How to live without heating - save £000s

MovingForwards

I'm wearing PJs, socks, slippers, smalls and live in Scotland.

Not cold enough to add a vest or a t-shirt and from that to a long sleeved top.

Even when I'm properly dressed it's jeans, vest, cardigan, socks and slippers.

elsien

I’m in the midlands. I have a T-shirt, long sleeved top, jumper and baggy fleece over the top. Fleece trackie bottoms. Two pairs of socks including a thick pair. My thermostat is showing 17 although I think my home office is below that.
I am still cold. 

Swipe

Heating is still off, although I did put the kicthen storage heater on for the first time the other day as it was forecast to be rainy and cloudy all day. Most of my house peaks at 17C and the kitchen is currently at 20C with hazy sunshine. Sitting with my feet in my electic foot warmer and wearing a thick woolly fleece. I've worn a hat indoors a couple of times but only for a few minutes at a time.

HertsLad

peter3hg said:

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.

I guess I may notice the cold more than some people. But anything below about 18C is deemed as dangerous to ones health, especially for someone over 65, like myself. I could probably get away with wearing a bit less in order to keep warm at 13C but as long as I'm not overheating, I prefer to err on the side of caution.

My house has been quite cold in the morning and evenings since September. If I carried on wearing lightweight clothing like I used to 20 years ago, I would certainly have turned on the heating on occasions from about a month ago.

I am also already using 27 tog worth of duvets on the bed, i.e. 13.5 x 2 with 30 mins of pre-warming from an electric blanket powered from my solar battery bank.  Again, if I'm not overheating, I probably use more insulation than the minimum needed.

EssexHebridean

peter3hg said:

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.

For added context here, I live just across into the next county boundary to the county that HertsLad's name indicates he is in. We are in a ground floor flat - solid wall and floor construction so poorly insulated in real terms. We have modern double glazed windows and doors. we haven't used heating at all yet. The lowest our home has dropped to so far is a fraction under 19 degrees, that was only briefly first thing one morning, it warmed up a full degree above that later on that day...  

I've added a cosy sweatshirt material hoody most of the time indoors now, along with leggings, pj trousers or jeans. MEH is still in short sleeved t-shirts and shorts. the summer duvet (4.5tog) is still on the bed although the autumn/spring weight one will probably be switched on when we change the bedding next. 

The coldest "first thing in the morning" temperature I've seen as yet in our area is 11 degrees.

Apodemus

EssexHebridean said:

The coldest "first thing in the morning" temperature I've seen as yet in our area is 11 degrees.

We've had a couple of 3C mornings and the CH went on at it's lowest setting last week when the internal walls of the house were no longer rising above 15C during the day.

HertsLad

I went to the cinema this afternoon (film 'Bullet Train'; I was bored and walked out after only 30 mins). Anyway, I removed the second base layers, wool sweater and hat before leaving home. But, as so often happens, i forget or can't be bothered to replace the layers when I return, apart from the all-important hat. I note the house is pretty much the same temperature as this morning but I don't feel the slightest bit chilly, so maybe I was wearing too much this morning. So even if you heat the house only to an insurance-approved 12C or 13C, many people won't need many layers to offset it.

LessImpecunious

@HertsLad - your house does seem to be unusually cold (cf. @peter3hg's minimum of 19C inside somewhere north of you and @EssexHebridean's similar temperature with an outdoor minimum of 11C). Guessing the insulation in these houses may be much better than yours, but your 13C inside seems very low for this time of year and current outside temperatures. Here on a hill in mid Wales we've had plenty of overnight minimums in low-medium single figures, but our lowest indoor minimum (in a cold part of the house with no radiators near a draughty back door and with cold stone floors and walls) so far has been 15.9C. Even in very cold winters on days when a cold northwesterly chills this part of the house down below its normal cool we've never had overnight temps inside lower than c. 11C, and that very rarely - somewhere in the mid-14Cs more commonly the lowest in recent winters. Wondering whether you've checked temperatures with different thermometers? (I have an old analogue thermometer in my greenhouse which has been dropped numerous times and reads up to 3 degrees lower than a little Duragadget digital on colder days - disparity seems to be less when its warmer). BTW I completely sympathise with your general point about wearing sensible layers of clothes to cope with winter temperatures, and to reduce the need for heating, etc - I'm just puzzled by quite how low your house temperatures seem to be.

HertsLad

LessImpecunious said:

@HertsLad - your house does seem to be unusually cold (cf. @peter3hg's minimum of 19C inside somewhere north of you and @EssexHebridean's similar temperature with an outdoor minimum of 11C). Guessing the insulation in these houses may be much better than yours, but your 13C inside seems very low for this time of year and current outside temperatures. 

Interesting. Maybe the implication is that many others will find it even less challenging than I do to live without any heating whatsoever, throughout the winter, apart from the bathroom. I was measuring the temperature in my kitchen which receives very little sun light because it is north facing. My house has no double glazing. It used to have secondary glazing but I ripped it all out. I will post further temperatures in different rooms later. All the rooms feel about the same temperature, though.

EssexHebridean

LessImpecunious said:

@HertsLad - your house does seem to be unusually cold (cf. @peter3hg's minimum of 19C inside somewhere north of you and @EssexHebridean's similar temperature with an outdoor minimum of 11C). Guessing the insulation in these houses may be much better than yours, but your 13C inside seems very low for this time of year and current outside temperatures. Here on a hill in mid Wales we've had plenty of overnight minimums in low-medium single figures, but our lowest indoor minimum (in a cold part of the house with no radiators near a draughty back door and with cold stone floors and walls) so far has been 15.9C. Even in very cold winters on days when a cold northwesterly chills this part of the house down below its normal cool we've never had overnight temps inside lower than c. 11C, and that very rarely - somewhere in the mid-14Cs more commonly the lowest in recent winters. Wondering whether you've checked temperatures with different thermometers? (I have an old analogue thermometer in my greenhouse which has been dropped numerous times and reads up to 3 degrees lower than a little Duragadget digital on colder days - disparity seems to be less when its warmer). BTW I completely sympathise with your general point about wearing sensible layers of clothes to cope with winter temperatures, and to reduce the need for heating, etc - I'm just puzzled by quite how low your house temperatures seem to be.

It would be relatively unlikely that the insulation in our flat is better than just about anywhere else sadly - I wish! Experimental 1950's solid concrete panel build, no cavity walls. Old carpets with relatively little thickness of underlay between us and the concrete floors below, and the concrete ceilings mean that in the winter when the heating IS on the people upstairs benefit from it an annoying amount! At the moment we also have bare original Marley tiles on the hallway floor while we wait for the new flooring (which will have some insulation) to be installed. We do have good (although not top-rated) windows and doors, but due to previous damp  issues we also leave trickle vents open in all bar the coldest weather to allow airflow.  I'm also a chilly mortal (I have chronic anaemia which tends to make regulation of body temperature somewhat interesting!) so once it dips below 18 degrees I really start feeling it. (Hence already needing a thick hoody indoors at the temperatures we have).