Lodger and Heating

stuhse

Realistically i have never had and would never have heating on in a bedroom over night, (i hate staying in hotels where this is the case, sleep is impossible it just so stuffy)  A t-shirt/jumper over your pyjamas/ thicker duvet extra blankets is all i have ever done. 

Emily_Joy

stuhse said:

Realistically i have never had and would never have heating on in a bedroom over night, (i hate staying in hotels where this is the case, sleep is impossible it just so stuffy)  A t-shirt/jumper over your pyjamas/ thicker duvet extra blankets is all i have ever done. 

If it stuffy, just open the window. 

Honeylife

Eldi_Dos said:

Honeylife said:

Woke up this morning and checked my phone.  A text message from my Lodger (at 2.40 am) asks if there is something wrong with the heating as her radiator is cold and her room is cold and she is cold.



 Usually, the lodgers who moan about being cold are overseas students from tropical regions.

Must say my sympathy is with the lodger as your mindset seems to be that lodgers complaining of the cold in the property are wrong, the most likely reason a text was sent at 02.40 was the vain hope it would be read and heating turned on so a nights sleep could be achieved and lodger able to function at their studies or employment in the morning.

Like other posters I wonder about nostalgic references as to how cold houses used to be, I imagine it is nostalgia for our youth rather than scrapping ice off the inside of windows in the bleak mid winter.

Um, I genuinely just wondered if other people were that cold last night. 

I never touch my phone in the middle of the night. I wouldn't text anyone at that time. So yes it was a hope in vain. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing fleece pyjamas, and bed socks plus using a hot water bottle for bed. However, if you want to go to bed semi-naked under a 4.5 tog duvet then you certainly will be uncomfortably cold.  

I repeatedly told this Lodger on arrival and in the weeks following, that this house can get cold because of the high ceilings and large rooms. She chose the room with a laminate floor. Her predecessor in that room was quite happy to wrap up and had a 13 tog duvet.

References to persons from tropical regions I have observed have a difficult time adjusting to wearing several layers and many don't own a fleece, cardigan or good sweater.  They dive into Primark and buy a 4 tog cheapo duvet under the impression that they are all the same warmth. 

My Norwegian and Russian lodgers were known to sleep with their windows open in the winter!  

Anyhow the resolution seems to be an Electric Blanket and she can get one herself.  However, this isn't much of a solution if she is up all night at the desk...guess she can wrap the electric blanket around her.

Albermarle

You could supply a small oil filled radiator for the coldest nights . The smallest ones are only 0.5KW on full power and will take the chill off a small bedroom. Although it would cost you maybe a Pound a night, assuming they did not leave it on all day as well.........

pumas

I have a duvet on the mattress, that makes a big difference. Is it going too far to suggest a sleeping bag?

Emily_Joy

Honeylife said:

Anyhow the resolution seems to be an Electric Blanket and she can get one herself.  However, this isn't much of a solution if she is up all night at the desk...guess she can wrap the electric blanket around her.

You can suggest an electric shawl. She can wrap in it if she is up at her desk, or she can put it under the bed sheet. 

Having said that, it is not going to help if she was cold because she just came back from the cold and the air inside was not warm enough to take that cold away.

sheramber

I am in Scotland and even when I lived in the far north, near John O'Groats  my heating never came on at night.

Temperature was  set to 15 degrees over night .

BUT
My DIL is Romanian. Romanians  turn their heating UP at night and find it odd that we turn our heating down at night.
 Their overnight temperature is 22 degrees. 

When they visit here at Christmas she wears a fleecy lounge suit to bed and has a down filled 15 tog duvet and an electric blanket on the bed.

Andyjflet

I have a fair bit of lodger experience, from my perspective I told him on viewing heating was on at 6am for one hour and then 6pm for two hours, set to 20 degrees and that was final. Also my min temp set by my Tado system was 16degrees but it never came on at night as it never got that cold. 

Other than laying out the parameters then what he or she does is up to her but they are your house rules, obviously it cant be unreasonable. 

Andyjflet

stuhse said:

When we were kids in the late 70s,early 80s there was no central heating in our house or double glazing. When you woke up in the mornings the condensation would be frozen on the inside of the windows. On cold winter evenings we would huddle around a candle to keep warm; if it was really cold, dad would let us light it.

stuhse said:

When we were kids in the late 70s,early 80s there was no central heating in our house or double glazing. When you woke up in the mornings the condensation would be frozen on the inside of the windows. On cold winter evenings we would huddle around a candle to keep warm; if it was really cold, dad would let us light it.

That's over 50 years ago now, not really relevant to today where someone renting a room should expect 2024 comforts in my opinion. 

bouicca21

I dont think anyone is being nostalgic about the unheated houses of the past, just pointing out that modern central heating makes it unlikely that OP’s lodger really is in an freezing cold room. It’s much more likely that she hasn’t expected to need a thicker duvet/warm pyjamas.  

Perhaps her own family, like a friend of mine, heats their home to 22/23 so that no one needs extra layers.  A min/max thermometer would soon sort out just how cold it is overnight.  I remember my own children arguing that it shouldn’t be necessary to add more layers to a short sleeve top in the winter.  Soon changed their tune when they moved out and had to pay their own bills.