How to live without heating - save £000s

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Eldi_Dos said:

@wrf12345 & HertsLad plus any others who have adopted this unorthodox lifestyle can I ask what allowances or changes to your diets you make as I would imagine you would need higher calories, more warming higher nutrient food than someone living in more comfortable accommodation.

Especially during the cold spell many of us are experiencing.

If you are sufficiently wrapped up, your core body temperature should be the same.

kimwp

I remember visiting the Nottingham sustainable house research a few years ago - they said that with sufficient insulation, there would be no need for heating; body heat would be sufficient to maintain a comfortable environment. (Presumably depending on how large the rooms are). So HertsLad and the others are pretty much doing this, but making the room just outside their bodies (with the exception of faces presumably)

Eldi_Dos

@kimwp
I does not take long for a crowd of bodies to heat up a room, the traditional design of cinemas before air conditioning took that into account, with the high ceilings to help keep people cool as well as providing adequate air supply.

Green_hopeful

@kimwp my uncle built his own house using insulation from old industrial freezers. He has 8 to 12 inches around the whole house. He was worried about heating and i said between the TV, computer, cat and dog he would be fine. He has a wood burning stove in the kitchen but no other heating. He rarely needs any additional heat and we are never cold when we visit. He has got good solar gain from the windows and avoids overheating in the summer because the roof overhangs the windows when the sun is high in the sky. It can be done but its tricky to retro fit in our old housing stock. 

kimwp

Sounds great. It's madness that this level of insulation is not mandated for new builds.

QrizB

kimwp said:

I remember visiting the Nottingham sustainable house research a few years ago - they said that with sufficient insulation, there would be no need for heating; body heat would be sufficient to maintain a comfortable environment.

Passivhaus.
https://www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/what_is_passivhaus.php

wrf12345

I am coming to the view that even with cavity wall houses (insulation between bricks seems to make a very small difference) you need to line the walls and floor with Celotex type insulation to get any decent heat retention (assuming the windows are radically downsized on all but the south side) and I will do that on my next house if I ever manage to get a decent price for the current one. As to food, I am on low carb diet all the year round but do have an extra coffee or two later in the day as a heat boost (decaf after noon). My weight remains stable under this diet unless I indulge in alcohol - two litre bottles of Baileys over a few weeks would see it increase by about one kilo.

Eldi_Dos

kimwp said:

Sounds great. It's madness that this level of insulation is not mandated for new builds.

What you have got to remember is that is a minimum requirement, developers can exceed the spec if they feel it would be a selling point.

When I worked in Dubai in the mid 1980's their insulation specs for villa type accommodation far exceeded the UK's at that time but for a different reason, they wanted to keep accommodation cooler in the summer months.

HertsLad

Eldi_Dos said:

@wrf12345 & HertsLad plus any others who have adopted this unorthodox lifestyle can I ask what allowances or changes to your diets you make as I would imagine you would need higher calories, more warming higher nutrient food than someone living in more comfortable accommodation.

Especially during the cold spell many of us are experiencing.

I'm not sure it applies, given my core body temperature is normal, I.e. I don't feel the slightest bit cold. As it is, my GP told me I am pre diabetic. I was put on to a programme and app called Liva, with a very helpful adviser. My BMI was low but my weight at 62kg was higher than it was when I was in my thirties. So I cut back on what I eat and my weight is now 55kg. So the opposite - I am eating less, not more!

HertsLad

I am going skiing on Saturday. I went to Decathlon to buy some foot warmer packs to put inside my ski boots. Despite wearing many layers of clothing, similar to at home, my toes can still feel cold. My hands are now OK, since I started wearing down filled mittens, another Decathlon product, sold for mountaineering. Talking to a young lady working there, she suggested something I have never heard before. She thought I may be warmer if I wore less! I told her I have many years experience and that's not what I have found at all. If I am not warm enough. I add further insulation. Does anyone here think she may have a point, and how could it work?

Example - I think I mentioned before, my hands can be cold after getting up and for the first 30 or 60 mins of the day. In this latest cold spell, I was warming my hands over the gas hob flame. That was while wearing a thin Peter Storm down jacket under a much bulkier Decathlon jacket. So, this morning, I changed the Peter Storm jacket for one with a lot more down. It helped me warm up much faster, to the extent I am now on the verge  of overheating! That's at about 3C.