Keep warm in the winter by wearing five or six layers of clothes indoors

maisie_cat

In the last 15 years we've had 4 winter periods without heating. In all cases the use of merino base layer plus ordinary clothes was sufficient most of the time, although I did once spend a week wearing a duvet jacket in the house.
Here we have the thermostat set to 15 and wear layers and fleecy leggings  most of the winter, I hate socks and my big toe is a good indicator of whether I need to light the stove or put something on my feet.
We are in and out all day here so coming into a cool house feels warm in winter, boiling in my case. We have 2 duvets on the bed, both 4 tog and leave the windows open,  it rarely gets cold enough to affect sleep, I'm mostly too hot thanks to the menopause.
We eat lots of soup and one pot meals made early and left to cheaply slow cook so there is always something warm to eat.

But we are healthy nearly 60 somethings and my in laws are 80s, MIL is very frail so they have the house set to 28 degrees, and do not like wearing layers of clothing.
As you'd expect they are quite traditional food wise as well, having pie in the oven most days and using the tumble dryer constantly because a washing line looks untidy in the pristine garden. I have managed to persuade them to use all 3 layers of the steamer rather than 3 separate pans for potatoes and veg but other than that I'm struggling to help them reduce frankly obscene energy bills
We consume 14000kWh in energy, in laws consume 25500kWh in similar houses EPC wise.

DRP

Thermal leggings and a scarf has got me through the last couple winters working from home (2 layers). 

Regardless of the good old days stories of no heating and we just got on with it, cold houses means lots of illness and mortality, especially amongst the elderly. 

Hopefully govt will come up with some sort of plan to support the most vulnerable. I think the fact that standing charges are going up significantly  means that turning  off your heating is largely pointless: even if you never turn on your boiler, your bills will be massive. The Standing charge disincentivises energy saving. 

wilson1972

TELLIT01 said:

I'm of an age where, as a child, the only heating in the house was the open fire in the living room.  At night, an extra blanket was put on the bed when it got cold.  I'm not suggesting they were good old days, but they were days when people adapted rather than expecting the world to adapt to them.  theoldmiser is taking things to extremes in their examples, but wearing an extra layer in the house is not an unrealistic suggestion.

I have seen a few posts where people talk about the 'old days' where houses were a lot colder

What rarely seems to be mentioned is that winter excess deaths were also far higher.

As for the main topic, its a big discussion in my house with regards to set the thermostat. The prices rises are a huge concern and we will be using layers.

sevenhills

It's always good advice to wear more clothing to keep warm, but I understand more elderly people die in cold weather, perhaps only a small number.
I wouldn't cope in bed without my electric blanket, I can suffer more cramps if it's cold.

Woolsery

wilson1972 said:

TELLIT01 said:

I'm of an age where, as a child, the only heating in the house was the open fire in the living room.  At night, an extra blanket was put on the bed when it got cold.  I'm not suggesting they were good old days, but they were days when people adapted rather than expecting the world to adapt to them.  theoldmiser is taking things to extremes in their examples, but wearing an extra layer in the house is not an unrealistic suggestion.

I have seen a few posts where people talk about the 'old days' where houses were a lot colder

What rarely seems to be mentioned is that winter excess deaths were also far higher.

Excess deaths are currently running at 1400 a week and it's summer. It's happening throughout much of the developed world, though not so much in places like Bulgaria.

Perhaps we should move to Bulgaria, or maybe it would be sensible to look into the matter further to see if there's a correlation between this sudden rise and anything else that has happened since the stats began to change?

DRP

Woolsery said:

wilson1972 said:

TELLIT01 said:

I'm of an age where, as a child, the only heating in the house was the open fire in the living room.  At night, an extra blanket was put on the bed when it got cold.  I'm not suggesting they were good old days, but they were days when people adapted rather than expecting the world to adapt to them.  theoldmiser is taking things to extremes in their examples, but wearing an extra layer in the house is not an unrealistic suggestion.

I have seen a few posts where people talk about the 'old days' where houses were a lot colder

What rarely seems to be mentioned is that winter excess deaths were also far higher.

Excess deaths are currently running at 1400 a week and it's summer. It's happening throughout much of the developed world, though not so much in places like Bulgaria.

Perhaps we should move to Bulgaria, or maybe it would be sensible to look into the matter further to see if there's a correlation between this sudden rise and anything else that has happened since the stats began to change?

Covid19 plus nhs issues. See the great work by Jon Burns Murdoch recently in the FT. 

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1562004612172873728?s=21&t=B1ORweID1gcA9VRLYP1ztQ

Woolsery

DRP said:

Woolsery said:

wilson1972 said:

TELLIT01 said:

I'm of an age where, as a child, the only heating in the house was the open fire in the living room.  At night, an extra blanket was put on the bed when it got cold.  I'm not suggesting they were good old days, but they were days when people adapted rather than expecting the world to adapt to them.  theoldmiser is taking things to extremes in their examples, but wearing an extra layer in the house is not an unrealistic suggestion.

I have seen a few posts where people talk about the 'old days' where houses were a lot colder

What rarely seems to be mentioned is that winter excess deaths were also far higher.

Excess deaths are currently running at 1400 a week and it's summer. It's happening throughout much of the developed world, though not so much in places like Bulgaria.

Perhaps we should move to Bulgaria, or maybe it would be sensible to look into the matter further to see if there's a correlation between this sudden rise and anything else that has happened since the stats began to change?

Covid19 plus nhs issues. See the great work by Jon Burns Murdoch recently in the FT. 

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1562004612172873728?s=21&t=B1ORweID1gcA9VRLYP1ztQ

Impressive. So the NHS is broken and all that banging saucepans was in vain.

No doubt Mr Burns Murdoch will have something to say about the falling birth rates too in due course. He seems like a very useful fellow.

Torry_Quine

If people choose to wear lots of layers then fine. However it's ridiculous that some will have to as they can't afford to heat their home satisfactorily.

DRP

Sorry , I don’t see the connection 👍🏽

plumb1_2

kipsterno1 said:

TELLIT01 said:

I'm of an age where, as a child, the only heating in the house was the open fire in the living room.  At night, an extra blanket was put on the bed when it got cold. 

Did that extra blanket have two sleeves, shiny buttons and spend the rest of the year wrapped around the hot water tank? The good old ex army greatcoat 😂

Ours did, my dads demob coat,