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 Freezing weather had now been replaced by rain where I am so some relief on the heating front even if it may make my morning 4-5 mile walk more difficult.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)