No heating/ hot water, OS ways to cope

[Deleted User] · 22 January 2011 at 12:56PM

its suprising how enterprising you become without hot water .years ago ( 1979) I was in Malta with my brother and sis-in-law on holiday and in those days quite often the water would be cut off without warning.Malta has no rivers, or fresh water supply.everthing comes from the desalination plant.(tea at times tasted very odd)Well we came home from a day on the beach feeling hot and gritty and dying for a shower and off course there was no hot ,or even cold water.We were staying in a self catering flat at the time.My sis-in-law and I crept out with a bucket to the nearest big hotel and filled the bucket from their swimming pool.Took it back and boiled it up on the stove and managed with a bowl of ice cubes from the fridge to get enough warm water for a strip wash.then we just had to go to a local bar for a drink as there wasn't any water for a cuppa:):) Where there a will there's an inventive woman.Not the best wash in the world but when there isn't anything better at least we felt a bit fresher.by the time we got back to the flat it had been turned on again thank good ness.After that everytime we went out we would fill the bath up with water and every available pot and pan ,just in case it went off again. How friendly are you with your neighbours .I know when I had my kitchen redone and was without water one of my neighbours kindly let me use her shower in the morning and repeatedly filled my kettle for me.As to heaters I would also ask around and see what you can borrow for a short time.My central heating went on the blink a couple of years ago and my DDs rallied round with some heaters.Plus of course the standby hot water bottles and hats ,scarves and gloves.Dsoesn't matter what you look like just try to keep as warm as possible

Sassers · 22 January 2011 at 1:10PM

Hello there - I couldnt afford heating or hot water a couple of winters ago when I was on benefits - or much else come to that - so this is what I did....I brought a large mop bucket and took the sqeegee thing off the top. It took six kettles of hot water to fill and I'd put it in the bath and wash myself that way. Wet hair first, then shampoo, work way down body with one of those squeegee net things, then with the remaining water, tip it over my head to rinse off the shampoo.
Also just a thought, could you borrow a large catering tea urn from somewhere? That would help with a supply of hot water. I also scraped together enough money for a cheap electric blanket. I also put loads of clothes on my bed - besides the two duvets to keep warm...I wore many layers of clothing and fingerless gloves to keep warm. I ate value porridge to keep warm, 9p noodles and lots of toast because it was cheap. Something else I did to avoid using hot water was cook with tinfoil making them into pockets rather than dishes. Beans wrapped in tinfoil shaped like a pot...funny enough, Jamie Oliver used to do this for his wife, put the food in a foil parcel when she got home late from work so she could just chuck it in the oven and bung the foil. I also ate off paper plates brought from the £1 shop but ditched it as it was expensive and not as cheap as washing a plate in cold water. Thinking back, I'd say having hot water was the most precious thing to me at the time...I used to wash my clothes in a bath of cold water with bio powder too.
They were tough times....but I coped with it.
Good luck to you and I hope the situation improves soon
Lots of hugs
Sassers

lilian1977 · 22 January 2011 at 1:14PM

When this happened to us I was only washing my hair with water, the rest of my "shower" was done with baby wipes - is this an option for you? Won't warm you up but it should save on boiling kettles constantly.

Sassers · 22 January 2011 at 1:25PM

...it was boiling kettles constantly that got on my nerves TBH...

Carnaby_lamb · 1 February 2011 at 9:29PM

Use hairdryers as heaters.
You can even buy a cheap one for like a fiver nowadays.

Put a duvet/blanket under your sheet. You'd be amazed how much heat your mattress can absorb.

Also just general curtains in front of doors and try making your own draft excluders to rooms you don't use.

I live in a student house (so no insulation) and 9ft tall ceilings and our heating was off the other week.

But good luck, tea will help

computerfixer · 2 February 2011 at 10:10AM

As yourself and others have mentioned, try to just heat the one room and move ofter used kitchen items into that room to save opening door too much.

A great way to help stop heat loss when having to open door is to put heavy curtains accross door and slither out through it or if door opens inwards construst a wee triangular 'portal' using big duvet or curtains and the two walls if door is on a corner as this will help prevent a big gust of heat escaping.

In any case, I hope you get your boiler back on soon and hope my input helps you a wee bit.

Alll the best x Joe.

jcr16 · 2 February 2011 at 11:04AM

might be a bit gloomy but i'd say keep all your curtains closes. so much heat is lost through windows even when you don't have heating on, it amazing how much warmer house stays with cloesed curtain.

also in the evening light a couple of candle. they don't give off much heat, but they make you feel cozy with makes you feel warmer.

Catwoman103 · 2 February 2011 at 11:12AM

Go out!

Libraries are warm and free, other places too.

I've been digging over my garden ready for planting vegetables which warms you up nicely and the house feels amazingly warm when you come back inside.

Hope everything is fixed soon though.

Jolaaled · 2 February 2011 at 11:27AM

My kitchen is usually freezing...I often light a 4-wick candle and find it does give off a surprising amount of heat and can warm the space up quite well.

born_blonde · 2 February 2011 at 11:48AM

Camping showers designed to heat up in the sun can easily be filled with a kettle full of hot water and topped up with cold. Providing you have somewhere to hang it they give a satisfactory shower.
Good luck our combination boiler works when it feels like it so we are more often without than with but as it is an intermittent fault it is a devil to fix!

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No heating/ hot water, OS ways to cope

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