How to live without heating - save £000s

MiserlyMartin

Hertslad has made a great suggestion! When you think about it, our parents and grandparents used to live like this with no problem. It was normal. The problem is that in recent years society has become spoilt and mollycoddled into having central heating. We should all live without heating to save the planet and achieve net zero as our 3 main parties are telling us to do. I have saved a lot of money this year living with virtually no heating. Just get the right clothes. Also cut electricity use and Co2 emissions too!

elsien

MiserlyMartin said:

Hertslad has made a great suggestion! When you think about it, our parents and grandparents used to live like this with no problem. It was normal. The problem is that in recent years society has become spoilt and mollycoddled into having central heating. We should all live without heating to save the planet and achieve net zero as our 3 main parties are telling us to do. I have saved a lot of money this year living with virtually no heating. Just get the right clothes. Also cut electricity use and Co2 emissions too!

Thanks but no thanks. Wanting to be warm isn’t being mollycoddled. After all our grandparents who did have that lifestyle got central heating the first chance that they got. Well, mine did anyway. And there is a reason for that. 

They also used to live without appliances such as hoovers and washing machines and I’m pretty sure that they were extremely pleased that they came along. Or  the women were anyway.

I don’t  want to walk around like the Michelin woman, Or have to wear a hat in bed or wear gloves and three pairs of socks for everything that I’m doing. Or freeze my bits off every time I want a wee,  because it’s not quite as straightforward for women as it is for men. Or dread getting up in the morning because the bedroom is so cold -  been there, done that,  not doing it again.

jvjack

Hertslads position is altogether different. Before central heating there were fires in the house.

HertsLad

When I say I find it effortless and easy to live with virtually no heating, I really mean it. If anyone thinks i look like a Michelin man in the photos I posted, I certainly don't feel like it. I move around with no more difficulty than in the summer. As for removing some clothes to sit on the toilet, it's relatively brief and a non issue, like getting undressed for bed. 

Most of you clearly prefer allocating your resources towards heating, rather than prioritising holidays or other luxuries, like I do.

If I thought I would hear from many people who simply don't have the cash for heating, then I think I was mistaken.

Swipe

These net zero posts are hilarious. Like it's going to make any difference at all.

EssexHebridean

Swipe said:

These net zero posts are hilarious. Like it's going to make any difference at all.

They especially don't when people are talking about saving the planet while using built-to-order big flashy cars for ridiculously short journeys!  

Max68

Maybe we should go back to the days of our grandparents and just put a coal fire in that would help the planet!  Maybe go even further, shut down shops and get everyone to make spears and nets to fish and a few seeds to grow things in their back gardens, if they have a garden!  Ok yes I'm being sarcastic.  Many of us remember times before computers or mobile phones but would we all go back to typewriters, walking to a red phone box to make a call, if you can find one, or getting rid of TV's and reading a book in candlelight?  If you are used to something that's fine but it' extremely hard to go back.  My mum probably grew up without heating but would I want her care home to turn off the radiators now?  Of course not.  What about people with medical conditions?  Are we expecting people with IBS to take off several layers of clothing to visit the bathroom for the umpteenth time a day?  I'm all for doing bits to help but don't fancy going back to the Stone Age to do it!   

EssexHebridean

Max68 said:

Maybe we should go back to the days of our grandparents and just put a coal fire in that would help the planet!  Maybe go even further, shut down shops and get everyone to make spears and nets to fish and a few seeds to grow things in their back gardens, if they have a garden!  Ok yes I'm being sarcastic.  Many of us remember times before computers or mobile phones but would we all go back to typewriters, walking to a red phone box to make a call, if you can find one, or getting rid of TV's and reading a book in candlelight?  If you are used to something that's fine but it' extremely hard to go back.  My mum probably grew up without heating but would I want her care home to turn off the radiators now?  Of course not.  What about people with medical conditions?  Are we expecting people with IBS to take off several layers of clothing to visit the bathroom for the umpteenth time a day?  I'm all for doing bits to help but don't fancy going back to the Stone Age to do it!   

For me - the real question would be "how many of those people who actually experienced living with minimal heating because that was all that was possible would choose to go back there now?" I know my Mum (late 70's) wouldn't swap her central heating out for anything, and thinks we're positively mad for planning to fit a multi-fuel burner when we move ("But the MESS!") 

It's all well and good people waxing lyrical about the past, but it should be remembered IMO that people weren't choosing to live in a particular way then, for the most part - it was because that was all they had!

elsien

My reponse wasn't aimed at you @HertsLad.  You have consistently put the option and the ways to achieve it out there without being dogmatic.
It was the other post I was querying which was telling everyone they should be living without heating and that there is something wrong with us if we don't. I paraphrase, but that was the gist. 
And people who from other posts live quite an unsustainable lifestyle then pop up to promote the "good old days."

HertsLad

Elsien - I wasn't offended by any of your comments, just responding to my take on points you made.

To all - I choose not to use any heating, or mains electricity, almost wholly due to the crazy cost at the present time. I regard it as very poor value for money. I am not harking back to a 1950s life style, let alone Stone Age. I doubt if I would have been able to stay warm for a relatively low outlay on extra warm clothes back then.. For example, only eBay let me buy one of my best ever garments - the down trousers - imported from China. Has anyone else tried them?