp in our LO's bedroom and lately it has been 8 or 9 degrees in there at night. Health visitor told me off once but we make do with blankets and warm jammies! .

Next time, remind the health visitor that the human race survived and multiplied without GCH for thousands of years. It was only in the 60's that GCH started to become common place.

Seakay

bluebag wrote: »

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/utilities/gas-bills.html

unfortunately the legal disclaimer seems to indicate that all the data comes from third parties and the site absolves itself of all resposibility from actions taken based on the information given. So doesn't give a lot of confidence in the reliability of the figures, which are for annual usage adn again give no indication of the age of the users or how often the heating is on, how healthy or active the occupants are etc etc

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/legal.html