Chicken picking at feet

[chickencam]

We have our heating on from 6.30am until 9.30am in the morning but the thermostat is only set at about 16 degrees. It comes on again at 4.30pm when the children are all home from school and is timed until 10.30pm but I usually turn it off at about 7.30 because non of like warm bedrooms when we are in bed. We all have Beddy Bears

 

We light the woodburner at about 4pm during the week and usually have it lit most of the day at weekends. The lounge is usually about 24 degrees when the woodburner is going well and the door is closed

[Chillicat]

OMG

My heating is on all the time from mid Oct to whenever

Between 18 and 21 degrees..........bbbrrrrrrr.......don't do cold!

[Egluntyne]

I much prefer the house to be cool. We live in an old barn of a place, and because Him Indoors prefers to wander about in shirt sleeves instead of putting a jumper on, our last gas bill was a few pence short of a grand! Ludicrous.

 

I turn the thermostat down every time I pass it. He turns it back up every time he passes it

 

When our boiler broke down at New Year, we managed perfectly well with the coal fires, though I admit that the bathroom was a tad chilly! I longed for the little paraffin stove we had when I was growing up.

 

Bring back Jack Frost patterns on the inside of the windows!

 

Put a vest on and wear fingerless gloves!

[Omletina Kyckling]

Put a vest on and wear fingerless gloves!

 

Indeed, I have fingerless thinsulate gloves which I wear about the place, thermal vest, sweater and a fleece! Our gas bill last year, pre-increases was about £500 - our house is 3 storeys with big rooms and because we are listed, mainly single glazed windows - now that hubby has been out of work since November, we only have my incapacity benefit to live off which doesn't even cover the council tax, water and electricity bill!! I can't have the worry of a large gas bill! We have a lot of wood (bought about 5 tons of timber from the forestry commission) so keep the fires lit downstairs. This house managed more than 200 years without any heating other than fires, before central heating came in and it is still pretty robust so I don't think that not running the heating is going to harm it!!

 

I have a small electric fan heater which I use in the bathroom if I want a shower, so can get that lovely and cosy.

 

I'm a big fan of fleecey blankets, and love to snuggle down to watch TV!!

 

When I visit neighbours, I find their heating suffocating (they are older and have the thermostat set quite high) and I think I only got a cold/chest infection after a weekend away in a hot house, when all the germs got their chance to breed!!

 

Anyway, hubby has now lit the fire so I'm going to toast my toes now!

[Chicken Licken]

My heating comes on from 0600 to 0830 in the morning and then comes on from 1630 to 2130 in the evening. I live in an old terraced house with solid walls and not as much loft insulation as I would like. When I am home at weekends etc I light the rayburn in the kitchen (50+ and going strong) and the open fire in the living room. The central heating will reach about 16C but with the rayburn and the fire lit the house is toasty. I like the fact that the Taybrite I burn on the Rayburn is paid for in advance and the gas bill then has no hidden surprises. For wood I am burning most of an old elder tree that was on the boundary of my allotment. I couldn't live at 5C - I too have reynauds and my hands and feet are quite disabling if they get too cold.

[Ms Marple]

I too am with the warm brigade. we live in a Victorian barn of a place spread over 3 floors. the kitchen is where you might deem the cellar to have been. It has radiators and the aga. we only use the aga although we did have the rads on when it was minus 5. As to the rest of the house, the rooms not in regular use are not heated. We now have a great wood burning stove in the main lounge and tend to leave the door open if we are not in there to let the heat circulate - hence only one rad on in the hall (out of three). Bedrooms cooler except for that of YS as he likes to hang out in there and work etc. Heating comes on for two hours am 5.30 - 7.30 and form 4 - 10 in evenings. Sat here now with extra socks and jumper, OH in tshirt!!! Electric blanket is on and I am heading that WAY VERY SOON!! Heating bill is significant. Would consider another woodburning stove in one of the downstairs rooms in future. Don't like to be as hot as my parents but 5C, as already said - fridge temp. 200 years ago did they not have more open fires stoked by the maids etc??

 

We knew the bills would be large here but we love the house. As a child of the sixties I remember getting dressed in front of the cooker or open fire, but then we went to live in South Afirca when I was 7 so central heating not needed and so powercuts and the rest I mananged to miss.