21
It's getting cold... how are you going to keep heating costs low this winter?
(piefed.blahaj.zone)
Lol "keep"
this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2025
21 points (88.9% liked)
Ask UK
1681 readers
37 users here now
Community for asking and answering any question related to the life, the people or anything related to the UK.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
From the winter when I had practically no heating at all:
-
thermal base layer (fleece lined compression thermals meant for outdoor exercise, top + leggings). I kept this on at all times and it kept me super warm through the depths of winter. Also super warm thermal socks.
-
electric blanket. Once you're going to be sedentary after dinner on the sofa, then this can make you unbearably hot and costs almost nothing to run.
-
the kitchen gets heated slightly by cooking appliances and this is a good place to hang out.
Jeez, people, do you want mold? Cause this all above and below is how you get mold. Keep your outer walls above the dew point.
Throw a few more logs into the stove and keep the doors ajar if electricity or oil or whatever is too expensive, but don't just let your houses cool down like that.
Moisture causes mold, and it also prefers warmth over cold.
When the walls drop beneath the dew point that's when you get moisture.
I like the cold. I don't run the heater at all. Hell, I'll keep my windows open to keep my apartment nice and chilly. If I get too cold, I wear more clothes/get more blankets.
Wool
Only running my heat for an hour at wake-up and bedtime (and on special occasions), and we all basically live in our oodies.
I might do a pot of bone broth and see how I like having that as a warmer versus too much tea or coffee, which is my usual M.O.
We just looked at the thermostat and it is 16.1C, blanket day for us, and we’re closing all the curtains on the north side of the house to keep the heat in a bit better. We’ve also got a curtain behind the front door to insulate the hallway a bit.
You can buy cheap door brushes that stick to the door edge which work wonders at keeping air out
The silicone draft strips work well too and are virtually invisible. As well as making sure all your weather strips are installed in your door. They’re is usually room for a couple in the PVC doors.
Ooooh curtain behind the door that's a good one
When I was much younger, I once lived in a not properly insulated 2 room built at the back of some dude's heavy equipment garage for about a year in the great planes at the 47 latitude line. -30F some days. I slept on one blanket and placed two more over the top of my head. Wore 3 shirts most days. Drank almost exclusively hot tea.
TBH it was pretty cozy at times. I definitely slept better than any point after the fucking Trump admin started again.
EDIT: To clarify, there was a bed and frame to keep it off the ground. The blanket over the top of the bed was just a little extra. If it was a blanket on the ground I would be dead, obviously.
I used to live in a converted outside garden corridor, and I remember waking up with morning dew on my blankets each winter morning
Those ultra thick socks sold at the winter fair.
The same thing I do every year. Wonder how on earth I can insulate this house better when I've done all of the usual stuff and it hasn't helped. Cavity wall insulation, double glazing, loft insulation, draft-proofing, new boiler. All done yet the boiler has to operate almost continuously just to keep the house at 18 degrees. Need one of those infrared cameras to spot the problem I think.
Hope you have a smart thermostat and smart radiator valves, and close doors between rooms. It'll only have the boiler on when rooms need it, and unused rooms can be left at 10 or 12 degrees until you need them.
Heating a whole house to 18 degrees isn't efficient, but also this may help you isolate the problem if you find that with certain rooms closed off you're not losing heat in the same way.
Edit: also if you have UPVC doors, they have a summer and winter setting. The summer setting leaves an air gap to allow better airflow out for ventilation, but obviously that's the worst idea in winter. I adjust my doors with each season - there are YouTube videos on how to do it. It's literally just turning an alan key to loosen the lock gap.
If you have a tool library or makerspace nearby they might have one you could borrow. The IR cameras are not cheap!
That's the neat part, I don't. It costs a few quid a day, that's just winter. Summer costs fuck all to balance it out. It is what it is.
Smart thermostat and valves are great for targeting heating instead of wasting energy heating up all rooms. I set the thermostat to 18 degrees rather than 19 or 20, and only in rooms I'm using.
I tend to settle into either my living room or office most of the time anyway, so it makes it easier to focus the heating. At night I only keep my bedroom heated, and that also heats the bathroom due to how my radiators are set up.
In the morning when it gets very cold I set a timer to boost the heating to 18 degrees for an hour while.i get ready for work. Otherwise it's all set to not drop below 10 degrees and I boost as needed. When I finish work I turn the heating on remotely so it's nice and warm for when I arrive home.
I also have an electric blanket, and some throws which I like to snuggle under even with the heating on whether I'm in front of the TV or my computer, ore reading etc.
I do have some electric heaters which I occasionally use instead of the central heating to.warm a room quickly. Obviously not cheap in itself but it can make sense compared to heating up the whole house.
I also always wear layers at home, usually a t-shirt and a jumper, jeans and warm socks.
I'm in a middle-terrace house with relatively modern windows and insulation, so I'm lucky that there's only really a few places that heat can actually leak out.
Basically all I do is use a draft excluder for the gap under the front door and be selective about opening windows. Then I basically set the thermostat to 19/20 degrees (and the timer on the boiler set to stop it coming on overnight) and that keeps things warm enough without the heating needing to come on for that long during the day. Obviously in the middle of winter it needs to come on a bit longer, but those would be the days I'd be using the heating whatever approach I went for.
Weirdly I half do it for the house plants, I can always throw a jumper on to a point, but I've got a few plants that really don't seem to like the cold. Might as well make it comfortable for all of us if my house doesn't cost a bomb to keep at a good level.