Aerosols

I'm in Switzerland FarNorth. Rules are a lot tighter here. AND my biggest class is 5 students, and I teach a lot less. 13 lessons a week. Opposed to classes of 35 and 28 lessons a week in the UK. I wouldn't work in a UK school right now. Far too unsafe.

despite our head's rules
Well done GagaJo. I don't understand teachers saying they are made to work unsafely when they could refuse to do that, as you have done.

No just 4 bedroomed house, but very old.

Ice inside the windows and frozen glass of water for us too when I was little!

M0nica ... my Father had Raynauds syndrome also, you have my sympathy.
I misread your post and thought you said you had 550 large rooms, so I was going to ask if you were the Queen in disguise, and describing Buckingham Palace (which is known for being cold and draughty)!!

Sarnia, in the old days many people died or had their lives shortened by suffering hypothermia in cold unheated homes.

Lots of us grew up in homes with ice on the inside, but that is not a recommendation and I am delighted that for most those days are long gone. I have never understood why people feel a need to compete about how cold their homes are. I had an uncle like that. When he went into a care home I had to throw away a whole wardrobe of good quality clothes because they were so permeated with mildew and mould I could not separate them. Decorations were decaying and the whole house smelt of damp, a couple of weeks with the CH on fulltime 24/7 improved everything so much and after that the heating was left on the clock.

My sinuses require an open window at night. Year round. I pay for it if I forget.

I like fresh air and have my windows open each day. I did this long before Covid-19 to ventilate my home. Letting damp stale air out and fresh air in. As a child I had to get dressed in a bedroom with ice INSIDE the windows during the winter. No sissy central heating in those days!

In my apartment, obviously I have the windows closed for warmth. There is only me there so no additional risk.

But I am still actively working (teacher) so despite our head's rules (cost of heating, I do understand), I have told the students they need to bring coats to my lessons and I have all the windows open, all the time. AND I make them all wear masks for the whole lesson.

There is still risk, but I am doing what I can to reduce it for my personal benefit.

I found this very interesting and informative.
If anyone comes to visit me in the near future they will have a time limit, sit in the conservatory with the door open and bring their own blankets.
What we all need are salopettes.

Thanks GagaJo ideally we shouldn’t interact with people indoors at all, but obviously this is not practical and not sustainable unless we are talking of shielding. I think a lot people are wary of others only when they are coughing or sneezing. Good advice if everybody was aware and followed as much as possible.

I was about to the post this too. Very interesting But sadly will not be read or acted on by most people !

Unfortunately, I suffer from the cold and wear multiple layers of clothing in winter, even when the heating is on, plus I have Raynauds Syndrome in my hands and problems with cold in my feet, so I will be putting warmth at the heart of my strategy.

However with only 2 people, in house that is 550 years old and has large rooms, there is quite a lot of natural draft and as DH and I go about our daily activities, in the house and out, not only are the interior doors never shut, but often the back door isn't either and we are usually in separate rooms.

I always have my windows open and the patio door even in winter.

That's why friends are not happy to visit they say my house is colder than a barn.
When my children were younger I put the heating on in their bedrooms as they said the house was too cold, I always had the heating off and just put on an extra jumper.

I was just going to post this link, if it wasn't here already.
Well worth a read.