winter fuel allowance

tesuhoha

The heating was off in our house all day yesterday as electricity was off, and it only dropped to 19 degrees in here. We have it at 21 degrees in the day but the insulation is good overnight.

[Deleted User]

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Oh heck! We very rarely heat our bedrooms (except for the one that is used as a study/music room). The ones we sleep in are hardly ever heated. Occasionally if it is very cold outside I will heat them.

Surely it's not bad for healthy people, even if they are pensioners?

I am healthy, in that I am not on any medication and have a zest for my crafting, allotmenteering, cooking etc. I have a healthy look and enough energy but I suddenly got bronchitis two years ago and it was one of the worst things I have ever had. It struck me flat and the night times were dreadful. Dh is, in fact, a creaking gate re his health, although fit he has a newly discovered heart condition, that and his asthma and 43% lung capacity and his ability to cycle 70 miles at a time, he is complex. So I am not taking any chances at all and to have either of us get ill because of too low a house temperature is a risk too far. Our house is an eco house with a heat store floor and internal wall and needs very little energy input eg today, downstairs is 21 all day and evening and 19 upstairs and no heat input for 2 days. However the electric heaters are on and set at the recommended temperatures, so will only kick in as needed

The heaters are turned off at night as we know that the temperature won`t drop by more than a degree at most, in any area

Re my dh and his 70 mile cycles and air temperature. He dresses appropriately so that his skin remains warm and never hangs around to get cold, he does appreciate the danger

seven-day-weekend

Today we have had our woodburner on rather than the GCH. It has heated the whole of the downstairs (dining room, sitting room, kitchen - not the bathroom because I have had the door shut).

The three rooms upstairs have been unheated but are comfortable (for bedrooms) when you go into them. You wouldn't want to sit around in them, but then we only use them to go to bed!

I don't know what temperature anything is with the woodburner, but when we have the GCH on the temperatures are controlled by the radiator thermostats and are 18-21 downstairs and 9-13 upstairs apart from the loft room which we use as a study which is 18-21. It's very rare the bedroom rads come on. The rad in the cellar is on frost setting so that coming on is an rarer event.

We have a Victorian terrace house which has double glazing and loft insulation, but no cavity wall insulation (as it has no cavity walls ), but my husband has insulated some of the outside walls from the inside.

I agree that if one or both of you has a lung condition, then you have to be careful with the temperature, but I think ours are Ok for us.

pollypenny

The heating goes off at 8.30. The house stays warm enough, as it is well-insulated.

If I go to bed to read, I have a little boost with the electric heater for about 10 minutes.

It's good to read about people needing and using heat, instead of these Spartans on some threads!

Errata

My CH goes on at 7am and stays on until 11pm, and sometimes I put the electric fire on as well!

seven-day-weekend

My Spanish house had no central heating or insulation , as is usual with Andalucian traditional village houses. It was B!00dy freezing in the winter ,in the two top rooms it was like walking into a freezer. We were sat an altitude of 1000m and just below the snowline. Like most Spanish villages, we had no mains gas.

We did as our Spanish neighbours did and just heated the room we were in. We'd light the woodburner in the sitting room, but the TV was in the dining room (don't ask), so sometimes we had to heat that too, so for this we had a portable calor gas fire. Luckily our sleeping area was at the far end of the sitting room (really long room), so that was warm-ish from the woodburner up the other end. We had another calor gas fire for the kitchen at the bottom of the house, and an oil-filled radiator for the guest bedtroom. We had a fan heater over the door in the shower room. For the two upstairs rooms (which were officially bedrooms, but we used them as a study and studio), we just had halogen plug-in electric fires. We also had a portable fan heater if we wanted quick heat anywhere.

So we got used to walking around wearing body-warmers and boots in the house and coming back to the UK to my house with GCH felt like the height of luxury!

Goldiegirl

pollypenny wrote: »

The heating goes off at 8.30. The house stays warm enough, as it is well-insulated.

If I go to bed to read, I have a little boost with the electric heater for about 10 minutes.

It's good to read about people needing and using heat, instead of these Spartans on some threads!

I agree, I get quite concerned reading some of the other threads.

I'm not afraid to put a jumper on if it's a bit chilly, but I won't sit here and freeze.

From reading some posts, I feel wildly profligate for having the central heating on at all

sheep-ali

Last winter we could not afford to buy oil for the central heating, so our very old house got very cold and damp.
I have copd and ended up in hospital because of an exacerbation of my condition.
I am now in receipt of some dla and have oil but we keep the thermostat at 15c because it costs so much. The heating comes on for a few hours morning and night but I am dreading this winter especially as my condition has deteriorated so much due to that exacerbation.
I would advise anyone who can afford it to make sure that the temperature is kept reasonable especially if anyone has a lung condition. Putting on another layer is not enough believe me, I tried that.
We also have a coal fire but it only heats that one room and does not really help my breathing.

lemontart

Having not had ch for around 3/4 yrs now I have gotten used to colder house and worked out how to keep warm. through extra layers of clothes, used of portable oil filled rads and one gas fire and a couple of fan heaters all used sparingly as and when need to heat up to comfy temp then turned off. I discovered 15 tog duvets last year and wow what a difference.

Going to attempt to make a window blanket/duvet today for one window and see how that goes before attempting the other 6 windows

pollypenny

I was brought up with just one room heated - a roaring coal fire in the 'kitchen'. South Walian for all purpose living room.

I used to swot for exams shrouded in blankets in my bedroom.


OH is just beginning to feel the cold. I've got him to understand that, in order for the great insulation to work, we have to warm the house first. That means a couple of hours on 20 degrees before it goes off. On for 10 minutes at lunch then on at 5 until 8,30ish.