• cRazi_man@europe.pub
    11·
    6 days ago

    From the winter when I had practically no heating at all:

    • thermal base layer (fleece lined compression thermals meant for outdoor exercise, top + leggings). I kept this on at all times and it kept me super warm through the depths of winter. Also super warm thermal socks.

    • electric blanket. Once you’re going to be sedentary after dinner on the sofa, then this can make you unbearably hot and costs almost nothing to run.

    • the kitchen gets heated slightly by cooking appliances and this is a good place to hang out.

  • manualoverride@lemmy.world
    6·
    6 days ago

    We just looked at the thermostat and it is 16.1C, blanket day for us, and we’re closing all the curtains on the north side of the house to keep the heat in a bit better. We’ve also got a curtain behind the front door to insulate the hallway a bit.

  • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@feddit.ukEnglish
    6·
    6 days ago

    Only running my heat for an hour at wake-up and bedtime (and on special occasions), and we all basically live in our oodies.

    I might do a pot of bone broth and see how I like having that as a warmer versus too much tea or coffee, which is my usual M.O.

  • WALLACE@feddit.uk
    4·
    6 days ago

    The same thing I do every year. Wonder how on earth I can insulate this house better when I’ve done all of the usual stuff and it hasn’t helped. Cavity wall insulation, double glazing, loft insulation, draft-proofing, new boiler. All done yet the boiler has to operate almost continuously just to keep the house at 18 degrees. Need one of those infrared cameras to spot the problem I think.

    • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      6 days ago

      Hope you have a smart thermostat and smart radiator valves, and close doors between rooms. It’ll only have the boiler on when rooms need it, and unused rooms can be left at 10 or 12 degrees until you need them.

      Heating a whole house to 18 degrees isn’t efficient, but also this may help you isolate the problem if you find that with certain rooms closed off you’re not losing heat in the same way.

      Edit: also if you have UPVC doors, they have a summer and winter setting. The summer setting leaves an air gap to allow better airflow out for ventilation, but obviously that’s the worst idea in winter. I adjust my doors with each season - there are YouTube videos on how to do it. It’s literally just turning an alan key to loosen the lock gap.

    • Bluesheep@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      6 days ago

      If you have a tool library or makerspace nearby they might have one you could borrow. The IR cameras are not cheap!

  • finitebanjo@piefed.worldEnglish
    51·
    6 days ago

    When I was much younger, I once lived in a not properly insulated 2 room built at the back of some dude’s heavy equipment garage for about a year in the great planes at the 47 latitude line. -30F some days. I slept on one blanket and placed two more over the top of my head. Wore 3 shirts most days. Drank almost exclusively hot tea.

    TBH it was pretty cozy at times. I definitely slept better than any point after the fucking Trump admin started again.

    EDIT: To clarify, there was a bed and frame to keep it off the ground. The blanket over the top of the bed was just a little extra. If it was a blanket on the ground I would be dead, obviously.

    • tetris11@feddit.ukEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      I used to live in a converted outside garden corridor, and I remember waking up with morning dew on my blankets each winter morning

  • varyingExpertise@feddit.orgEnglish
    42·
    6 days ago

    Jeez, people, do you want mold? Cause this all above and below is how you get mold. Keep your outer walls above the dew point.

    Throw a few more logs into the stove and keep the doors ajar if electricity or oil or whatever is too expensive, but don’t just let your houses cool down like that.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
    2·
    6 days ago

    I’m in a middle-terrace house with relatively modern windows and insulation, so I’m lucky that there’s only really a few places that heat can actually leak out.

    Basically all I do is use a draft excluder for the gap under the front door and be selective about opening windows. Then I basically set the thermostat to 19/20 degrees (and the timer on the boiler set to stop it coming on overnight) and that keeps things warm enough without the heating needing to come on for that long during the day. Obviously in the middle of winter it needs to come on a bit longer, but those would be the days I’d be using the heating whatever approach I went for.

    Weirdly I half do it for the house plants, I can always throw a jumper on to a point, but I’ve got a few plants that really don’t seem to like the cold. Might as well make it comfortable for all of us if my house doesn’t cost a bomb to keep at a good level.

  • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
    2·
    6 days ago

    That’s the neat part, I don’t. It costs a few quid a day, that’s just winter. Summer costs fuck all to balance it out. It is what it is.

    • Rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      6 days ago

      Let’s all go down the proper job factory and get one of those fancy proper jobs they just hand out for free down there!

      That aside - I do have a proper job. I also have proper debts. Money is tight, and my food bill is rising. My local Sainsbury’s has put the price of bread up, the price of fish up, and the price of veggies up. I now walk further to LIDL and while it is cheaper, it’s still more expensive than I’d like.

      My rent is astronomical. I’ve been in my flat for three years, and in that time the rent has risen by £250 per month. My wages have not risen by that much. On top of that, I did some freelancing in 2023 and spent the money. Obviously I know I should’ve kept it, but it’s hard to afford things so I dipped in a little bit at a time and before I knew it, bam, all the money gone. Which means HMRC are now garnishing £200 a month out of my wages this year to pay it back. It was £5000, the biggest paycheck I’ve ever earned as a freelancer (working in the hours after my 45 hours a week full time role). Exhausting and punishing.

      Opportunities and money are vanishingly rare these days. I don’t drink. I rarely go out. I walk instead of using the buses or trains to save money. So far, since Friday, I’ve walked around 23 miles. I’ve got another seven miles to walk this evening, to save myself a fiver.

      I’ll put on a jumper instead of using the heating. I sleep in a hoodie.

    • manualoverride@lemmy.world
      11·
      6 days ago

      Can’t, disabled and overqualified. No one wants a slow confused lackey with grey hair and a masters degree.

      Imagine how depressing it is for us.