Keeping warm

Having been born during the second World War ( yes I am ancient) I grew up without central heating, poor insulated housing, we had a coal fire and gas fires in the other rooms. The house was freezing in the morning but gradually became warmer during the day, I remember wearing cardigans but dont remember having to wrap up as people here are suggesting,I think we are spoilt having central heating and have forgotten how to cope with less warm houses.
There are so many good ideas about things to do before the coming winter, I agree I always turn everything off at the switch and have minimal things on at night, the only thing on is the fridge, oh and the display for the smart meter.
I am sure we will discover so many more things we can do to reduce costly bills during the winter and hopefuly we will have a mild winter.

Shandy57

As a 60's child my Dad constantly worried about the possibility of pipes 'bursting' in the winter - I should add he is an eccentric. We had a gas fire in the 'back' room, and an open fire in the front room. My Dad would rush around with bottles of paraffin for the fire in the bathroom plus one on the landing, and he would wedge open the loft hatch.

As a 64 year old adult I still have the fear of it happening, I know it's ridiculous. How cold does it have to be for pipes to freeze?

Water freezes at zero degrees celsius.

When I was a child we kept a very small paraffin lamp burning in the downstairs toilet that had no heating if frost was forcast.

Some people put salt in the toilet pan at night, as salt water freezes at about minus 4 degrees if I remember correctly.

Water pipes were lagged in Scotland in the days before central heating aka my childhood in the 1950s.

One little tip I picked up somewhere was to put my Lakeland clothes airer in the lounge. It doesn’t look pretty, but it’s made a big difference to the room temperature, as it does two jobs for the price of one. It will have gone up as the electricity prices do, but it did cost 3p per hour to run, a lot less than the central heating.

I agree with the OP, there is nothing wrong with needing to wear more clothes in the winter.
I really feel the heat and moved last year to a flat with a communal heating system. My old thermostat used to be set to 18-19 degress but here it is hard to keep the flat below 21 which really seems unnecessarily hot. Yet here our management company was inundated with questions about when the heating was going on for the winter!
It seems such a waste of power, particularly when gas prices are heading skyward, though I suspect that once you get used to a higher temperature it becomes "normal".
If everyone on our estate was converted to their own electric heating I suspect that they'd learn pretty fast to lower their thermostats. In the meantime the rest of us are subsidising their excessive heating.

Whilst I appreciate some people have no choice, the thought of going to bed wearing a hat and gloves, and wearing multiple layers during the day appals me. We have thermostats turned very low in unused rooms but leave the doors open to gain from hall heat. Timers are used, and sensible layers ie a cardigan and/or a thin thermal vest, and the heating is always off overnight as I can't stand a stuffy bedroom. When it gets chilly, I pop a hot water bottle in the bed, chiefly for my feet!

I also saw the interview. She said it was wrong that she had to wear a cardigan to keep warm I found this so strange I put a cardigan on or an extra pair of socks if I feel a bit cold...that is how I was brought up.

I love a warm long cardigan and thick socks during the day, as long as my feet are warm I'm happy. I have to have a hot water bottle in my bed for that reason, I don't like my bedroom being too warm and stuffy for sleeping. My heating is only on after teatime for a couple of hours and then I sit in warm PJ's with a throw over me while I'm watching TV or reading.

Because of health problems I keep the thermostat at 20.5 early morning & late evening unless very cold when I put it up to 21. If I still feel chilly then add more layers to the thermal t shirt & leggings under thick jumper, thick trousers & thick socks inside warm slippers. Cannot afford too high bills on top of everything else to pay for on pension income!

On the radio 4 this morning a lady was asked at what temperature did her heating switch on. She replied that it wasn’t regulated to the temperature outside but to the time of year, in her case October.

I control my heating with the thermostat on the landing. If I wake up feeling cold, I might turn it to 20 or I might just put on a thick fleece. I'd never keep it up at that temperature overnight. For a good night's sleep, I need a cool bedroom and a warm bed. Teenagers don't seem to feel the cold as we did at their age. My DGD used to cycle to school in blazer, skirt and ankle socks even in winter. I'd have been wearing a cardigan, blazer and top coat at that age!

I totally agree I thought her remark was ridiculous as I wear a cardigan both on summer evenings and in the winter. The thickness will vary and the addition of a blanket helps too. This is in a reasonably well heated house with no real problems about paying bills. I think the media find the people who make the most extreme and ridiculous remarks and use them to show on broadcasts. There are not many measured responses to media questions.

If you dress appropriately you don't need to turn up your heating put a cardigan on it's not hard

The problem is that DH and I have different body thermostats. He's always too warm and I'm always too cold. If I complain he tells me to put something warmer on, (I'm already wearing a thermal vest, jumper and scarf). "Feel my hands" I say. His are as warm as toast while mine are like blocks of ice. It's a well-known fact that men's body temperature is different from women's so I don't know how we answer the question as to what the temperature should be in the home.

Some of you know I've moved into a new bungalow, and I finally have a thermostat and central heating controls. At my old house the boiler was on or off with a spring/winter setting, and none of the radiator controls worked.

I've asked around a few friends and they keep their individual radiator controls at 5. One friend doesn't think her radiator controls work at all. I don't use the two front rooms, could I turn them down to the 'frost free' setting? If my thermostat is set at 18 degrees, does it mean the frost free setting radiators don't get much water?

Having poor circulation and Renalds disease and not very mobile I find that putting extra clothes doesn’t always work. However even though I keep the living room warm I only put on a heater on when I am in the kitchen and bathroom. Have no heating in the bedroom but have an electric blanket.
I remember before the days of central heating and insulation waking up with a frozen drip on the end of my nose and frozen patterns on the windows.
If we complained about cold hands Mum told us there was a bowl of hot water to do the washing up.
Re Liberty bodices when I was three in 1936 my dad put my liberty bodice on back to front whilst dressing me in order to take me into the bedroom to see my newly born sister. When I went to school my stockings were hooked on the liberty bodice buttons.

From the age of ten (1958), I let myself in after school, and had to light the paraffin heater!! Since my mother had started working, the coal fire hadn’t been used. I was the one who had to go to the shop to get the paraffin can filled, as well as doing all the shopping after school. The heater, only in one room, would have been on from when my father got up, then put off when my mother and I left for work and school. The one other room, where I slept, was never heated. Now, I live in a new build bungalow with underfloor heating. We were advised to leave the heating on 24/7. The bedrooms are set at 19deg, and in the five years I’ve been here, the temp has never dropped below that, so the heating doesn’t come on. If I have visitors, I heat the bathrooms for a short while. The living room is large and open plan with a lot of glass, and is set at 22 deg. It usually comes on during the night in winter. As 22 deg doesn’t seem to feel so warm in a large room, I always wear a cardigan or fleece in winter, and in the evening, usually resort to wearing an extra pair of (fleecy) socks with my trousers tucked into them. That heats my ankles and keeps my feet warm. My old botany wool cardigans and jumpers are the best. Glad I’ve kept them for twenty odd years!

Shandy57

Some of you know I've moved into a new bungalow, and I finally have a thermostat and central heating controls. At my old house the boiler was on or off with a spring/winter setting, and none of the radiator controls worked.

I've asked around a few friends and they keep their individual radiator controls at 5. One friend doesn't think her radiator controls work at all. I don't use the two front rooms, could I turn them down to the 'frost free' setting? If my thermostat is set at 18 degrees, does it mean the frost free setting radiators don't get much water?

Our bedroom one is set at frost free or 1 if the temperature plummets. Neither of us like a warm bedroom.

Why do radiators need venting every autumn?

I heard on the radio a woman stating that she refused to wear socks until October so therefore had switched on the central heating. It's almost beyond comprehension!

Hello Shandy, lovely to hear you are safely and cosily into your new bungalow! As to your questions, we leave the radiator thermostats in the guest bedrooms set at 1 and turn them up if the children are coming to stay, there is no risk or harm to the system by doing this. If you have a warm hall, it can be worthwhile leaving the doors of the unused rooms open as it airs, heats them and stops it being such a cold shock when you open them! That's what we do anyway and it works for us as we have a non draughty hall with a porch so effectively an internal hall. I hope you are settling in well and enjoying going out and buying stuff for your new home.

I see some of you have heating on overnight!!! Unheard of in my family . Why g the be heck would you want to heat the house when you’re in bed.

Guilty as charged. Otherwise I wake up with a freezing cold nose.

I can’t add anything new, but I also saw the lady on tv complaining about having to wear a cardigan and I was surprised as it’s normal in our house to get our thermal undies out as soon as we feel a chill in the air. We can afford to heat our home but I don’t like the house too hot plus as others have said we need to reduce our carbon footprint.

Thanks GillT57, how nice of you! I will turn down the unused rooms to 1, just in case they don't work on the 'freeze' setting, thank you.

Unfortunately no porch, but I do have a door curtain in the hallway and will leave the two doors ajar.

I have just been sticking bubble wrap to the windows in the extension. I was sceptical that it would stick with water, but it does!

With underfloor heating, controlled by thermostat, it’s during the night, when the temp drops, one degree below it’s setting, that the heating comes on. It very often doesn’t have to come on again that day. The theory is that by having it work like that, the heating isn’t required to work so hard as it would if it had to come on in the morning in a much colder house. So the experts say, anyway.

I follow the guideline of "Heat the person, not the room/house" until the weather gets really cold.

I asked about a heatpad on GN years ago as I badly feel the cold, and someone recommended an electric "gilet-type" thing which I bought from Amazon. It is absolutely brilliant, keeps me toasty warm while watching TV, I add a furry throw over my legs and voila! No heating on yet.