This topic contains 9 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by 
Min 13 years, 4 months ago.
This time last year I was terrified because the weather was so cold, and Peter was so ill, I had the Central heating on most days for 18-20hrs and at its worst for 24hrs a day. Mostly on less than 18degrees C
Prior to this when we both worked full time the central heating come on at 6till 9 then 3 till 11. always on 21c
Imagine my surprise then when the little bar chart on my gas bill showed I had actualy used less gas when it was on more??!!!
The heating bill was not the dreadful surprise I had thought it would be and over a year it was a lot less.
Just thought there may be someone else in the same boat I was in last year and worrying the way I was.
From this I learnt that keeping the heating on three to four degrees lower permanently really is cheaper. This early freeze here in the frozen North East may make it different but some evenings I have the heating on 15c and we are sweltering. For the past 3 weeks outside has been less than zero.
Keep Warm and well
MIn
Hi Min I always have mine on low and use the thermostat to turn it up if necessary My husband is a plumber and I followed his advice and yes definitely cheaper bills than my daughter So warm here agaian today compared to what it has been , bliss!! love Bridgetx
Thanks for the tip Min and Bridget.
I will experiment with the heating controls and see how we go. Like you when we were both at work the heating was not on much.
If it works out very dear we will have to go back to how things were when I was a child. One coal fire, a hot water bottle in bed, liberty bodices, badly hand knitted sweaters and chilblains to name just a few of the discomforts.
Mind you on the other hand sipping hot ribena in front of the coal fire after crying because you had played snowballs too long and your hands were burning was good and having your (badly knitted) mittens and socks warmed on the fire guard before trudging to school was cosy.
As an only child I remember envying a friend who shared a bed with her sister as I knew if my cousin Jen came to stay we would cuddle up in bed for warmth. When she confided that her sister wet the bed every night my envy evaporated:)
Keep warm and well everybody Love from Gillxx
Hi Gill when I watch those tv programmes where people want real country living and a coal fire it makes me smile !!!A lot of them cant remember the mess and smoke, nor the fact you were only warm if you sat right on top of it!!Chillblains were the bane of my life as a child One of my chores was to watch and make sure my dads long-johns didnt go up in flames when mum was drying them in front of the fire , needless to say there were several scorch marks !! Aah sweet memories !! But give me central heating any day love Bridget x
Couldn't agree with you more Bridget. I seem to remember that chilblains were supposed to respond by sticking your toes into some pee (you own preferably) but as I never fancied that I just suffered the chilblains like you – hearty souls we were! Didn't ever let Dad's long johns go up in smoke but the newspaper we put around the fire to draw it up always did and no smoke alarms then. Yes we were practically on top of each other getting the best place around the fire for Sunday tea of cockles, winkles (of which my sister used to make a winkle sandwich) and crumpets and when the day of the Rayburn fire came there was much jubilation. Warmth all round the room! Let nobody take my central heating and double glazing away now!
Love, Gaye xx
Dear Gaye and Min funny how something like a fire can trigger so many memories Cockles yummy but I cant eat them anymore since my sct boo-hoo !! After my sct my lovely mum went back to warming my coat in front of the fire bless her We had a surprise visitor down our chimney once –not the man-in-red, a tiny black kitten tumbled into the hearth. Of course we were delighted , mum less so ,and actually it was a pure white kiteen we discovered after a bath !!Another memory is of mum warming herself in front of the fire with her skirt flipped up , teased her mercilessly for years Still its relatively warm here today Gaye even some sunshine Hooray long may it last Hope you are having a good weekend love Bridget x
Well that one evoked some memories with us golden oldies. Coming from the North East but having spent a lot of time 'down south' when Peter was in the RAF. I know for sure that it is definatly two cardigans colder up here!
My memories of winter are of sleeping with our coats on the bed when it was really bad. The windows being frozen with ice and my mum leaving the gas oven on so the heat would rise upstairs. As for fires, it was my job to chop the kindling or sticks as we called it with a pretty lethal axe. folding paper to put under the sticks and holding the blazer on it to get it going when it was about to go out.
I would absolutely love to have an open fire,crumpets and chestnuts mmmmm but not the mess of cleaning it out or getting coal deliveries!
luv
Min
I can remember sleeping with an extra-large Greatcoat over my blankets in the winter and I was told it was my Granddad's from WW1, so I sort of 'wore it with pride'. It was only about twenty years ago that my mother admitted that she had got it (and several other very large coats) from a jumble sale because it was much cheaper than buying blankets. I felt cheated and my mother tried to get out of it by saying that it was me who had invented the story about the coat being my Granddad's because I was 'funny' about being poor. I pooh poohed that as scurrilous but she reminded me that by the age of ten I had read every 'Jennings' book, every 'Bunter' book and most of the stories by Angela Brazil because I was infatuated about boarding schools and tried to escape the idea of poverty by living a middle class, want-not existence, 'inside my head'. 🙁
I wanted to refute her argument but to tell the truth I was quite impressed by it and the reading material part of it was true – so who knows, perhaps I did invent my 'Granddad's' coat?:-/
As for the chilblains, that's exactly how I describe my PN to people so forget Gabapentin; next time it gets bad I'm going out into the garden and I'm going to pee on my feet.>:-)
Dai.
No, no Dai – you can't just pee in your garden over your chilblains/PN – what WOULD the neighbours think! No, for total effectiveness, you must pee in a pot and then put your foot in the said pot covering the offending area. I have no idea how long you keep foot submerged (may be a day or two) – you need to try it out and then let us know. So, looks like we have an answer to PN much nearer to home. Well done Dai – keep us in the loop!
What a lovely story about your granddad's greatcoat and your Mum's connivance in making it all up. Wonderful. So this is what we used bd (before duvet). I used to have a stone water bottle and thought it was wonderful – using a heated brick was just a little before my time but bed times and getting up in the morning were very cold affairs. No, there's still nothing about the 'old days' that I would wish to return to regarding bed times!
Love to you all, Gaye xx
Wow Gaye,
You have got me thinking. Peter does not suffer from PN.
But as an ex drill instructor….He used to make his recruits pee in their boots and leave it there overnight. They had to wear the said boot wet but emptied the following day but did not get any blisters! The result of which the foot hardened, the boot softened. Im not sure if he still follows this advise but he rarely buys new shoes still wears some of his drill instructors shoes, not quite so Bulled (that means spit and polish) as they seem to last forever (but regularly attends the cobblers)So for all I know he may not get PN due to this!
Dai let us know how it goes!
Min
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