# People who won't turn on the heating



## Jim Davis (6 Dec 2010)

I was in a friends house at the weekend and they sparingly use their central heating for fear of getting a big bill at the end of the month. So you sit there in their house and it's cold. They have these tiny little heaters running in the room they are sitting in and go around the house all day in a big jumper. Anyone else know people like this?


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## truthseeker (6 Dec 2010)

Yep - I know someone who has the heating on a timer, 1 hour in the morning, 1 hour in the evening. Woe betide if you feel cold in his house between those two times - he will not allow the heating to be on other than the assigned times. 

Its his partner I feel sorry for, shivering with a toddler in the house in the daytime!


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## Sunny (6 Dec 2010)

Maybe they have financial problems. 

I would respect those people more than those who run up huge bills and then can't pay....

If they are simply being tight, well that's another matter


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## truthseeker (6 Dec 2010)

Im not sure if my friend has financial problems - but they have always been like this with the heating, and I know for sure a few years ago they didnt have financial problems. The guy is a bit OCD though - he has these funny ideas about a number of areas of life - not just his heating!


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## Ceist Beag (6 Dec 2010)

Or you could have those at the other extreme - the house is like an oven all day! Sure everyone is different.


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## RonanC (6 Dec 2010)

What is it with people who have to leave the heating on all the time.... its like walking into a brick oven !!! If I feel a little cold i'll put on a jumper, if the house is cold i'll heat it up but I couldnt leave the heating on all day long, while walking around in a t-shirt and shorts... Madness.


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## truthseeker (6 Dec 2010)

Ceist Beag said:


> Or you could have those at the other extreme - the house is like an oven all day! Sure everyone is different.


 
Actually Ive a friend who is always freezing, and if in your house she asks for the heating to be turned up/window closed etc.. even when the weather isnt cold!!

We (in a good natured way) blame it on her upbringing, her mother always has the house like an oven, its very uncomfortable to sit in - youd be sweating buckets.


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## Sunny (6 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> Actually Ive a friend who is always freezing, and if in your house she asks for the heating to be turned up/window closed etc.. even when the weather isnt cold!!
> 
> We (in a good natured way) blame it on her upbringing, her mother always has the house like an oven, its very uncomfortable to sit in - youd be sweating buckets.


 
Get new friends Truthseeker!


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## Purple (6 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> Its his partner I feel sorry for, shivering with a toddler in the house in the daytime!



Obviously she’s not his partner then; She’s his subordinate. 
If she was his partner she’s just tell him to get stuffed and turn on the heat.


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## truthseeker (6 Dec 2010)

Sunny said:


> Get new friends Truthseeker!


 
lol - Ive a lot of friends - most of them are normal - well normal enough


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## PaddyW (6 Dec 2010)

Sometimes in my house I wish they'd turn the bloody heating off!


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## Jim Davis (6 Dec 2010)

Forgive me for the gross generalisation I'm about to make but is it a "country" thing not to turn on the heating. Anyone I know who does this is either from outside Dublin or their parents are and it's been bred into them.

Reminds me of the sketch that Des Bishop did on leaving the immersion on.


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## micmclo (6 Dec 2010)

Jim Davis said:


> Reminds me of the sketch that Des Bishop did on leaving the emersion on.



Great sketch, funny because it's true 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52bna-tn_dY

I've been housemates with lots of people. 
But for a bit of a generalization, most Irish people have some concept on the price of electricity.

French and German people that I shared with would think nothing of leaving heating and the immersion all day. You'd want to see the bills we got 
Maybe electricity and heating oil is dirt cheap over there, good for them.


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## addob (6 Dec 2010)

We don't turn the heat on during the week.

We live in an apartment and have storage heaters - I'll be damned if I'm going to keep an empty apartment heated for the cat during the day!

In the evenings I'll put on an extra jumper or go to bed early where we have an electric matress cover, on the weeeknds we turn on the heat if we're going to be home.

just another side and yes, I want to save money....


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## Caveat (6 Dec 2010)

Jim Davis said:


> Forgive me for the gross generalisation I'm about to make but is it a "country" thing not to turn on the heating.


 
Might be. But not through stinginess I would say, just through hardiness. 

Seriously though, even this weather, our heating wouldn't be on all the time. We had a bit of a lie-in on Saturday (10:30 ish) and after working outside for about an hour an a half (1- 2:30 maybe?) left the house for the evening at about 4. The heating didn't go on at all that day.

Maybe it was the result of the physical work but we didn't feel that we needed the heating.

Also, quite often I feel way too warm in other people's houses so just used to a cooler ambient temperature I suppose.


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## truthseeker (6 Dec 2010)

addob said:


> We don't turn the heat on during the week.


 
How do you manage for hot water or is that seperate to your heating?

What are storage heaters?


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## becky (6 Dec 2010)

I think it's a country thing too. My Dad goes on if there are too many lights on in an empty room. I know people who think the tumble dryer is a luxury.

I turn my heating on for about 1 to 1.5 hours before I get up. I set it again for the evenings and just before I go to bed. At weekends it left on longer depending on what I'm doing.


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## TarfHead (6 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> What are storage heaters?


 
Big units, full of fire bricks. They are heated up overnight, using off-peak rate electricity, then heat can be 'released' from them during the day.


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## truthseeker (6 Dec 2010)

TarfHead said:


> Big units, full of fire bricks. They are heated up overnight, using off-peak rate electricity, then heat can be 'released' from them during the day.


 
Are they more or less expensive than ordinary radiators?


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## TarfHead (6 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> Are they more or less expensive than ordinary radiators?


 
A radiator is fed by a central heating system, so you would need to compare the overall cost of such a system, against the cost of storage heaters.

AFAIK, they're best suited to places where central heating is not an option. We had one in an apartment in a building that did not have CH.

With a night-rate meter, they should, over time, be less costly than the alternative, i.e. an electric bar heater. That saving might take more than one Winter to be realised.


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## IsleOfMan (6 Dec 2010)

My father would light the fire regimentally at 4 p.m. everyday even if it was freezing out. We often complained that our mother was left in a cold house all day until he came home in the afternoon. Now she is dead and he is at home all day, alone, with the central heating on full. That will never happen in my home.


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## addob (6 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> How do you manage for hot water or is that seperate to your heating?


 
Yes, the hot water is seperate from the heating.

Other have explained storage heaters - we have heard from neighbours that if you leave the heating on all th etime your electricity bill can be crazy! Also, I find that the majority of the heat is gone from them by the time I get home from work.

I waste my electricity on the dryer instead


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## Purple (6 Dec 2010)

I have 4 zones on my heating system, upstairs, downstairs rads, under floor heating in the kitchen/living room and hot water. They can all be programmed independently to be turned on and off three times a day. Therefore the upstairs gets an hour and a half in the morning starting half an hour before I get up (I’m first up) and an hour and a half in the evening from 7.00. The rest of the house works in much the same way; it’s set to be on in particular areas when we are using them. Since we put in that system (along with a new boiler) our bills are down considerably.


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## micmclo (6 Dec 2010)

ParkLane said:


> My father would light the fire regimentally at 4 p.m. everyday even if it was freezing out.



When I worked in a hotel I'd light the fire in the bar. A table by the fire on a winters evening was very desirable. All sorts of arguments over people leaving jackets to reserve seats. 

Ever light a fire with a dozen people watching you?
Every old person giving "advice for you young lad" and "no, you need to do it this way"

Some people take it very seriously!




addob said:


> I waste my electricity on the dryer instead



I used to use my washing machine and combo tumble dryer at night and then the apartment below me were complaining to the management company about me. The water pump made noise and there were vibrations through the floor. 
These days I use it at socially acceptable hours.....


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## delgirl (6 Dec 2010)

micmclo said:


> Great sketch, funny because it's true
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52bna-tn_dY


 
Brilliant!  Really made me laugh today!

If we're invited to our neighbours house for dinner, we go in the lightest clothes possible as the heat is on full blast, 24-hours per day, and it's like a sauna.

When they come to us, they come with layers as they know it won't be anywhere near as warm in our house as it is in theirs.


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## Purple (6 Dec 2010)

micmclo said:


> I used to use my washing machine and combo tumble dryer at night and then the apartment below me were complaining to the management company about me. The water pump made noise and there were vibrations through the floor.
> These days I use it at socially acceptable hours.....



I used to do that when I lived in an apartment 'till I found out that the water pressure dropped at night resulting in it taking more time for the machine to run through its cycle and therefore it cost more. Who knew.


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## BillK (6 Dec 2010)

We have thermostats on all the radiators and have kept the main thermostat in the hall set to 17 during the day, turning it down to 15 at night. Heating and hot water supplied by a combi gas boiler. The house is nearly 60 years old, but is very well insulated with bead filled cavity walls, sealed unit double glazing on all windows and a 9'' thick insulation in the loft.

We have two open fires which we have yet to light this winter. Lowest temp locally has been -8C


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## BOXtheFOX (7 Dec 2010)

BillK said:


> but is very well insulated with bead filled cavity walls,


 
Even though my house is only 16 years old we think that our builder did not insulate the walls and especially the bay windows properly. When it was being built, sheets of polystyrene were placed between the walls but not very carefully.
We were thinking of getting in the beads. Is there a grant for this sort of thing available?  How much to get a detached house filled?


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## censuspro (7 Dec 2010)

BOXtheFOX said:


> Even though my house is only 16 years old we think that our builder did not insulate the walls and especially the bay windows properly. When it was being built, sheets of polystyrene were placed between the walls but not very carefully.
> We were thinking of getting in the beads. Is there a grant for this sort of thing available? How much to get a detached house filled?


 
You should move the radiators under the windows where possible.


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## Henny Penny (7 Dec 2010)

I turn the heating off in June and don't put it on again until September .... I like to think it's warm in the summer ... Even if it's not. 
My crazy mother lives in a Victorian house which is like a meat locker in the winter ... She's an hour a day person also .... She says she doesn't feel the cold ... But I think when you can see your breath indoors  it might be time to hit the switch!


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## fizzelina (7 Dec 2010)

I know a house where it is always freezing and it's definitely stinginess, funny enough the parents are from the country and it seems their child copied it from home. Anyway she wouldn't even make you a cup of tea and doesn't like to do a big shop as it costs so much and the food just sits in the fridge.
It's about what you're used to, my house is warm but then my parent's house is always warm.
I also knew a German girl who in the height of last winter's snow etc did not allow the heat to go on in the house, her housemates were fit to kill her, she kept turning it off. She unscrewed the lightbulbs in half the lights too to save on the bills. Oh and she would sit eating her dinner in a coat and scarf inside and when they it's freezing we're putting on the heating she'd be like No it's OK. Their response well why is your coat on???


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## truthseeker (7 Dec 2010)

Im not regimented about it one way or the other - if Im cold I put the heating on, if Im warm I knock it off.

Im lucky in that my apartment is very well insulated and it feels warm even without the heating on. Also when I use the oven it heats up the entire open plan area of kitchen/sitting room.

One thing I miss on my heating is a boost button - I used to have it in the last place I lived, it was great to just boost it and then forget about it and itd go off itself.

I grew up in a house that had no central heating so we all congregated in the kitchen near the oven or the sitting room round the fire and froze everywhere else. I am conditioned to a cold bedroom with heavy bedcoverings in the winter and have trouble sleeping in a hot room.


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## addob (7 Dec 2010)

micmclo said:


> I used to use my washing machine and combo tumble dryer at night and then the apartment below me were complaining to the management company about me. The water pump made noise and there were vibrations through the floor.
> These days I use it at socially acceptable hours.....


 
I did say waste electricity - I don't run the dryer at night!

Besides, the way that our apartment is set up the machine is away from the bedrooms.


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## Caveat (7 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> I am conditioned to a cold bedroom with heavy bedcoverings in the winter and have trouble sleeping in a hot room.


 
I'm the same. I actually hate a hot bedroom.


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## Firefly (7 Dec 2010)

We're upgrading the insulation in our place at the moment. Did the attic last summer and notice a big improvement, esp the upstairs rooms. Next on the list is a new front door. After that, external wall insulation. Like Truth, we put on the heating when it's cold and turn it off when it's warm enough. Also bought a Dimplex mobile oil heater too. Great on the really cold nights when we're either reading / watching the tele in one room.


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## Shawady (7 Dec 2010)

Firefly said:


> Next on the list is a new front door.


 
We got a new front door recently. We went for a composite door over a PVC one. More expensive but definitely keeps the heat in better.


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## BOXtheFOX (7 Dec 2010)

Caveat said:


> I'm the same. I actually hate a hot bedroom.


 
The stuffiness of the central heating gets to me. I would much rather wear a fleece jacket and sit with a hot water bottle than have the central heating on full time.

I would be interested to hear peoples views on the burning of turf as per this thread.


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## Caveat (7 Dec 2010)

BOXtheFOX said:


> turf


 
Nice aroma/atmosphere.

Crap thermal properties.


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## fizzelina (7 Dec 2010)

Caveat said:


> I'm the same. I actually hate a hot bedroom.


 
Really?? I love when the bedroom gets hot!


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## truthseeker (7 Dec 2010)

fizzelina said:


> Really?? I love when the bedroom gets hot!


 
I like it steamy - but not hot


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## Sunny (7 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> I like it steamy - but not hot


 
So do I but my girlfriends cold feet always make sure it never gets too hot! What is it about women and cold hands/feet?


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## truthseeker (7 Dec 2010)

Sunny said:


> So do I but my girlfriends cold feet always make sure it never gets too hot! What is it about women and cold hands/feet?


 
Sorry, I beg to differ. Im like a small radiator in bed, my husband always has cold legs that he insists on squashing against me to get some heat


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## Caveat (7 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> he insists on squashing against me *to get some heat*


 
And you fall for that?


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## truthseeker (7 Dec 2010)

Caveat said:


> And you fall for that?


 
Dont be silly Caveat - I just let him *think* I fall for it


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## Betsy Og (7 Dec 2010)

turf may not be the best fuel but if you're getting it for nothing (bar some back breaking labour) why wouldnt you use it.

How does turf work out in a stove? Loadza ash I suppose.

Viva les turfcutters, Ming is our King


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## PaddyW (7 Dec 2010)

BOXtheFOX said:


> Even though my house is only 16 years old we think that our builder did not insulate the walls and especially the bay windows properly. When it was being built, sheets of polystyrene were placed between the walls but not very carefully.
> We were thinking of getting in the beads. Is there a grant for this sort of thing available?  How much to get a detached house filled?



My parents got it done in their 3 bed council house in Kerry last year. Beads in walls and insulation put in attic. Think it worked out at about 300 euro or thereabouts. Was originally around 900, but grant brought it well down.


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