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

maisie_cat

deano2099 said:

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. 

Correct, 5 or 6 layers is verging on the ridiculous, we've gone a few winters without central heating and I find that a t shirt, then long sleeved base layer then a fleecy loose top is sufficient and for the legs mostly just a pair of leggings or jogging bottoms. We did have extreme cold once and I wore a down jacket and fleece hat indoors for a day.
You are probably right about technical outdoor clothing manufacturers rebranding but the stuff is expensive for long term use and most people will go for cheaper options. My merino base layers were bought in 2005 and have a few holes but still work.

theoldmiser

JuzaMum said:

My daughter is autistic and struggles hugely with the feel of clothes on her skin. Layering creates more sensation which distresses her more. She has also been hospitalised due to breathing problems due to asthma with seasonal colds. I have the house heated in winter much more than the rest of the family needs. Layering up is not practical for us all

But it IS practical for 99% of people. I was waiting for somebody to come up with a comment like yours. My original comment wasn't directed at you personally, it was just general advice to help people, because the mainstream media, as I stated in my original post, never suggests wearing five or six layers of clothes indoors. I am talking about a shirt, two or three very thin jumpers, then two fleece jumpers, and maybe a thick cardigan if I can get it on, and long Johns, skin tight tracksuit bottoms, and normal tracksuit bottoms. It is merely a suggestion, why are some people taking a mere idea so hard? We had no central heating when I was a child, just a coal fire in the living room, that was it, and we didn't have duvets, only a sheet a couple of thin blankets, and there was frost on the window when I woke up in the Winter. We wore more clothes indoors when it was cold, why are so many people nowadays afraid to do that?

theoldmiser

tteedd said:

It is good to see that nobody on here gets accused of being hard hearted or worse just for reminding people that they can live without central heating.

You've heard this story already from others but I can confirm that my parents house was unheated most days in the winter. We were not hard-up but that was the way most people lived in the 50s. We put the boiler on for hot water every evening and only had a fire in the dining room when there was snow on the ground or ice on the windows.

On some boards, if you suggest that if you are young and healthy and you cannot afford the heating, you turn it off you are the devil incarnate.

Hear, hear. It's perfectly possible to keep lovely and warm if you are indoors, if you wear enough clothes. If I walk up the stairs a couple of times, I get incredibly hot, when I've got my full 'get up' on. And I agree with the poster who said it's a fag having to put it all on in the morning, and take it all off at night, but it's a much more sensible way of living than wasting huge amounts of money on unnecessary heat.

theoldmiser

DRP said:

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. 

I expect that a lot of elderly people don't do what I have suggested. I can't see how turning off your heating can be largely pointless because of the standing charge, it would have to be the cost of 10Kw/h of electricity or gas to make it pointless turning off the heating, and even then you're still going to pay more if you do.

deano2099

theoldmiser said:

JuzaMum said:

My daughter is autistic and struggles hugely with the feel of clothes on her skin. Layering creates more sensation which distresses her more. She has also been hospitalised due to breathing problems due to asthma with seasonal colds. I have the house heated in winter much more than the rest of the family needs. Layering up is not practical for us all

But it IS practical for 99% of people. I was waiting for somebody to come up with a comment like yours. My original comment wasn't directed at you personally, it was just general advice to help people, because the mainstream media, as I stated in my original post, never suggests wearing five or six layers of clothes indoors. I am talking about a shirt, two or three very thin jumpers, then two fleece jumpers, and maybe a thick cardigan if I can get it on, and long Johns, skin tight tracksuit bottoms, and normal tracksuit bottoms. It is merely a suggestion, why are some people taking a mere idea so hard? We had no central heating when I was a child, just a coal fire in the living room, that was it, and we didn't have duvets, only a sheet a couple of thin blankets, and there was frost on the window when I woke up in the Winter. We wore more clothes indoors when it was cold, why are so many people nowadays afraid to do that?

Do your hands and face not get cold? I know one can wear big gloves but that limits the use of your hands and so makes certain activities impractical, including typing (for work), reading a book, video games, etc.

Ultimately heating the rest of the body doesn't help much if your hands are painfully cold, as that's the main sensation your brain will process.

I do agree more generally: wear a few layers, knock the heating down a couple of degrees is good advice and not advice often given. But leaving the heating off entirely and wearing six layers isn't really practical if you want to actually do anything other than sit on the sofa and watch TV.

Bendy_House

theoldmiser said:

I am talking about a shirt, two or three very thin jumpers, then two fleece jumpers, and maybe a thick cardigan if I can get it on, and long Johns, skin tight tracksuit bottoms, and normal tracksuit bottoms.

I tried that once, and then I fell over.

Seriously? All these layers? How ludicrously uncomfortable. What have we become...

I could go all political - but MSE would give me another holiday

Lawdie.

Eldi_Dos

Think I tend to agree, life is for living not enduring.

goodwithsaving

OP you might want to live that way, but I certainly don't want to live like that. Additionally, when outside people are generally more mobile and less sedentary, so of course they're not going to "drop dead from the cold". 
I want to live and be comfortably warm in a normal number of clothes, not immobile due to having too many layers on. .

twopenny

It's not how much you wear but the fabric.
Modern fleece is really warm and with fleecy slippers you do stay warm as long as you are fit enough to be active.
Having grown up with just a fire in one room I've gone without more just an electric blanket when saving for a super dooper holiday. But you do have to make a dash when you want a cup of tea and just handling cold mugs you have to warm up.

But there's a difference if it's out of worry and you need tanks and pipes lagged throughly - which people used to be more conscious of.

The biggest problem these days is people being sent home from hospital early, those disabled and immobile or running treatment machines at home. Medicine has meant that far more people are surviving well with serious disabilities but they need warmth and functioning machines.
An extra fleece won't run an electric wheelchair or mobility scooter.

[Deleted User]

I am going to heat the house as normal and pay the bill. I’m not walking round the house wearing 3 weeks worth of clothing at the same time. What about if I have visitors, I would look ridiculous. They would ask me if the boilers broken.