How to live without heating - save £000s

GingerTim

HertsLad said:

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.

Why did you remove the secondary glazing?

QrizB

HertsLad said:

The interior temperature in my kitchen has now fallen to 12C as at 9th October. When I opened this thread in February, it happened to be 11C. It only falls to around 5-9C in winter. And on rare occasions, falls as low as 2C.

and

EssexHebridean said:

Temperature in our front room this morning before curtains were opened was still just over 19° C - which is fine. As the sun is now out the curtains are open to allow free solar heating to do it’s thing - it’ll easily add another couple of degrees to that temperature through the day, when I got home yesterday evening after a nice sunny day it was just under 21° so plenty warm enough. This is in Essex - the coldest morning temps outside I’ve seen at this stage this autumn have been 8 - 10°.

My home is more like EH's; temperatures in my living room and dining room (the only two with thermometers) haven't been observed below 16C yet. And the heating's still off!

We've had a couple of mornings where the outdoor tempersture dipped down to 3-4C (low enough to trigger the "frost warning" on my car) but no actual frost yet.

[Deleted User]

I am always wary of people who offer advice on legal and medical issues on public forums. @HertsLad is clearly an outlier when it comes to his personal living choices: that said, it is his right to live in such a frugal way. 

My wife and I will not be following his lead. We will heat our house when required. To date, we haven't required any heating so far this season even though the overnight temperature fell to 4C at 2AM this morning, with this morning's solar gain, our home is presently at 19C in our hallway.

I struggle to understand how anybody can sleep with 27 Togs' worth of bedding. The sheer weight of the bedding alone would give me problems sleeping.

Mister_G

QrizB said:

HertsLad said:

The interior temperature in my kitchen has now fallen to 12C as at 9th October. When I opened this thread in February, it happened to be 11C. It only falls to around 5-9C in winter. And on rare occasions, falls as low as 2C.

and

EssexHebridean said:

Temperature in our front room this morning before curtains were opened was still just over 19° C - which is fine. As the sun is now out the curtains are open to allow free solar heating to do it’s thing - it’ll easily add another couple of degrees to that temperature through the day, when I got home yesterday evening after a nice sunny day it was just under 21° so plenty warm enough. This is in Essex - the coldest morning temps outside I’ve seen at this stage this autumn have been 8 - 10°.

My home is more like EH's; temperatures in my living room and dining room (the only two with thermometers) haven't been observed below 16C yet. And the heating's still off!

We've had a couple of mornings where the outdoor tempersture dipped down to 3-4C (low enough to trigger the "frost warning" on my car) but no actual frost yet.

You're lucky.  We're in rural North Hampshire and have had two frosts over the past two weeks!

This included scraping the car windscreen!

Eldi_Dos

Mister_G said:

QrizB said:

HertsLad said:

The interior temperature in my kitchen has now fallen to 12C as at 9th October. When I opened this thread in February, it happened to be 11C. It only falls to around 5-9C in winter. And on rare occasions, falls as low as 2C.

and

EssexHebridean said:

Temperature in our front room this morning before curtains were opened was still just over 19° C - which is fine. As the sun is now out the curtains are open to allow free solar heating to do it’s thing - it’ll easily add another couple of degrees to that temperature through the day, when I got home yesterday evening after a nice sunny day it was just under 21° so plenty warm enough. This is in Essex - the coldest morning temps outside I’ve seen at this stage this autumn have been 8 - 10°.

My home is more like EH's; temperatures in my living room and dining room (the only two with thermometers) haven't been observed below 16C yet. And the heating's still off!

We've had a couple of mornings where the outdoor tempersture dipped down to 3-4C (low enough to trigger the "frost warning" on my car) but no actual frost yet.

You're lucky.  We're in rural North Hampshire and have had two frosts over the past two weeks!

This included scraping the car windscreen!

Crikey: This global warming is turning things upside down, I am still going about in shorts up here on the east coast of civilisation.

Eldi_Dos

Curiosity2017 said:

But your skin on most of your body must never (or very little) be exposed to fresh air? And also therefore kept in a damp environment. Is that good for skin in the long tern? I can't imagine it is.

Especially as Op appears to be layering up with man made materials.

People who wear wet weather gear at their work enjoy getting shed of it at break times so their skin and clothes can breathe,and it helps to regulate temperature.

HertsLad

Curiosity2017 said:

But your skin on most of your body must never (or very little) be exposed to fresh air? And also therefore kept in a damp environment. Is that good for skin in the long tern? I can't imagine it is.

I've never noticed any adverse effects whatsoever so I can't relate to your warning. I am a man over 65. If I were a 20 year old woman seeking to perfect the appearance of the skin, who knows? Out of the various health warnings, the only one which concerns me a bit, is the long term breathing-in of cold air but I haven't yet noticed any bad effects, and I hope I never do.

As for medical experts, I really doubt if the average GP would know any more than we do. If one found a doctor with significant experience of working with high altitude mountaineers and polar explorers, it would be interesting to hear what they have to say.

Sea_Shell

Sounds like a recipe for fungal infections to me 😉

QrizB

Eldi_Dos said:

People who wear wet weather gear at their work enjoy getting shed of it at break times so their skin and clothes can breathe,and it helps to regulate temperature.

That's because cheap (ie. workplace) wet weather gear doesn't breathe, and you get wet with sweat under it.

HertsLad isn't wearing waterproof clothing, he's layering up properly like cold-weather outdoorsy types do all the time.

HertsLad

Sea_Shell said:

Sounds like a recipe for fungal infections to me 😉

Sounds like another scare story to me, which is sad if it deters anyone who can't afford heating from layering up, similar to what I do.

I went to the Grand Designs live show at the NEC Birmingham on Wednesday, being a sort of up-market ideal home show, a spin off from the Channel 4 series.  At 1pm, Kevin McCloud came on stage. supposedly to recount some of the best moments from 25 years of making the TV series. He was dressed in outdoor gear, including a hard hat like he said he wore when visiting building sites in winter. But he started removing layer after layer - mostly down-filled, and far more than I ever wear even at 2C. I don't think he mentioned energy crisis or any suggestion you could wear similar layers at home but perhaps that was the indirect message. He did stress the value of layering (with appropriate materials such as down) as a way to keep warm. At last, a celebrity who seems to have good ideas.