freezing cold house with no central heating - help!

redcherry_girl

I second candles! I got bought a very large pack of little tea lights for Christmas one year and I used them to heat our living room for months. Quite effective really. Also bought our heating bill down a lot. But then I was a student at the time.

annie123

I have have bumped this thread for you. Loads of great ideas

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=6831681#post6831681

Pandora123_2

Candles get a vote from me as well. Amazing how much heat they can throw off when you've got a bunch of them lit. You can buy 100 tea lights from Ikea for £1.69.

Just remember to blow them out before you go to sleep!

:A

woofwoofwoof

Is that really true about the candles or is it more of a psychological effect as you can see the flame and think 'heat'? I have one of those electric fires in our living room with a fake flame - when the room is cold I turn on the fake flame (without the blowheater part on) and after a short time the room always feels warmer!! An old relative used to live in an old house and she had 'home made' double glazing which was a frame the same size as the window frame made of thin wood with clear plastic attached to it with staples, this was then attached over the actual windows and it really made a difference to the heating. Alternatively, layers of clothing and hot food are the way to go.

barrymung

cantstopshopping wrote: »

hello,

im not sure if this is the best place to post this question... but any advice would be very much appreciated!

I live in a rented flat in a very old house which doesn't have central heating. The windows are all very old and seem to let in a lot of cold - and let out any heat.

I tried masking tape last year and am going to make some thick curtains but i now need to find the best way of actually heating the flat.

At the moment i have plug in electric heaters which let out hot air from the top. these cost a small fortune to have on and the second i turn them off all of the heat dissapears from the room!

I am just constantly so cold that it it making me feel miserable to be at home. any advice as to the best way of heating my flat and actually containing th heat would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

hiya,

as others have said, oil filled radiators are good as they retain heat long after they are switched off; convector heaters are better for more short term heating.

With regards to the widndows it always used to be possible to buy a "double glazing" kit which comprised a roll of clear plastic and some double sided tape.

you simply stuck the plastic over the window and heated it with a hairdryer to remove the wrinkles. The result was double glazed windowns at a fraction of the cost. I dunno if it's possible to still buy these kits on ebay or somewhere?

make sure all gaps round the windwons are sealed. Also check if you are getting draughts up through the gaps in the floorboards. Any gaps can be sealed with wet toilet paper (Really!) forced into the gap with a blunt table knife.

hang heavy curtains/blankets across all windows and doors.

Wrap up warm.

Good luck!

drc

We've just moved from a flat that had no central heating and old style windows. In the winter, like you, we had to use electric heaters.

We bought this special stuff from a hardware store which you stick on to single pane windows and it sort of shrinks to fit using a hairdryer which acts like double glazing. It made quite a bit of a difference although obviously it won't actually heat up the place, just help to keep some of the heat in. We found it in a local hardware shop.

You can get it on ebay;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WINDOW-SHRINK-FILM-DOUBLE-GLAZING-INSULATION-KIT_W0QQitemZ220173206479QQihZ012QQcategoryZ20592QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Hope you get warm

moanymoany

If there is only you, or only 2 of you I would suggest you think about moving into one room. This is what I would do. I don't like a hot bedroom, but I hate my face to be really cold, so I would move the mattress into the main room. Then you can put all your efforts into sealing this room against the cold. One oil filled radiator kept on all the time you are in there through the coldest weather should keep the room warm enough to be livable and it can be backed up with another heater if it is really cold. Invest in an electric blanket.

The great thing about this heat source is that you don't have to worry about ventilation.

Central heating was not available to many people until the 1980's. Before then people had to wrap up warm and sit around the open fire or, if they were lucky, a gas fire. I remember that when I was at home and then in my early married life, the heating bill was the biggest expense we had in the winter. Flanalette sheets, hot water bottles, lots of blankets and bedsocks were the order of the day. My first electric blanket transformed my life as I couldn't sleep until I was warm!

pigpen

I live in a huge FREEZING Cold Victorian ice box of a house as well!!

I have central heating but it is still really cold!

I wear loads of layers.. the other day I had a vest, a tshirt, a long sleeve tshirt and 3 jumpers and as I was still cold I put on my coat!!! In the end I gave up and went to bed with a hot drink and my 'lists'

I can't be cold as it sets my ancient bones off aching so I truly empathise with you!

piglet29

we too, used to live in a freezing cold house with no central heating, when it was really,really cold we would bring our mattresses down into the living room and make up our beds so me, hubby and all 3 kids slept on one big huge bed covered in duvets and blankets!!! the kids thought it was great just like camping and it did make a difference all five of us in one room all huddled together:rotfl: :rotfl:

johanne

From experiance:

-throws or blankets thrown over you on the couch/chair when your sat around. If you have a spare duvet (e.g. a summer weight one and a winter one) then chuck a throw/blanket over the sofa and then snuggle under a duvet... you'll be snug as a bug in a rug! :rotfl:

- candles do help it feel warmer and in a small room can give off surprising amount of heat....but be careful not to knock them over or catch your blanket or anything with them obviously!

- when you make a hot drink make it in a big thermos and take it and a mug with you to whatever room your in - reduces your need to make trips to the kitchen etc which is probably gonna be cold!

- you may feel an idiot but when your in the house wear a scarf and a wooly hat. End of the day you lose most the heat out your head so wear one outside so why not inside?! I have even been known to sleep in my beanie on very cold nights!

- If you can (say your out all day at work so dont need the daylight coming in) keep your curtains closed all the time Opening them lets the cold draughts in! Just warn any good neighbours that may think theres something wrong if you havent opened them!:rolleyes:

- Layers of clothes and hot water bottles as others have said.

- heating one room with a portable heater, probably the living room, and living, eating and sleeping in there with doors shut all the time and only venturing to other rooms when totally necessary.

- after cooking tea and finishing with the oven i used to leave the oven door open to let all the heat out while i washed up as there was no heaters in the kitchen and it was so cold you could see your breath, so the heat off the oven just took the chill off the air long enough to speedily wash up!:rotfl:

I dont know if any of these will help but i spent last year living in my partners house which has no central heating and very poorly fitted old single glazing, and the year before i lived in rented accomadation and was on benefits in the winter so couldnt afford to heat the house properly!