How to live without heating - save £000s

Mstty

For a Christmas treat this year let's turn the heating on lol

Markc0011

https://www.quora.com/What-hacks-do-you-know-about-getting-warm-inside-your-apartment-house-in-cold-weather
a good read

markin

My shoes are gore-tex i find them far too sweaty, and on googling others found the same, but yes they are water proof.


Between solar gain and the house storing heat for 2-3 days i find the inside temp is usually between 9-15c warmer than outside, So probably perfect where the uk average winter temp is around 6c. Plus heating from cooking and computers.

slickric12345

A wood burner is the solution if you don’t want to pay for heating and are able to source and process free fire wood

the idea of not putting any heating on in the middle of a British winter would be a pretty miserable existence 

would also expect your house to have serious damp issues

The idea of extra layers and slightly less heating is smart, but none at all... can’t even imagine how miserable that would be

I remember when I was in university the bathroom had a flat roof and no heating was a dump. I chose to shower at the gym all year as couldn’t imagine showering in basically outdoor temperatures.

The flat only had electric heaters, it was awful as the boys used to be tight about putting money on the prepay meter

i went home on cold weekends and did stay in a hotel with a lovely swimming pool and spa for a fortnight as I’d had enough of living in the cold in February 

im still in shorts . Haven’t had a pair of trousers on since February so I wouldn’t say I was a cold person. Expect nightly fire and heating will be starting in about a week for me

HertsLad

slickric12345 said:

the idea of not putting any heating on in the middle of a British winter would be a pretty miserable existence 

would also expect your house to have serious damp issues

The idea of extra layers and slightly less heating is smart, but none at all... can’t even imagine how miserable that would be

I remember when I was in university the bathroom had a flat roof and no heating was a dump. I chose to shower at the gym all year as couldn’t imagine showering in basically outdoor temperatures.

Wrong, wrong, wrong in terms of how comfortable I have proved you can be. There is no sign of damage to my house. As I have said before, I have heated the bathroom in the past. But being totally reliant on a small solar PV system now, I may need to change my approach this year. I will report back on what I come up with as it gets colder.

HertsLad

The BBC recently published a summary of some research. The article headline is: "

Staying warm: What does an unheated room do to your body?

Findings include: 20% less blood flow to the brain and significantly raised blood pressure.

See here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63602501

But the man volunteering to be tested is only wearing shorts and a light top. What do they expect?

Perhaps I should volunteer to be tested wearing the same clothes as I wear to stay perfectly warm down to 2C.

Ally_E.

Hertslad, would be nice to have regular updates from you. How is it going so far? What's the temperature inside the house and how many layers are you wearing? 

HertsLad

Ally_E. said:

Hertslad, would be nice to have regular updates from you. How is it going so far? What's the temperature inside the house and how many layers are you wearing? 

Thank you for your interest. The temperature in my house was between 12C (some rooms) and 15C (other rooms) from the start of October until earlier this week in late November. 12C is still relatively cold though so I was wearing two base layers, both top and bottom, a cotton shirt, pure wool jumper and a fleece, plus denim jeans on my legs. And a thinsulate lined hat. I never feel warm without the hat. This week, I added a new (outdoor) jacket I bought from Decathlon for only £14.99. It has polyester insulation but it's not thinsulate. I wear it between the sweater and my fleece. I will continue with this new jacket as a test, until I start to feel colder again, as the temperature decreases. Then I will swap it for my thinsulate jacket to see if thinsulate is better, as I would expect.

It occurred to me how easy it would be for anyone to set their thermostats to 12C and save quite a lot whilst not taking a risk with burst water pipes and insurance company terms. All they need is 4 base layer garments and a low cost jacket from Decathlon, plus a few clothes most people already possess.

Qyburn

Anyone saving even more by only eating raw food? 

Topiary

slickric12345 said:

the idea of not putting any heating on in the middle of a British winter would be a pretty miserable existence 

would also expect your house to have serious damp issues

Was reading the other day about people struggling with no heating/ high humidity condensation. I experienced this once when lost my job/ sick. Lasted until mid December before putting heating on curtains stuck too windows very dank environment to be at home in.

Having experienced, my thoughts are with everyone living in these condition where you are simply frightened too put on the heating due to cost.

Nowadays I am lucky to be able to run the heating albeit frugally plus a desiccant dehumidifier on a low setting ( old single brick house)