Cold rooms

I think I am one of the few that like their house cold. (Around 7C give or take a few)
As we speak, my husband and I are playing with the thermostat game.
He turns it up, I turn it down.  He claims if it's not at least around 20C he will freeze to death.  For me winter is not winter if you can wander around the house in a short sleeve t-shirt.

I grew up in a house with no heating but a woodstove in the center of the house (And I walked 60 miles in the snow barefoot..... and there were... oh wait, that was what my gramma said...).  I actually find the heaters in my flat to be too drying and too noisy for me.  (The gurgling sound freaks me out)
Some people are not conditioned for the cold! 

Did you have one of those outside toilets that didn't flush?

 
No, but after we moved from that flat we moved to a lovely warm house with a nice warm bathroom.  But there, out in the garden, was a toilet, a flushable one!   I don't understand why it never froze in the winter.  We never used it.  It became rather like a garden shed.

I think I am one of the few that like their house cold. (Around 7C give or take a few)
As we speak, my husband and I are playing with the thermostat game.
He turns it up, I turn it down.  He claims if it's not at least around 20C he will freeze to death.  For me winter is not winter if you can wander around the house in a short sleeve t-shirt.

I grew up in a house with no heating but a woodstove in the center of the house (And I walked 60 miles in the snow barefoot..... and there were... oh wait, that was what my gramma said...).  I actually find the heaters in my flat to be too drying and too noisy for me.  (The gurgling sound freaks me out)
Some people are not conditioned for the cold! 

I love my dw dearly but why can't she dress for the cold? She could put an extra layer on.
Lets start an campaign for the new year and it will be called "it isn't healthy for the furnace to be running all the time" especially when you get the gas bill.

Agreed!  We usually keep our thermostat set to around 16 when we're home and awake.  It's all shut off when we're gone or asleep.  Sometimes we open the door from the living room to the hall to let a little cool air in so the boiler kicks in and warms up the upstairs so we can take a shower comfortably.  We've only been doing this for the past two weeks, and hope we can stop as soon as temperatures outside warm back up to a daytime high of around 9 or 10.  We tend to like the house a little cooler as well, but not COLD! 

We set to 21 at night and 24 during the time we are up.
It is 0 outside now at 6 am and it will get up to 11 today.
Our blood is probably thin because of the summer temps of 39.
I don't understand blood so I can't substantiate that.

I love my dw dearly but why can't she dress for the cold? She could put an extra layer on.
Lets start an campaign for the new year and it will be called "it isn't healthy for the furnace to be running all the time" especially when you get the gas bill.

I have asthma that is triggered by cold air.  Putting on an extra layer is not going to prevent cold air from getting into my lungs and triggering an asthma attack.

Agreed!  We usually keep our thermostat set to around 16 when we're home and awake.  It's all shut off when we're gone or asleep.

I know many people who turn off their heat at night, and I've never understood this.  It's colder at night, so why would you turn the heat all the way off?  (That's the generic "you", not you specifically julioew.)  As much as I appreciate the fact that we'd keep our bills down and help save the planet, I think I'd freeze to death with no heat at night.   

We set to 21 at night and 24 during the time we are up.

This is much more my speed.  Now that it usually 4 or 5 during the day and 0 at night, our heat is set to 20 around the clock.  When the temp outside warms up a bit, we'll turn the heat down a bit.

Carl

I know many people who turn off their heat at night, and I've never understood this.  It's colder at night, so why would you turn the heat all the way off?  (That's the generic "you", not you specifically julioew.)  As much as I appreciate the fact that we'd keep our bills down and help save the planet, I think I'd freeze to death with no heat at night.   

I've never kept my heat on at night, in the US or the UK. I'm bundled up under blankets, usually with my trusty hot water bottle, so there's no need for heat. During the day, I need my arms free to do things, so I can't keep them swaddled in a duvet. 

I should have probably mentioned that I've rarely slept in heated rooms in my life - the house I grew up in in Wisconsin had NO heat source upstairs, nor did my 'marital house' - although heat was allowed to 'drift' up the stairs.  My British DH has never liked to sleep in heated rooms, so this has suited us very well.  We have an electric blanket that we turn on each evening to warm the bed up, BUT we turn it off when we get into bed!  We have a lovely, hug duvet that helps keep us toasty - and the first one out of bed in the morning turns the central heating on!  It works for us, but wouldn't for many others...in the same way as I've always lived without air conditioning (in my homes, but not in my cars or my office until I moved to the UK).

I should have probably mentioned that I've rarely slept in heated rooms in my life - the house I grew up in in Wisconsin had NO heat source upstairs, nor did my 'marital house' - although heat was allowed to 'drift' up the stairs.  My British DH has never liked to sleep in heated rooms, so this has suited us very well.  We have an electric blanket that we turn on each evening to warm the bed up, BUT we turn it off when we get into bed!  We have a lovely, hug duvet that helps keep us toasty - and the first one out of bed in the morning turns the central heating on!  It works for us, but wouldn't for many others...in the same way as I've always lived without air conditioning (in my homes, but not in my cars or my office until I moved to the UK).

That works when you have someone else sharing the bed with you and adding to the heat under the blanket! I have to leave my electric blanket on or it gets too cold!

I just read this last comment to my wife and her response is "well that is Great Britain so conditions are different there, they are at sea level". Does she have a point?
Be nice

Maybe, but it's a lot warmer because of the sea currents that help keep it warmer than a lot of other places at the same lattitude.  I don't know if it affects heating systems, but it would make sense if it made them more efficient.  Ever try cooking in the mountains?  Takes forever compared to sea level.  Finland is largely at sea level, and I never was in a cold house there.

I actually have a cold room grievence that I am going to post right here.  My inlaws (includes my brother in law) currently are only paying for gas because they are in a tight money situation.  It goes out constantly.  Today I went to wash a dish and I asked my mother in law if it was out after the water didn't warm up.  She went on about how they just put 20 quid in two days ago and it's out.  There obviously is something wrong with the boiler!  I tried to point out the weather has been cold and we've been cooking holiday dinners (which she puts on full gas to cook btw).  But whatev.  Gas, it's a nice responsiblity to have in the summer when you're only paying for hot water.  If the same cost doesn't apply in the winter, there MUST be something wrong. 

Yes, I agree with you saying about the low cost of gas during the summer. I think I run about £10 a month. In the winter I think it is about £120 a month for a couple of months. Cooking, heat and hot water.

We have two storage heaters in our living room, one in the hallway, and a radiator heater in our bedroom.  The kitchen and bathroom have small fan (?) heaters near the ceiling with pull cords.  Everything is electric.  Our first two months here, we had no idea how to work the storage heaters correctly (both cranked up all the way made the mornings really hot).  So now, we're trying to be as frugal as possible on our electricity since we got the quarterly bill for a lot more than we expected (it didn't help that we were on the worst plan).  The heater in our bedroom has a timer and it is only on for about three hours around the time we go to bed and again for two hours around the time we wake up.  We don't use the one in the hallway at all.  In the living room, we only have one on and set to a medium-high heat for the winter.  With the doors closed, the living room is livable most of the time (an extra layer of clothing is sometimes useful) and the bedroom is fine for us to sleep in.  The rest of the flat is a frigid wasteland which we dare to venture in only to cook (the heat of the oven helps), use the bathroom, or to switch between rooms.  So, yes, I sympathise with everyone who complains about cold rooms!

I know many people who turn off their heat at night, and I've never understood this.  It's colder at night, so why would you turn the heat all the way off?  (That's the generic "you", not you specifically julioew.)  As much as I appreciate the fact that we'd keep our bills down and help save the planet, I think I'd freeze to death with no heat at night.   

13.5 tog duvet, with flannel sheets and duvet cover.

We turn the heat off at night but my husband still complains that he's "roasting hot" and doesn't wear pj's.

We're like Julie and we generally keep the thermostat at 16 during the day.  I won't pretend that's super warm, but we're cheap.

My retired in-laws have only just recently been convinced to keep their heat on all day.  They were still just using it for a couple hours in the morning and evening, even though they are elderly sedentary people who are home all day.  I guess it was a leftover from when they went to work?  Whenever we visited it was a nice and warm in the morning so we dressed for that, and then it was freezing cold so we layered on sweaters, double socks, etc.  Then it would warm up again and the extra sweaters came off again.  I couldn't understand the reasoning.  Their bills were higher than ours.