Has everyone coped with the extreme cold?>

[Ara]

The lowest here was -9 but it didn't get above freezing for 5 days. Even with the oil central heating and the fire on it takes hours to get the living room to a bearable temperature. If it's sunny, no problem due to the large SE facing patio doors. I'm still finding gaps to draught-proof but the major stuff will have to wait until next year. Even Mr A was wearing a coat indoors - I just put my dressing gown on top of my extra jumper and the rest of my clothes. Next year we're getting a stove fitted as they are so much more efficient than open fires.

People are living in rooms that are 3 degrees????? That's a recipe for disaster.
I worry about some elderly people who don't heat their houses well enough simply because they don't realise (feel) how cold the rooms are. I wonder how many cold-related deaths there will be this winter.

[Kiwififer]

Mrs Kiwififer had the heating on a couple of times as she was working from home, other than that we had a hot water bottle at night which helped no end.

Who knew that an extra blanket and a hot water bottle worked? Well apart from us and pensioners….

A hot water bottle is amazing - I have been using one in the bed, it's in a fluffy cover which keeps it warmer longer - when I woke up this morning there was still heat in the bottle from 11pm last night!

I also have a lovely, original Witney blanket on the bed, on top of the quilt.

I also buy Ginger beer cordial and have that with hot water and honey…

And a liberal amount of whisky!

All medicinal of course.

[rik_uk3]

To be honest we're fortunate enough to be able to soak up the increased price of gas so last week we went through £11-£14 a day in gas, yesterday it was down to £7 which is right for us this time of the year.

How pensioners relying on a state pension or low income families cope is heartbreaking.

[jansman]

To be honest we're fortunate enough to be able to soak up the increased price of gas so last week we went through £11-£14 a day in gas, yesterday it was down to £7 which is right for us this time of the year.

How pensioners relying on a state pension or low income families cope is heartbreaking.

The last sentence is interesting. Our income has crashed ,and our issue will change into a real *crisis* initially. Fortunately Mrs J has worked us out,and we’ll get by . Not easy,but we will manage. I really feel that pensioners and low income families are in a tough place. My Wife deals with kids from poor families,and it is heartbreaking what she tells me. Sad.

I suppose there is one good thing at the moment: It’s 13 degrees out there! We are actually sitting with the stove moderate,and in clothes quite light!

[Frnc]

The lowest here was -9 but it didn't get above freezing for 5 days. Even with the oil central heating and the fire on it takes hours to get the living room to a bearable temperature. If it's sunny, no problem due to the large SE facing patio doors. I'm still finding gaps to draught-proof but the major stuff will have to wait until next year. Even Mr A was wearing a coat indoors - I just put my dressing gown on top of my extra jumper and the rest of my clothes. Next year we're getting a stove fitted as they are so much more efficient than open fires.

People are living in rooms that are 3 degrees????? That's a recipe for disaster.
I worry about some elderly people who don't heat their houses well enough simply because they don't realise (feel) how cold the rooms are. I wonder how many cold-related deaths there will be this winter.

Yes. Another's was 9°. They've not had any heating on. The 3 degree one tried an electric heater for a few hours and said it wasn't doing anything so gave up. I guess the heat just goes straight into the walls when it's that cold. As you say, it takes hours, and I bet yours was starting from something like 15°. My living room got to 14.5 when it was minus 11.

[GillyBee]

We coped fine athough the -5 round here did highlight a couple of issues we need to sort out. ((I know that is summer weather for the Scots on here )

We tried to keep the house at around 17 -18C which we can thankfully still afford. One room was persistently cold. Tried everything - foil behind the radiator, checked the TRV, moved furniture away from radiator but it would not rise above 14-15C. And this is my work from home office
On the plus side, I have discovered that I can work OK and was surprisingly comfortable as long as I am wearing a LOT of layers. i.e. 4 layers on top. Thermal leggings, jeans & quilt for legs and a microwave wheat bag to warm fingers up if needed.
At the weekend we finally identified the problem with the room. The wardrobe has 2 external walls and these were running with condensation to the extent that I have just had to wash & dry everything in the wardrobe. We caught it before the mould set in and a couple of hours with a target fan heater has sorted out the wet wall for now.
Next job is to apply a thermal liner to the cupboard to stop it happening next time it is cold. Does anyone have any suggestions for easy & effective solutions?

[Frnc]

We coped fine athough the -5 round here did highlight a couple of issues we need to sort out. ((I know that is summer weather for the Scots on here )

We tried to keep the house at around 17 -18C which we can thankfully still afford. One room was persistently cold. Tried everything - foil behind the radiator, checked the TRV, moved furniture away from radiator but it would not rise above 14-15C. And this is my work from home office
On the plus side, I have discovered that I can work OK and was surprisingly comfortable as long as I am wearing a LOT of layers. i.e. 4 layers on top. Thermal leggings, jeans & quilt for legs and a microwave wheat bag to warm fingers up if needed.
At the weekend we finally identified the problem with the room. The wardrobe has 2 external walls and these were running with condensation to the extent that I have just had to wash & dry everything in the wardrobe. We caught it before the mould set in and a couple of hours with a target fan heater has sorted out the wet wall for now.
Next job is to apply a thermal liner to the cupboard to stop it happening next time it is cold. Does anyone have any suggestions for easy & effective solutions?

What do you mean by "The wardrobe has 2 external walls" exactly? Can you go into more detail? Do you mean it is against 2 external walls? Is it a freestanding wooden wardrobe, in the corner of a room? Have you looked behind it to see if there is damp or mould on the wall?

[Medusa]

-10 here at the coldest point. We managed with the two log burners but put the oil heating on two nights just for an hour to take a bit more of the chill off the bedrooms. We also got through loads of wood though although we chopped a bit more at the weekend before the rain started. We had triple glazing fitted, some last year and the rest this year which has really helped with the heat retention. Our house is a 1930 build and has quite large voids under the floor boards along with lots of air bricks. The lounge and dining room floors were ply lined when we did some works on the house which has also helped stop the draughts.

[ForgeCorvus]

Local weather report (Yorkshire TV) . Yesterday at 09.00 -1C, today at 09.00 12C..... Thats a swing of 13 degrees !

[Frnc]

Local weather report (Yorkshire TV) . Yesterday at 09.00 -1C, today at 09.00 12C..... Thats a swing of 13 degrees !

Early morning round here went up by 19 degrees between Friday morning (-11) and today (+8). Shouldn't need much heating on today, if any.