Monday, October 27, 2008

The heating challenge

Bundle Up by Jo Moulton
Bundle Up



This year we are taking a bold leap into the unknown with regards to keeping warm.

We have central heating in the house which uses bottled gas. Keeping the heating on every day morning and late evening uses three bottles every 10 days at a cost now of £ 150 every 10 days which is a bit extravagant.

This year, instead of heating the rooms and the air around us, we are changing back to warming ourselves first in an effort to make us a little more resilient, as well as cutting down on our dependency on fossil fuels. Every 10 days the heating does not go on, we have £ 150 in the kitty for other things. That means : thermal vests, woolly socks and woollen jumpers, hot drinks, super duvets, blankets, hot water bottles etc. I will be telling you how long we hold out. The house is of a construction that the living room downstairs and kitchen can be kept warm with the log burner and as heat travels up ,the lounge upstairs will also benefit from some heat. The bedrooms will be cold.

I am interested in what will happen to relationships when we are forced together around the fire instead of staying apart in individually heated rooms. If we do not manage this we can always put the heating on and we are not going to freeze but we just wonder whether it is possible to take that step. Last year we found it hard to come from a centrally heated home into a cold one but we hope that over the next weeks our bodies adjust to a gentle lowering of the temperatures around us. The shop remains unheated and we will soon be turning off the fridge that holds cold drinks. There seems little point in a cold drink when the shop will be cold. This also means that the fridges and freezers will need to work less to keep the food inside colder.

Many thanks for all your comments so far, it is lovely to hear your views.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Anne ~ you can do it!
We have only ever had one warm room ~ which has never been very warm (luckily are getting a wood burning stove this winter !)
I'm well used to watching the TV with a woolly hat on ~ wrapped in a blanket.
And as for cold bedrooms ~ I find I sleep better and have less colds.
A hot bath warms me up if I get too cold and hot water bottles are bliss.
Good luck!
christa xxx

Anonymous said...

you can do it - here in Chicago I run the heat for 6 hours out of 24 (never at night)and never have the temp more than 65 - I grew up in London where we had frost on the inside of the bedroom windows. I would love a wood burning stove but its just too expensive here. My bills are less than half of my neighbours. The winters in the U.K. are so mild in comparison you could get away with days you didnt run it at all. Good luck and let us know how you manage (we need all the inspiration we can get where heating bills are concerned)
lizzie