How to live without heating - save £000s

HertsLad

Here is my latest finding on drying damp clothes at home in low temperatures. I found two of my merino wool tops had not been washed after my trip a year ago. I thought I would almost certainly have to take them to the launderette to use a tumble dryer. Wool takes longer to dry than polyester. I hand washed them at the weekend, rung them out as best I could, then hung them in the very cold bathroom to drip dry. Water fell to the bottom, and I squeezed water from those parts a few times. I had not used my spin dryer. To my surprise, they are almost dry as at Wednesday morning. They smell freshly washed too, and not at all mouldy or anything.

wrf12345

Starting the day with an ice-cold shower gets me going and improves circulation, also means I don't have to heat any water which saves £200-300 a year. I think the more you wear the lazier the body becomes re circulation, especially as we age, you can always try meandering around in just shorts. Breathing in deeply and exhaling slowly repeatedly may also help. Freezing weather had now been replaced by rain where I am so some relief on the heating front even if it may make my morning 4-5 mile walk more difficult.

HertsLad

wrf12345 said:

Starting the day with an ice-cold shower gets me going and improves circulation, also means I don't have to heat any water which saves £200-300 a year. I think the more you wear the lazier the body becomes re circulation, especially as we age...

I would expect circulation to be more restricted by lack of movement, rather than anything to do with clothes unless they are very tight.

snowqueen555

HertsLad said:

Here is my latest finding on drying damp clothes at home in low temperatures. I found two of my merino wool tops had not been washed after my trip a year ago. I thought I would almost certainly have to take them to the launderette to use a tumble dryer. Wool takes longer to dry than polyester. I hand washed them at the weekend, rung them out as best I could, then hung them in the very cold bathroom to drip dry. Water fell to the bottom, and I squeezed water from those parts a few times. I had not used my spin dryer. To my surprise, they are almost dry as at Wednesday morning. They smell freshly washed too, and not at all mouldy or anything.

No damp issues?

Bigphil1474

We've used our bathroom to dry clothes in for years, with or without heating, just takes longer when it's cold. Leave the window open. 
I'm not sure having a cold shower in the morning saves £300 a year? Unless yours is fed from the house supply. An electric shower costs pence to run - maybe 16p for a 4 minute shower, which is about £60 a year if you shower every single day. 

Scot_39

1 10 min shower  - under the weak flow from a typical c9-9,5kW shower - is hardly a truly satisfying shower - 4 min under a low flow rate - I'd say pretty much impractical for many - especially if disabled / frail elderly etc..

10 min - Id say is still very tight for many - I seldom take less if do my short hair shampoo and rinse in shower - and uses c1.5kWh or c40p at SR - worse on multirate E7 day peak rate - more like 50p.  Cheaper on E7 night rate - say 25p

An immersion tank also loses about 1-2kWh a day - another 25-50p at SR - 15-30p at E7 night rate .

Add the two together - if genuinely "no hot water" -  thats upto £1/day £365 - so £200-300 is not a silly number. 

There are folk who boil a kettle to wash themselves or the dishes - rather than suffer tank losses - and reheat lots of water they never use.

(Although in winter thats not really waste - it's another heat source - and I like having a warmer linen cupboard to keep my towels etc damp free - given how cold I run the rest of the house - 14 peak at times. My basin of water with dishes "soaking" in kitchen sink was down to sub 10 in the recent sub zero nights - despite heating to a higher 15C/16C some evenings given that sort of overnight loss to protect loft pipes - until NSH charge kicked in again at 1pm on my E10)

HappyHermit

Nice to find this thread and discover I'm not alone in this choice!

I live in a large two bedroom second floor (top floor) flat and also haven't used heating for around fifteen years, beyond an electric blanket on low in the coldest spells. I must be fortunate compared to some because my flat usually only drops to about 10-11c in winter, lowest it ever reaches is 8c in spells such as the one a few weeks ago.

As my name suggests, I do live alone so no arguments or issues with anyone else not being of the same mindset, and it's the standard method really as per others - I wear a few more layers, duvet in the lounge. Washing dries no problem in the spare bedroom with a dehumidifier and window open a crack. No damp anywhere in any room, air quality and humidity is good.

I'm 55 and early retired a couple of years back so I'm at home a lot of the time now, and never uncomfortable. Could I afford to pay for heating the place, sure. But I've got used to this as my 'normal' and it doesn't inconvenience or bother me, so the cost/benefit analysis is pretty clear in my case. Why not have the extra money as opposed to not.

I've read a lot of the thread and was surprised at the outright hostility towards OP, certainly in the early pages anyway. It's about a lifestyle choice that is guaranteed to save you a lot of money each year, along with ways of doing it if you want to (and are able to) give it a try to some degree. I'm certainly not planning to put any heating on until I get to an age or a health situation where I need to. By that point the interest on the money that would otherwise have been spent on it over the preceding accumulated years on it will probably cover most of it alone!

tfhnota

I run the central heating for an hour in the morning during winter, about 60p - only way to get my towels dry (or wet clothing if caught in rain). I will switch on an halogen heater early evening if it is cold (60p an hour on one bar) for short periods, which directly heats my body. Start feeling the cold sub 12 degrees in the house, 15 degrees feels quite luxurious with an extra layer of clothing on but not going mad on the layers. Quite happily live alone so no-one to complain. Cold bedroom but preheat bed with an electric blanket for half an hour before bed (trivial cost), feels great getting into a bed with warm sheets, and never get cold as two duvets. Being 70 I do get the £200 govn freebie each winter that covers my heating costs and leaves a bit over to balance out the crazy standing charges, so suppose I should be happy with that state of affairs.