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Living without central heating this winter?

Tempted to buy one of these to keep the heating bills down

Fullbody sleeping bag with arms and legs
Link please!
 
I have friend who doesn't heat in winter (or ever), I do worry about him when it gets cold and would gladly pay his energy bills but he's stubborn as a goat. His main tip is just to add extra layers to the bed as it get colder until you're sleeping under a thousand duvets, coats and what not. My tip is: don't do it, your friends will worry and you might die. Why not heat less instead? There's this great article on hot water bottles, some of the suggested uses are interesting. Lots of good info in the comments as well. Merino layers are also great if you can afford them.
 
I grew up in an old house with ancient sash windows, you could feel the draught coming through them. There was a radiator in every room, right below the sash windows but my dad hardly put on the heating because it was like setting fire to ten pound notes. We just wore more clothing in winter and had nice thick duvets to shelter under and occasionally a warm terrier to act as a hot water bottle.

There is something to be said for leaky sash windows though, I swear we never had colds, because we were acclimatised to the temperature.
 
Spoken like a man who won't have to apply for a mortgage, bank loan, car finance or even mobile phone contract in the next five years, or indeed worry about whether the heating and power to cook will work when you get home in a cold, wet November night...

Something needs to happen. I can pay these bills, but most can't. Leaving it to random families to take the lead, and the risks accociated, is not on.
Yeh people should suck it up
 
Before I had my thermal store put in the wood burning boiler stove could gravity feed all the upstairs radiators if there was a power cut.
I wish ours was that effective but we live in the 1st house of a 'row' of 12 and there's only really fields between us and the North sea just over a mile away :)
 
Joyous felicitations arrived in my inbox this morning...
View attachment 335825

Mine's gone up to a similar level, £240. And because the govt have changed the rules for the warm home discount I won't even be eligible for that this year because EDF are only giving it to the automatic group, ie pensioners.

Guess I should just stop having the chronic diseases I must have chosen to inflict on myself. Amazing how my strength of will can even make my joints visibly swell and change my blood tests, endoscopies, ECGs, x-rays and ultrasound scans! Bloody hell, I'm powerful.

If only I lived as healthy a life as you, GG.
 
So, it's a bit chilly. We haven't talked about this since the summer. Anyone got progress reports? I've turned on my heating but at a very low flow rate. Radiators currently feel tepid and I'm wearing long merino undies and USAF pilot's overtrousers, which are basically sleeping bags for the legs. I took note of the people upthread who said you don't mind the cold when you're active. I find that a bit of vigorous shoe-polishing after breakfast is a big help. I'm trying to get a proper mirror shine on my boots. It's more arduous than it sounds.
 
So, it's a bit chilly. We haven't talked about this since the summer. Anyone got progress reports? I've turned on my heating but at a very low flow rate. Radiators currently feel tepid and I'm wearing long merino undies and USAF pilot's overtrousers, which are basically sleeping bags for the legs. I took note of the people upthread who said you don't mind the cold when you're active. I find that a bit of vigorous shoe-polishing after breakfast is a big help. I'm trying to get a proper mirror shine on my boots. It's more arduous than it sounds.

To get a mirror shine you need Kiwi parade Gloss, a yellow duster, a small dish of water and a lot of patience.
 
Oh well, had two E-mails from Scottish power telling me that the £66.00 has been credited to the account. Not going to be good when that stops though.

Put the UN into the Ukraine.
 
So, it's a bit chilly. We haven't talked about this since the summer. Anyone got progress reports? I've turned on my heating but at a very low flow rate. Radiators currently feel tepid and I'm wearing long merino undies and USAF pilot's overtrousers, which are basically sleeping bags for the legs. I took note of the people upthread who said you don't mind the cold when you're active. I find that a bit of vigorous shoe-polishing after breakfast is a big help. I'm trying to get a proper mirror shine on my boots. It's more arduous than it sounds.

You started this thread too early, and it clearly got forgotten back in August. the usual annual 'Have you turned the heating on yet?' thread is discussing how people are coping is HERE.
 
Our gaff, which we've been renovating for a year and a half now, is designed to be heated by a hearth. It's an old lime morta 1820's built toll house which, if it's lived in the way it was built, should always have a source of heat centrally pushing out the elements. We have no double glazing, not allowed because its listed and it's drafty as fuck. The chimney runs up through the middle of the cottage and when it's working provides convectional heat through the walls of the chimney for every room except the living room.

Originally there was a big inglenook which we exposed when we moved in and installed the biggest wood-burning stove we could fit in the space. We have a stovax stockton 11 KW beast that has a stainless steel cook-plate on the top. Two fans on the stove push the hot air into the living room and that in turn goes up the stairs. Since I started the re-roofing and installed the king-span insulation the heat hangs around a lot better upstairs.

We put a full gas combi-boiler central heating system in and I laid underfloor heating in the kitchen and the living room but none of this is going on unless we have Narnia's grandchild here (The only time the heating has been on so far) or other cared about visitors. We've pretty much decamped from the living room to what we call the dining room but that really is just the main room with the burner in.

One of the things we've realised after all our modernisations was the earlier inhabitants of this place just sat round the fire and then got under the eiderdown to sleep. Last year I enjoyed coming down in the morning and feeling the warmth coming up from the underfloor heating now I just put my slippers on and think Fuck you Putin.

Pallet wood and the felling of a couple of overbearing trees last year will get me though the winter. I'm not making these cunts any richer.

Keep warm folks and if any of you get to the point where you need to warm your cotton socks...mi casa es su casa

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