How to live without heating - save £000s

Markc0011

any more tips?
I was thinking of alpaca socks.

in_my_wellies

deano2099 said:

in_my_wellies said:

Alnat1 said:

Many of the pensioners who are "millionaires" will live in a house that's worth a lot. Asset rich, cash poor.

Many will be reluctant to give up the home they've lived in for years, even if it is much too big for their needs and is costing a fortune to heat. They also see home improvements as not worth it as they won't get ROI in their lifetime.

My neighbour is 91. Alone in a six bed house. She worked out it would cost £25,000 to downsize to a property more suited to her needs. A large percentage of that is stamp duty. If she were to be exempt from stamp duty because she downsized she would move and free up her house for a family. As it is she says £25,000 will buy a lot of heat. 

And if she has access to that £25k in cash somehow to actually pay for the heating bills that's fine. The problem is where people don't, but also don't want to take that loss of £25k stamp duty by downsizing to a small £700,000 property.

I agree, I don't know how much cash she has. The £25,000 is a ball park figure including moving fees. She was looking at a three bed dormer bungalow - no where near £700,000 in East Devon

chris_n

aoleks said:

flippin heck, a cave is warmer than your house at 2 degrees.

I have lived abroad over winter for about 8 years, I have never seen my UK house in NE England below 8 degrees.

Mstty

Markc0011 said:

any more tips?
I was thinking of alpaca socks.

Be careful stealing an alpaca socks😜

Mstty

brewerdave said:

Mstty said:

brewerdave said:

Mstty said:

@brewerdave

One in four pensioners are millionaires.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/pensions-retirement/news/number-millionaire-pensioners-quadruples/

They will be alright .

I suspect the next two in four are decently well off as only the bottom 11% actually get pension credit.

The targeted help required will be those on pension credit. That's apparently 1.4million pensioners

Did you know there are over 12 million pensioners in the UK so when someone broadly says pensioners will die or pensioners need help they may need to qualify that with the bottom 10-25% need help and they imo should get it.

Eh ? So a lot of the people I know ,are hiding a fortune under their mattress ! LOL
As @Alnat1 said it's mainly to do with people (PROBABLY in the SE of England) living in houses valued at ££0000s. I can assure you that the number of "millionaire" pensioners in South Wales is a lot less than 1 in 4!!
The pension credit figure is an underestimate because a lot of pensioners are too proud to claim even tho' they are entitled or are put off by the paperwork required to claim. I believe there are ~ 40% of eligible pensioners missing out which could be at least a further 1 million households.

No one mentioned geography or to suggest than any area only got a % of help so I faile to see your arguement here. The statistics point towards targeted pensioner help(not geographically bound) which I agree with.

What I took exception to is bunching all pensioners/elderly together as sitting at home in the freezing cold with no options but to freeze to death. The statistics simply do not back this up. 

My "argument" is that a headline of "1 in 4 pensioners is a millionaire" is grossly unfair because it WILL be geographically biased! And cause more resentment against ALL pensioners regardless of where and how they live.
 Nothing to do with targeting help - that I agree with - but maybe the Govt. should drive greater uptake of existing benefits first.,

How can something that is statistically correct be unfair, I could have led with another statistic but that would only lend itself to be easier viewing in your eyes.

I personally don't resent any pensioners. My dad spends his winter fuel allowance on flights to Spain, he can't believe how much money is thrown at him. We laugh and joke how he and all his friends do the same and how bad a system it is.

They also jokingly say it'll all be dried up by the time you get to pension age (probably true)

I do agree they should drive uptake, but then that's a false economy to them especially with the triple lock.

HertsLad

chris_n said:

aoleks said:

flippin heck, a cave is warmer than your house at 2 degrees.

I have lived abroad over winter for about 8 years, I have never seen my UK house in NE England below 8 degrees.

Interesting, I have heard people up north suggest anyone down south doesn't know what cold is. What sort of house is it which never goes below 8C? A terraced/semi house or an apartment sandwiched in between other properties may be kept warmer than a detached house, for example. 2C in my house is only reached a few times each winter. For most of the time it's in the range 5C-9C..

chris_n

HertsLad said:

chris_n said:

aoleks said:

flippin heck, a cave is warmer than your house at 2 degrees.

I have lived abroad over winter for about 8 years, I have never seen my UK house in NE England below 8 degrees.

Interesting, I have heard people up north suggest anyone down south doesn't know what cold is. What sort of house is it which never goes below 8C? A terraced/semi house or an apartment sandwiched in between other properties may be kept warmer than a detached house, for example. 2C in my house is only reached a few times each winter. For most of the time it's in the range 5C-9C..

Semi detatched, cavity wall insulation, double glazed with low e coating and argon fill in any units I have replaced, 300mm loft insulation. Conservatory with insulated roof facing South and West provides warming on any day with any sunshine. Only a couple of miles from the North Sea so maybe that helps.

HertsLad

It's now 3rd October and, since around mid September, I have been building up my layers. As at today (13C) here's what I am wearing:

Below waist:
2 pairs Campri thermal long base layers
1 pair denims
Boots

Above waist:
2 pairs Campri long sleeved base layers
1 cotton shirt
1 jumper (pure new wool)
1 polyester fleece
1 thinsulate lined hat

The hat is essential in order for me to feel 'toasty warm' overall, even at 13C I realise some of you find wearing as much as a jumper indoors, completely unacceptable so there will be many who would never wear a hat indoors. Good luck with whatever alternative methods you have for keeping warm at very low cost. I note snake oil salesmen are now selling all sorts of strange gadgets to help people keep warm. I doubt if any of them will work as well as base layers and a hat.

peter3hg

I'm amazed your house is already cold enough to need all that.
I'm a lot more north than you and am sat here in shorts and a t-shirt. My home-office is at 21C with the small heating effect of the computer and the rest of the house is at 19C. The heating hasn't been on at all yet.

givememoney

Me to, do live in London so warmer than the north. Not shorts I have to add. We live in a terraced house so either side help to keep us warm.