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

Woolsery

[Deleted User] said:

True, but as with so much now, you're thrown in the deep end and you learn to adapt surprisingly, quickly - covid taught all of us that.

 Staying about 2m apart in public places and wearing a mask didn't strike me as terribly hard. Those running businesses and in management roles etc had to be inventive, but they're the sort of people who are generally adaptable. It's the more vulnerable who will be the ones to suffer this coming winter; it won't be those of us with solar panels, wood burners, rechargeable lights and good stashes of food, diesel, or whatever.

Silvertabby

Woolsery said:

Silvertabby said:

As a child of the 1950s, I was brought up in a house that only had one coal fire (when it was lit) for heating and (very limited) hot water.  We had ice on the insides of the bedroom windows, and dad would have to de-frost the outside loo before we could use it.

Yes, we survived - but I wouldn't wish that standard of living on anyone now.

It is one thing to be brought up within that environment, and quite different to be thrust into it without the skills for easier adaptation and the wherewithal to prepare.

On the other hand, it was unusual for elderly people to live on their own back then.

When grandad died (and it was almost always the husband who went first) and the widow couldn't afford to pay the rent etc from her meagre pension, granny would move in with a family member.  

spoovy

What always strikes me is the hypocrisy of the hipster media types who are so effusive about "green" concepts that still allow conspicuous consumption ("We just had solar panels fitted to our roof, oh I'll have the vegan option please, and have you seen my new Tesla by the way?") suddenly act like you've spat in their latte if you suggest they might want to put on an extra layer and you know, consume less energy.

deano2099

Sicard said:

I grew up in a house with no central heating. On cold evenings we'd have a coke fire, sometimes toasting crumpets. When we went to bed there was a parafin heater on the landing. None of the six of us perished. I think people were built a lot hardier then.

Statistically, more of them died, especially the older ones, which would suggest they weren't built as hardy...

deano2099

Wearing more layers has diminishing returns.
Honestly I'm sure the sportswear producers are already getting on with rebranding their winter base layers to sell to the general public as a cost saver. 
But the point of multiple layers is to trap body heat in as much as possible, when you reach five or six layers the impact is negligible (because not much body heat is reaching the gap between layer 5 and 6, and even where it does, heating up the area that far from your body is less useful). I'd say after the third layer it's more effective and more convenient to do a few minutes of exercise every hour, thus generating additional heat to be trapping in the first place. 

aoleks

damp, mould, babies... it's not always that simple.

Woolsery

aoleks said:

damp, mould, babies... it's not always that simple.

Ah, but like the lockdowns, it's only 'temporary.'

DRP

spoovy said:

What always strikes me is the hypocrisy of the hipster media types who are so effusive about "green" concepts that still allow conspicuous consumption ("We just had solar panels fitted to our roof, oh I'll have the vegan option please, and have you seen my new Tesla by the way?") suddenly act like you've spat in their latte if you suggest they might want to put on an extra layer and you know, consume less energy.

I'm sure you must know someone so offensively effusive, but this sort is largely a figment of daily express Commentator / Column writer's imagination.

Saving energy and being 'green' is so obviously common sense it's not really worth the discussion is it? 

B0bbyEwing

Sicard said:

I grew up in a house with no central heating. On cold evenings we'd have a coke fire, sometimes toasting crumpets. When we went to bed there was a parafin heater on the landing. None of the six of us perished. I think people were built a lot hardier then.

Agreed. Softly softly approach just makes for softy softy people.

Not as old or as young as some of you but I'm approaching 40 so I am what I am. Grew up in a single glazed house by water. 
Calor gas fire in the morning IF we could afford & then it was only a quick blast. 
Ice thick as you like on the inside of the windows.

You just sort of accepted it for what it was (flipping cold) and did the best you could do & that was that. You may or may have not been comfortable but you were what you were & if you'd done your best to keep warm then that's as good as it was going to get, the end.

The 16-25 ish year olds I work with are incredible. 12c outside and it's "freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing".

Did wonder about the OPs mention of 15c. If that's cold it makes me wonder what some people set theirs at. I think I'm going a bit high when I set mine to 18. 15 is fine.

Though I do wonder about not putting the heating on at all. Is that so good for the CH system long term?

Mistral001

When  I was going through the Credit Crunch, I could not afford to refill the central heating oil tank, so I had no central heating and the temperature in the house never got above 12 degrees all winter and sometimes it was below 5 degrees.  I used plenty of layers of clothing then, but the worst part was my feet an hands.  It was only practical to put on a maximum of two pairs of thick socks and when I wanted to use the computer, gloves were out of the question.  So, I think the 6 layers of clothing will work, but only up to a point.