Discuss the 'Heat the human not the home' guide

THX_1138_4EB

FelipeArbusto said:

Donna0926 said:

I would like to know more about the cost efficient ways of stopping your home deteriorating through the lack of heating. It is our fifth year of not being able to heat the house properly and the mould is growing and as we own our house I worry so much about the year on year damage the damp must be doing. Is it cheapest to just put the heating on, or to buy dehumidifiers? Lots of tips to keep warm which is great, but we struggled for years to be able to afford our house and in the winter the walls are turning green and I am wiping the condensation off the windows every morning . I will be getting out the hot water bottles and stocking up on blankets when it gets to winter but honestly the amount of damp in our house is scary 

My heating only goes on sparingly usually in the late evening if at all, even in the coldest of months.
I primarily rely on my dehumidifier during the night and ventilation ie doors and windows open during a good portion of the day.
The dehumidifier during the night (colder months) collects so much water (which is great) which would have only been suspended in the air, making the rooms even colder. Best condensed as water than in the air.as moisture.
It does not totally eliminate the condensation on the front bay windows, esp when there is a frost esp a hard frost over night.
ps If the house is too cold, you might find that dehumidifier does not work efficiently.
This could also help, when cooking, keep doors to the other parts of the house closed and kitchen windows open.
There are condensation traps that are cheap to buy. (picture) they consist of a plastic tub filled with an absorbent material. I have found these do work. Just remember to peel away the film barrier before use.

I hope this helps?

Those things are a terrible waste of money and material resources. My mother used to buy them until I broke it down for her. Those things used to cost her £1 and captured about half a lousy litre of water. An electric dehumidifier, although the capital cost is high, captures dozens of litres of water over the ~40 hours you can leave it running for £1. They're not even close.

Raveloe

A lot of good advice in this thread. In my experience there are two items of clothing that are particularly important:

• Neck gaiters which control the substantial heat losses from the neck area. They can be rolled down, extended to the full height of the neck or pulled over the head to cover the whole head and neck area. When you overheat, just take it off and put it in your pocket until you need it again. Shop around, some are colourful pricey designer items, some are low-cost practical kit at bargain prices in the sales at outdoor shops. This gaiter is available at Blacks.
  
• Lined trousers available from outdoor shops for winter walking. Despite the specification, nearly all of them are unremarkable in appearance and look much like any other smart casual trousers, so they are fine for daily wear. Like the neck, the knees are an area of particularly high heat loss and lined trousers can make a life-changing difference. In the sales there are usually steep reductions on lined trousers with the high-end items getting the biggest price cuts. Shops include Regatta, Blacks, Cotswold, Millets, Ellis Brigham, North Face, Mountain Warehouse and others.
  

PaulineSH

We are considering keeping our central heating quite low over winter, and purchasing a free standing infra red panel heater to use in the lounge. The available information describes infra red heat as heating objects/people instead of air. The drawback is you need to ensure there isn’t anything blocking the rays - just like the sun warming you when it’s shining on you but gets blocked when a cloud passes between the sun and yourself. We really want to see these before purchasing - see them demonstrated, get a ‘feel’ for them etc but they only seem to be available through online/mail order. Does anyone have experience of these or know where there is a showroom? Is there a reason they’re not widely known about? 

For us the initial cost will be around £200 for the size we would need but that would be recovered in a couple of months plus no heat being wasted in three unused bedrooms. Thoughts please.

SAC2334

looking at the expected price freeze rates , 35 p/kwh electric and 9.2 p kwh gas with the £400 October electricity grant staying , the pressure is a little off now and it looks like I will be able to have a reasonably warm house this winter . These rates are doable for me 
The extreme measure s that some are saying they will do are not necessary, so I m definitely not going to be sitting in a cold house 

. I ve already cut right back on electric use to under 4 p a kwh and will use a lot less gas than previous years . 
I normally don t even think twice about using my car for short daily journey s of say up to 6 miles but at £1.67 a gallon ,  20 p a mile over 6 miles I can heat my house for several hours  on the £1.20 I ve blown for a 15 minute journey .

So these sorts of pointless use of a 1.5 tonne car will be done on an old mountain bike I have spare plus I can get all my shopping with it too 

MrsCD

PaulineSH said:

We are considering keeping our central heating quite low over winter, and purchasing a free standing infra red panel heater to use in the lounge. The available information describes infra red heat as heating objects/people instead of air. The drawback is you need to ensure there isn’t anything blocking the rays - just like the sun warming you when it’s shining on you but gets blocked when a cloud passes between the sun and yourself. We really want to see these before purchasing - see them demonstrated, get a ‘feel’ for them etc but they only seem to be available through online/mail order. Does anyone have experience of these or know where there is a showroom? Is there a reason they’re not widely known about? 

For us the initial cost will be around £200 for the size we would need but that would be recovered in a couple of months plus no heat being wasted in three unused bedrooms. Thoughts please.

The only one I've ever seen is at our church hall. It keeps you warm but only when you're in front of it. If your CH is gas, would it not be cheaper than an electric heater? I don't know, as we're all electric and the unit price is usually higher than gas. Just wondering. Our dd bought an oil filled heater that she moves around the house with her when it's very cold.

PaulineSH

MrsCD said:

PaulineSH said:

We are considering keeping our central heating quite low over winter, and purchasing a free standing infra red panel heater to use in the lounge. The available information describes infra red heat as heating objects/people instead of air. The drawback is you need to ensure there isn’t anything blocking the rays - just like the sun warming you when it’s shining on you but gets blocked when a cloud passes between the sun and yourself. We really want to see these before purchasing - see them demonstrated, get a ‘feel’ for them etc but they only seem to be available through online/mail order. Does anyone have experience of these or know where there is a showroom? Is there a reason they’re not widely known about? 

For us the initial cost will be around £200 for the size we would need but that would be recovered in a couple of months plus no heat being wasted in three unused bedrooms. Thoughts please.

The only one I've ever seen is at our church hall. It keeps you warm but only when you're in front of it. If your CH is gas, would it not be cheaper than an electric heater? I don't know, as we're all electric and the unit price is usually higher than gas. Just wondering. Our dd bought an oil filled heater that she moves around the house with her when it's very cold.

MrsCD said:

PaulineSH said:

We are considering keeping our central heating quite low over winter, and purchasing a free standing infra red panel heater to use in the lounge. The available information describes infra red heat as heating objects/people instead of air. The drawback is you need to ensure there isn’t anything blocking the rays - just like the sun warming you when it’s shining on you but gets blocked when a cloud passes between the sun and yourself. We really want to see these before purchasing - see them demonstrated, get a ‘feel’ for them etc but they only seem to be available through online/mail order. Does anyone have experience of these or know where there is a showroom? Is there a reason they’re not widely known about? 

For us the initial cost will be around £200 for the size we would need but that would be recovered in a couple of months plus no heat being wasted in three unused bedrooms. Thoughts please.

The only one I've ever seen is at our church hall. It keeps you warm but only when you're in front of it. If your CH is gas, would it not be cheaper than an electric heater? I don't know, as we're all electric and the unit price is usually higher than gas. Just wondering. Our dd bought an oil filled heater that she moves around the house with her when it's very cold.

Thank you - we are all electric (no gas in village) and have an air source heat pump supplying our water filled rads.

MrsCD

Do your radiators have thermostats to turn down low in the unused rooms?  The oil filled radiator our dd bought was just under £100 from amazon and she swears by it. Her living room is open plan up her stairs so the heat disappears quickly, so she got hers to boost the heat downstairs, and in her spare room when she was working from home.

PaulineSH

No we don’t have rad stats but plan to turn whole system temperature down - don’t need it hot upstairs. We are also open plan so an oil filled heater would be wasted - all the hot air would disappear upstairs hence our interest in infra red to warm ‘the person’.

welshblob

PaulineSH said:

No we don’t have rad stats but plan to turn whole system temperature down - don’t need it hot upstairs. We are also open plan so an oil filled heater would be wasted - all the hot air would disappear upstairs hence our interest in infra red to warm ‘the person’.

You have to carefully look at the wattage of the panel and determine how long it will be on for to determine whether it's better than other methods. Just because it heats the person doesn't make it an efficient heating method when compared to other direct methods, e.g. heat pads or even indirect e.g. oil filled rads. I've seen direct ir heating working in large open spaces where it would be impossible to heat the space but they were very much like security lights / outdoor heaters but we're still rated at 1500 to 2000w which is the same as a convector or oil filled rad. 

LouGos

When I cook a meal in the oven, once the oven is turned off, I keep the oven door open so that any residual heat can help to warm the downstairs rooms.