How to live without heating - save £000s

MP1995

poppellerant said:

How do people without heating deal with visitors? I try to be economical with the heating where reasonably possible and without putting the property at risk, but it's inevitable that I get some visitors complaining about the cold because they are used to wasting their money on heating.

Correction

Not wasting their money, choosing to spend their income on different things to yourself.

RavingMad

Each to their own. I don't doubt that there are people who walk around their house in shorts/t shirts paying £2/300+ a month. Ah I remember the days when we asked people to turn their heating down 

MP1995

RavingMad said:

Each to their own. I don't doubt that there are people who walk around their house in shorts/t shirts paying £2/300+ a month. Ah I remember the days when we asked people to turn their heating down 

I am laughing a bit now in my shorts and T shirt all year long and 23oC for a yearly cost of £1200 or £100 a month for our energy bill.

There is no holiday we would want to reduce our energy bill and comfort. We consider it value for money. 

RavingMad

MP1995 said:

RavingMad said:

Each to their own. I don't doubt that there are people who walk around their house in shorts/t shirts paying £2/300+ a month. Ah I remember the days when we asked people to turn their heating down 

I am laughing a bit now in my shorts and T shirt all year long and 23oC for a yearly cost of £1200 or £100 a month for our energy bill.

There is no holiday we would want to reduce our energy bill and comfort. We consider it value for money. 

£100 a month for 23⁰!? I could only wish I could get to that temp for £100.  That's dual fuel? Hats off to you if so

silverwhistle

HertsLad said:

 Your suggested alternatives are quite absurd, apart from water use, which I already do.

Why are they absurd? Why would those choices be any more absurd than yours? As it happens I could save more than my monthly energy standing order if I chose the Buckfastleigh route instead of decent wine.

It strikes me it would be absurd that I should come in from playing in my football kit, bra and maybe some  compression undergear and then start layering up with what you do because the house is so cold..

My lounge is nice and warm at the moment as I'm using a fan heater. The power is coming from my car which I'm going to recharge tonight at negative prices (along with heating water, dishwasher etc.). It's not as if keeping the house at least at a reasonable temperature costs that much. The kitchen is warm enough due to cooking earlier, the rest of the house I don't heat..

I am wearing a strappy vest though which doesn't make me look like Michelin man (Decathlon merino wool, recommended) and a light fleece.

Do you ever invite people round to your home? Do you provide all the gear in case they haven't worn sufficient? It doesn't sound very relaxing..

jvjack

"There is no holiday we would want to reduce our energy bill and comfort. We consider it value for money."  Same here. Cant get any where near those temperatures for cost etc but looked yesterday at the gruelling world tours of musicians and thought it is nicer to sit at home and watch their videos on the telly and also just watch holiday programmes and spend the money on heating. Having said that i'm looking at ihd and thinking it might be cheaper to turn off heating and go on holiday. No idea.

HertsLad

Anyone can make their own decisions on how they spend their money, of course. Most people are so used to heating all the air around them, that I don't think they can understand how I can be perfectly happy at any temperature between 1C at home and approx 44C in Egypt, earlier this year. They say they prefer being comfortable and watching TV, for example. But I am equally comfortable and could watch TV if I had a licence and wanted to. Then there are excuses like cold loo seats (I have never noticed) or needing to change from sports gear into several layers. For most of the winter, the temperature is not very low so you don't need to wear many layers.

If there were many people who faced death or thoroughly miserable conditions through simply not having enough money for heating, and not wearing enough clothes of the right type, would they be speaking like this?

Topiary

HI Hertslad just a couple of questions what is your current indoor evening temperature and likely asked before but do you run a dehumidifier. Thanks

HertsLad

Topiary said:

HI Hertslad just a couple of questions what is your current indoor evening temperature and likely asked before but do you run a dehumidifier. Thanks

The current temperature in the bedroom I use as a study is 13C at 4pm.  As forecast, the weather has warmed up a bit. For the previous couple of days it was 11C. I had started wearing a single down-filled jacket but took it off this morning to go for a cycle ride as exercise. I haven't felt the need to put it back on but remain perfectly warm with two base layers top and bottom, plus shirt, pure wool jumper, and fleece. And with denims over the base layers on my legs.

I bought two quite large dehumidifiers a few years ago. I mean the size of floor standing air con units, rather than a portable (small) dehumidifier. I tried a couple of these small dehumidifiers and concluded they are a waste of time. Both the large units work well.

One is dessicant based and is said to work well at low temperatures, like in my house over winter. I used that in my bedroom until I turned off main electricity. My thinking was to put anything which seemed worth protecting in there.  But nothing seems worth paying the standing charge and additional units for, so it hasn't been used since I started using PV solar panels for all my electricity. Now I have more solar panels perhaps I could turn it back on again, but I fear it would use too much energy and is not viable.

The other dehumidifier is branded Meaco and is located in a wardrobe. I used it to dry clothes which were hung in the wardrobe.This unit states it won't work below a half decent temperature but my thinking is that the unit gets quite warm and will warm up the air in the wardrobe. I assume it worked because clothes used to dry in no time. I should think about using that again from time to time, like on sunny days when there is more solar energy, even over winter. Surplus solar power, like could be exported through Octopus could be used for drying clothes, rather than go to waste.

RelievedSheff

HertsLad said:

Topiary said:

HI Hertslad just a couple of questions what is your current indoor evening temperature and likely asked before but do you run a dehumidifier. Thanks

The current temperature in the bedroom I use as a study is 13C at 4pm.  As forecast, the weather has warmed up a bit. For the previous couple of days it was 11C. I had started wearing a single down-filled jacket but took it off this morning to go for a cycle ride as exercise. I haven't felt the need to put it back on but remain perfectly warm with two base layers top and bottom, plus shirt, pure wool jumper, and fleece. And with denims over the base layers on my legs.

Sorry but wearing all of those clothes to sit in your house sounds thoroughly miserable.

We heated our home to 21 degrees yesterday and it took 15kWh of gas (less a bit for cooking but we wont split hairs on that small amount).  That cost us £0.88. I certainly won't be wearing a whole wardrobe to save 88p!!