Energy costs, the way we were, and how we might cope today.

Yep, agree, same here, brought up with just one coal fire. But as a family of 6 we were healthy and could cope with that.

I saw one poor lady on TV ( BBC news) yesterday with a disease that is killing her and she is now in a wheelchair.

She cannot keep herself warm due to her illness.

Her husband's salary will not increase but they have to spend twice as much on heating now.

Felt really really sad for her, she wasn't ranting and raving, was not demanding benefits, was just presenting the facts.

Wonderfully, an email went through to the studio during the article, which was read out at the end. A man had said not to worry, he would be in touch and would cover her bills.

I too grew up with no CH with just a coal fire in the living room. I can’t stand being too warm. I find both my sons homes far too hot and have to keep nipping out for air. Their families sit around in t shirts and dress similarly when they visit and complain they’re cold turning up the thermostat. Since the price rises I’ve told them to wear jumpers because the thermostat is staying put at my level

My dad was a miner too! We got a ton of coal for 7/6d but you had to shovel it yourself from the outside entrance yourself into the coal shed. But my goodness it was cold.

I doubt it was healthier to live in the cold houses of our childhood. Many of them were damp as well as cold. My father's waiting - room resounded all winter to the coughs, sneezes and snuffles of patients with colds!

He saw a lot of bronchitis too, but all right some of the sufferers had been gassed in the first World War and weren't just suffering from cold rooms.

My sister's godmother had chillblains on her hands and feet from November till May, working as she did in a draper's shop that only had a very small open coal fire in the back shop and no heating in the shop itself - plus a communal W.C. in the close that was open (the close , not the communal amenity) to both the street and the back yard.

But a lot of people are not going to have a choice, are they?

Or rather, let me rephrase that. Of course, they have a choice - keep warm and bankrupt yourself paying the heating and electricity bills, or keep warm and eat the bare and cheapest minimum to stay alive, or turn down the heating, stop airing the rooms " to keep the heat in" - remember that phrase?

Bundle yourself up in layers and layers of clothing and remember to buy an old fashioned hot water bottle or three because you can't afford an electric blanket any more.

And try to enjoy re-visiting the conditions of your early childhood at a time of life where you can no longer run three times round the garden to warm yourself up!

I spent a couple of hours at the weekend making draught excluders to go behind various doors and both me and my DH were amazed at the difference it has made. We have also done an "audit" of which radiators we really don't need to have on and turned these off (why have a radiator AND a heated towel rail on in a small bathroom?). If you came into our hallway you would think we were freezing but I really can't see the point in heating a room that we are basically only walking through to get to other rooms/upstairs.

I am lucky enough to have always lived in houses with central heating except in the mid eighties and shared a student house. They were cold, snowy winters too but we soon got used to it by wearing extra layers. I try to keep the heating to just over 20 but I do feel the cold and my music room, where I spend many of my waking and working hours, is a converted garage and always cold so I have a small fan heater in there. However, I do wear plenty of layers and today, where the outside temperature has hardly crept above zero, I have a thermal vest, wool polo neck jumper and a gilet on top and tights and socks under my trousers. I often wear a cardigan in bed and like a hot water bottle as l don’t like to keep the heating on overnight or l get headaches.

Oh, and granmariel, we have a draught excluder at the front door. It really does make a lot of difference.

I'm disabled, live alone and haven't turned my heating on at all this winter.
I've still got my summer duvet on the bed.
If I get a bit chilly I'll put a jumper on or grab a throw.
I use very little in the way of gas and electricity but when I switched to a new fixed rate in July (well before all these price hikes properly hit the country), it was almost double what it was before, so I have to watch how much power I use.

harmonypuss How I envy you not feeling the cold, although if you are over 70, I would be inclined to obey the advice that says keep your house, or the part you are in heated to a minimum of 18 degrees. Just because you do not feel the cold, does not necessarily mean it is not doing you harm.

I also grew up in a house where there was ice on the inside of the windows in winter and only a gas fire in the living room. My mother did put a small paraffin heater in the bathroom as she worried about pipes freezing, but it stank the house out. I still live in the same house - but fortunately now we have the luxury of double glazing and central heating. However, we only use the central heating when absolutely necessary - we have a log burning stove in the living room now which keeps that room toasty. Our energy company wants to put our payments up from £72 to £110, which I think is extortionate, but looking at what some others pay, I realise we must be on the frugal side! I'm sitting here freezing right now but I refuse to put the heating on until night time!

I see no reason to stint on heat if you can afford the bills. We cannot take it with us when we go.

Our heating goes on and off at set hours and heats the house to a set temperature, we do not waste time constantly fiddling with the thermostat. On cold days like today we light the wood burner for a boost.

WE pay our bills quarterly so never have to argue or fight about what any monthly payments should be.

I was bought up in the fifties when the only heating we had was a coal fire. Later this was replaced by a gas fire. As a child we had a paraffin stove in the bedroom I shared with my sister and a wall fitted overhead electric heater in the bathroom. I too remember ice on the inside of the windows. Central heating and double glazing were not fitted in the flat I was living in until 1985.

We too had one coal fire and tin bath nights! Ice inside windows, sitting blowing breath clouds! Then we had new build but warm air heating only downstairs. Then the whole hog.with one house with no Insulation etc built 1974! Fffffreeeeezing and rotten central heating we couldn't afford to use! So #1DS had little matinee jacket over cardi and babygro with bootees too just to be warm in cot with pure wool honeycomb blankets!! He was warm as toast but room very cool but mum said was good to be cool in baby room?!. Nowadays everyone appears to sit with hardly any clothes on!! Vest tees shorts bare feet! My young neighbour has opened door dressed like she's on beach in snow conditions once and I actually forgot what I'd called for in my shock! Why must their bills be like? We're lucky our house is really warm and ok to heat but we are quite often in 100% wool sweaters layered with legwarmers(trendy) and currently writing this wearing wrist socks to ease flared arthritis in current cold snap! True that folks spoiled and soft now. Resulting in over use of fuel high prices and others less fortunate paying dearly for the privileged

Energy price increases are undoubtedly affecting us all and at varying degrees. These days we are home far more than when we worked so we expected to pay more... But we have taken to going for a walk each afternoon when the house has felt chilly instead of sitting reading a book.
I cant imagine how hard it is for those who have issues with health or mobility and my heart goes out to them .
I would encourage movement as a good technique for warming up if at all possible. Even arm raises or stretches. Good for the heart and mind.

used to work as an usherette in a cinema. older people used to come in in the afternoon and stay until teatime to keep warm. We knew the regulars and askes about them if they didnt come. Some pensioners came most days but probably wouldnt be able to afford it now.-

We to only had 1 fire and also got ice on windows inside even the cat would crawl under the blankets etc to keep warm I keep my electric blanket on at night as I have polymyagia

I can remember ice on the inside of my bedroom window and, during the winter of 1962/3 my bedroom walls had ice on them too. I remember my mother being very worried about this and putting in an electric fire for me to use. Two friends shared digs in Oxford and one of them was given a bunch of tulips by her then boyfriend, later husband, and the water froze in the vase!! It was a dreadful winter,but aged 20, I can't remember being particularly phased by it, I think my parents were, but then when you're young things don't seem anything like as bad as when you're old, as I now am!

Mistyfluff8
I too have Polymyalgia rheumatica. How long have you had it and are you on steroids for it? I'm on Prednisolone and have been on it for the last 18 months. Although I have had both my covid vaccinations and the booster, I have no antibodies because of the steroids! This means that I need to be extra careful not to catch covid. No parties for me, I'm afraid!

It was certainly NOT a good idea to sell all our essential utilities to foreign nations, especially now in the context of Brexit.

When I was a child . Not only was our only sort of heat was the coal fire in the living room but very often my parents couldn’t afford the coal for it . They would buy a bag of coal each weekend but even though the fire was just lit of an evening , the coal wouldn’t last a full week . My parents used to burn anything that they could find . Old shoes/ boots , logs from around the neighbourhood, even potato peelings !
We weren’t really bothered by it and we were all very healthy and didn’t come to any harm . I admit I do like to be warm but our hose is usually too warm for me now . I live with my DD and her family and she likes heat. She has the temperature set at 23 degrees , which is far too hot for me . As soon as the family are out at work I tur the heating off . I also have the radiator turned off in my bedroom at all times . At least when the heating in the house is going full blast I can retreat to my freezing cold bedroom

I agree with Rosina, we grew up with only one coal fire in the living room. A geezer for washing, coats on beds in the depths of winter, ice inside the windows. I look back and my mum managed with a lot of very hard work, seven children and 3 bedrooms. We are all very healthy in our 70s

jaberwok, I remember that winter, the pipes in the outside toilet used to freeze and we all walked to school, through deep snow. We all, most children, had very cold feet and wet socks, none of us had boots. The wet socks stayed on all day

I suspect if we are all healthy now, it has more to do with wartime rationing and the extra milk etc for children.

This egalitarian policy gave many poorer families better diets than ever before bcause they could now afford, meat and cheese.

Am I the only person who had chilblains. I seem to remember them as being endemic among my class mates at school.

My house is very cold just now. It is, a big barn conversion with double height glazing and large open plan spaces. Glorious on sunny days but cold now. My boiler has died and I now nearing week three of no hot water or heating apart from a woodburning stove in a very large ten metre long room. I also have one of those oversized fleecy hoodie and an electric fleece blanket - bliss. I have a plug in oil heater that goes on in the shower room to warm it up before I perform my complicated jug shower! Still waiting to hear back about the new (and no doubt costly) boiler. I have always had a quite cool house as my late husband hated heating but even I am finding this a bit much esp the lack off hot water. I have a friend who has her heating on all the time and her teenagers wear strappy tops all year round. I dread to think what her fuel bills will be.

MerylStreep

Nexus
£100 per month is a lot of money for what your using. Is there a reason you have to use a keycard.

i use a keycard as i prefer to know how much i am using, i live on benefits so panic at the thought of a bill coming in, mine is also high as i am in the house 24/7.