How to live without heating - save £000s

chris_n

The next crisis wave is mental health following this winter. Many will have started out thinking 'it can't be that bad having the heating a bit lower', works OK while the house still has some warmth. Many are now finding how miserable their existence actually is, as winter goes on they will get to a much darker place with no signs of it getting better.

HertsLad

EssexHebridean said:

Sea_Shell said:

HertsLad said:

I got back to my car, parked in the Crawley area, at just gone midnight. My phone shows the temperature to be minus 2C. I think I will leave my day clothes on (not least to hold heat in) and climb straight into my sleeping bag. Colder than anything ever experienced in my house, for sure. 

Could you not have just extended your holiday and booked in for a cheeky night in a budget hotel?   

It just seems so depressing to have come back from a lovely warm holiday and then choose to sleep in a freezing car.

Assuming it was a "choice". 

I think we've established from the OP's posts previously in the thread that this is very much a matter of choice - almost a personal challenge, if you like - rather than in any way necessity. 

I hope you were right about the pipes being OK OP - it was -7 across the county boundary from you first thing this morning - and as you have said that previously your house has got to 2 degrees with you in it, cooking happening, lights on etc, I'd be surprised if a completely empty house for a week hasn't come closer to freezing than that. 

Yes, it is a choice, rather than squander money on a hotel. Where's the value or enjoyment, compared to 5 star luxury in Tunisia, for example? I stayed perfectly warm in the car but could tell it was cold. I will do it again in about 5 weeks time, on the night ahead of a 6:30am flight to go skiing.

Back to yesterday...when I returned home. A thermometer in the entrance area read 1C so lower than ever. But two other thermometers read 0C and -1C so who knows? Near freezing anyway.  I had been thinking what I needed to wear as a drove home. Also, the speed needed to get dressed, to avoid hypothermia like in the BBC experiment. I have a suitcase in the loft marked 'clothes for unheated house' but it hasn't been touched since March. I decided to try more recent purchases instead. It worked as I am warmer than ever. Here's what I am wearing right now at just above freezing. If anything, I am slightly too warm but I prefer it that way:

Below waist: 2 pairs Campri base Layers, down filled trousers, plus thinsulate lined ski trousers. 

Above waist: 2 pairs Campri long sleeved base layers, 100% cotton shirt, 100% wool jumper, 2 x Decathlon polyester-lined coats, plus one M&S thinsulate-lined coat (pre owned on ebay). And,  as a cap, a XXXL sized polyester fleece.

Other: thinsulate lined neck liner and hat (both from Asda).

So a lot! It works a treat, is a lot of fun and very low cost compared to the absurd cost of heating. 

Sea_Shell

Fun !?!?!    

This thread proves that there really is nowt so "odd" as folk.

HertsLad

Sea_Shell said:

Fun !?!?!    

This thread proves that there really is nowt so "odd" as folk.

I realised some people like you would hate it that anyone like me would be enjoying life. Would it be better if Iied and made out I was barely surviving and thoroughly miserable? Perhaps 90% of people could do what I am doing. I even provided shopping lists,  but no payable links, to help others get started.

Ally_E.

HertsLad said:

Sea_Shell said:

HertsLad said:

Sea_Shell said:

I hope the OP is OK, as they haven't logged in since the 9th.   

I'm fine thanks, especially given the ambient temperature where I have been for the past week, visiting  Tunisia, is 28C. Incidentally, the cost of the trip is a very small fraction of the stated average energy bill of £2500 for the average home. My comparable figure is £50. Tonight I return and have a freezing cold house to look forward to. No problem, of course.

28⁰ seems like paradise ATM.


Now be honest here...

Would you ever admit it if your plan was getting tiresome and that you were throwing in the towel and cranking up the heating.

What's your breaking point?   Would you stop if your health did start to be effected?

Do you think you'll still be doing this as you age (further), and will you continue even if prices drop? 

Under what circumstances would you change tack?

Everything I have said so far is the whole truth. I would, of course, let you all know if my approach, attitude or situation changes. I did experience a bit of a wobble at around 9C a couple of weeks ago, when I thought I wasn't as warm as I expected to be. I warmed up by walking a few hundred metres to a local shop, and was then fine. I guess I would stop if I had some respiratory or other issue, if breathing in cold air was deemed bad for me. 

I will continue if prices drop, unless energy became almost free. I really don't know if I will be able to continue as I approach 70 and then 80. But, at present, it's so easy and effortless (apart from the occasional wobble) I see no reason to change.

Martin Lewis' idea of wearing electrically heated pads seems bonkers to me. I have tried it and found it so restrictive and not as warm as wearing half decent layers of insulating materials.

They have heated jackets now that work on battery packs, might be something to explore? 

Sea_Shell

I don't hate that you're enjoying life.   It's your life.

Whatever floats your boat.   And it's only you in your boat, you have no one else to consider.

But even if 90% of people (probably single) could do what you do, I doubt anyone who had a choice would.

Sea_Shell

Actually, serious question...

Have any of your neighbours approached you to check you're ok?

Or do they know how you live?

Have they noticed you have no heating on (steam), or that your roof * has more ice/snow after others have melted.




* Maybe not so noticeable these days with better insulation.

HertsLad

Sea_Shell said:

Actually, serious question...

Have any of your neighbours approached you to check you're ok?

Or do they know how you live?

Have they noticed you have no heating on (steam), or that your roof * has more ice/snow after others have melted.




* Maybe not so noticeable these days with better insulation.

Yes, several neighbours know how I live but I am not 'close' to anyone. I assume they know I'm OK.

Good point about snow on roofs. Very little melting on mine. At the other extreme it shows how much energy is being burned and/or poor loft insulation. 

HertsLad

Ally_E. said:

HertsLad said:

Sea_Shell said:

HertsLad said:

Sea_Shell said:

I hope the OP is OK, as they haven't logged in since the 9th.   

I'm fine thanks, especially given the ambient temperature where I have been for the past week, visiting  Tunisia, is 28C. Incidentally, the cost of the trip is a very small fraction of the stated average energy bill of £2500 for the average home. My comparable figure is £50. Tonight I return and have a freezing cold house to look forward to. No problem, of course.

28⁰ seems like paradise ATM.


Now be honest here...

Would you ever admit it if your plan was getting tiresome and that you were throwing in the towel and cranking up the heating.

What's your breaking point?   Would you stop if your health did start to be effected?

Do you think you'll still be doing this as you age (further), and will you continue even if prices drop? 

Under what circumstances would you change tack?

Everything I have said so far is the whole truth. I would, of course, let you all know if my approach, attitude or situation changes. I did experience a bit of a wobble at around 9C a couple of weeks ago, when I thought I wasn't as warm as I expected to be. I warmed up by walking a few hundred metres to a local shop, and was then fine. I guess I would stop if I had some respiratory or other issue, if breathing in cold air was deemed bad for me. 

I will continue if prices drop, unless energy became almost free. I really don't know if I will be able to continue as I approach 70 and then 80. But, at present, it's so easy and effortless (apart from the occasional wobble) I see no reason to change.

Martin Lewis' idea of wearing electrically heated pads seems bonkers to me. I have tried it and found it so restrictive and not as warm as wearing half decent layers of insulating materials.

They have heated jackets now that work on battery packs, might be something to explore? 

I tried them in the past. Batteries don't last long so they are relatively  expensive to buy new batteries, or too big a draw from a small solar system like mine if using rechargeable batteries. Worse, the power banks are quite bulky. If you plug them into mains electricity, you have to unplug them to move around. So inconvenient! Multiple layers without electricity are warmer.

Mstty

At some point are there some pictures of the gear you wear round the house and ifnit looks bulky etc.(blue face etc)

Also I want to believe you completely but would you also post your energy usage if you have the bright app or a bill.

That may put some of the people thinking this is a lie to bed once and for all.