How to live without heating - save £000s 10 February 2022 at 11:59AM edited 24 February 2022 at 4:10PM in Energy 777 replies 76.8K views

HertsLad

theoretica said:

It is your extrapolation from what works for you to that also working for other people, especially those sufficiently vulnerable to die from lack of heating that is offensive.  Blaming people for dying because they are too stupid to wear proper clothes?

If you had presented it as a personal choice that your own situation allowed you to make that would be less outrageous.

Thank you for pointing it out. I said it's sad people are dying, though. I didn't say I blamed them. It's unlikely either of us know the proportion of people in different age groups who could succeed with my approach. I accept, as I said before that we probably need to exclude anyone with a medical condition. The only thing different from heating the house to keeping oneself warm is that the air is warmer. There's no mould in my house, as far as I know. Anyway, if it makes you happier I am willing to say I am probably like 1 in a thousand people who have the genes and metabolism able to pull this off. All I can suggest is that others try it, to see if it works for them, rather than be deterred by the doubters and sceptics.

QrizB

HertsLad said:

All I can suggest is that others try it, to see if it works for them, rather than be deterred by the doubters and sceptics.

And congratulations for trying it, and finding that it works for you.

You're right that umpteen previous generations will have lived like this and humanity survived. But (as has been mentioned in several previous replies) there are a relatively large number of people alive now who wouldn't cope - many of them older and/or with chronic illnesses.

Best not to assume it will work for everyone.

MWT

QrizB said:

You're right that umpteen previous generations will have lived like this and humanity survived.

The post does raise interesting points, but when you think about it, we've been gathering around a fire for warmth pretty much as long as we've had fire, since that point onwards hardly any generations have tried to live without additional heat sources be it wood, coal, buffalo chips etc. ...

The carbon zero version of this, without burning anything at all,  is a somewhat new direction for humanity...

HertsLad

QrizB said:

Best not to assume it will work for everyone.

I agree. Well said. I certainly never have thought it will work for everyone but I would hazard a guess it could help a significant number of people who either can't pay or (like me) won't pay sky high prices for heating energy. I intend continuing with this as long as I can. If I am lucky enough to live to my mid-eighties I wonder if it will still be possible. I know full well that if social services, a care assistant, GP or anyone needs to visit they will be shocked, unable to understand and will probably do everything they can to move me away or turn the heating on, if it still works by then, which seems unlikely. I guess there will be one almighty row, if I still feel as warm as I have this winter and every winter for the past 11 years.

JGB1955

Just thinking - I'm guessing the last time people lived without heating was in the Stone Age?  Or had they discovered fire already?

QrizB

JGB1955 said:

Just thinking - I'm guessing the last time people lived without heating was in the Stone Age?  Or had they discovered fire already?

Apparently homo discovered fire before we were homo sapiens, around 2M years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_humans

It's longer than I thought, to be honest.

HertsLad

MWT said:

QrizB said:

You're right that umpteen previous generations will have lived like this and humanity survived.

The post does raise interesting points, but when you think about it, we've been gathering around a fire for warmth pretty much as long as we've had fire, since that point onwards hardly any generations have tried to live without additional heat sources be it wood, coal, buffalo chips etc. ...

The carbon zero version of this, without burning anything at all,  is a somewhat new direction for humanity...

I suggest the carbon zero version is only made possible due to the relatively recent invention of affordable but highly insulating materials such as thinsulate. I also rate down insulation. A few decades ago, I think the price of down was a lot higher than it is now. Neither were there markets like ebay where it's possible to pick up bargains. Or polyester base garments being sold at a relatively low price. All these aspects have allowed me to keep warm without heating. 

Swipe

I think running the boiler and heating the house to 12C-15C is a much more civilised compromise that shouldn't cost that much. I'm sitting here right now at 18C with a thick fleece on and my feet inside my electric foot warmer. I've sat at 16C for long periods of time but my hands start to go cold and need my woolly hat below that.

Spies

I've decided to adjust my thermostat, I used £78 of gas on my last bill 

8.30 - 17.30 = 16c
17.30 - 21.30 = 19c
21.30 - 8.30 = 14c

House is occupied all day. 

See what it saves me as I had heat set to 16c overnight so on cold days the heating was starting to come on about 5am and 18c between 8.30 and 10.00

FreeBear

Rosa_Damascena said: but I also worry that in your mid-60s you may be so used to being cold that you won't recognise hypothermia when it hits.

Hypothermia can set in when the air temperature is at 10°C, and it is not a nice thing to suffer from - It can (and does) kill.

You also need to bear in mind, a cold house will be prone to condensation & mold. If the timbers inside the house become damp, there is a very good chance than rot will set in along with an infestation of woodworm. So what you save on heating will be eaten up having to pay for repairs.