Best idea to keep warm without central heating.

Cossy

Good insulation, very thick, lined curtains, warm insulated undies, layers of clothing, heated cushions, heated blankets. Drink plenty of hot drinks, keep moving.

It’s really dangerous to let the rooms you use to fall below 18C.

Mine is set at 16, I find anything above too hot. Luckily, the flat stays really warm so it barely turns on, maybe now and then in Jan/Feb. Leave sliding doors open on the balcony at night in the bedroom which makes sleeping easier for me.
Obviously, put heating higher when family stays.

MartavTaurus

Here's mine.

Oh, a warm dog on your feet is the best heater🥰
Oh yes, Doodledog, until the sharp needle teeth are exercised! 🦈

Gorgeous! Oh yes, teething 😱

We have CH but rarely use it until it gets really cold, when it comes on early mornings and bed times.

I wear my thermal underwear all through the cold weather. When the temperatures start to drop I use the thinner, not-too-warm type. Then wear the heavier weights when it gets really cold. Extra layers as needed.

Warm socks and slippers - my feet freeze very fast.

portable electric heaters as our storage heaters in our Housing Association are useless
under bed electric blanket pop it on about an hour before bedtime
heated throw to go on the sofa sometimes if very cold puts this on top of the bed so i am like a heated sandwich
non electric blankets
always keep socks on
layer clothes rather than one thick item ie today i have on a t shirt sweat top and if it was winter very cold can pop a cardigan on top
i am lucky i have good doors here but nothing wrong with sausages on the door bottoms and curtains over the front door as the glass can be cold
i rarely have a heater on in the bedroom due to the blanket i just get up and dressed quick
the bathroom has a heated towel rail
the lounge will keep nice and warm concentrate on one room
lined curtains

My lounge is open plan so all the heat goes up onto the landing / bedrooms . I have put up about 7ft of net curtain wire across the top of the stair opening . I have attached a king size white thick cotton sheet to block the stairs . I did this last winter and it really does keep the lounge warmer. The heat does eventually rise through the sheet but much slower . When I go to bed I lift the sheet over the stair rail to allow the warmth upstairs .

Good insulation, very thick, lined curtains, warm insulated undies, layers of clothing, heated cushions, heated blankets. Drink plenty of hot drinks, keep moving.

It’s really dangerous to let the rooms you use to fall below 18C.

I bought a long hooded velvety dressing gown from Amazon, last year. I think it was around. £20 - certainly it was cheap.
And lined fluffy slippers as bending to put socks on, hurts!
Snug as a bug

J52

petra

Buy blackout curtains to line your existing curtains.
Or, if you have a friend who’s handy with a sewing machine it’s cheap to buy by the meter.
Plus the fact that they keep out the heat.

In the past I have just hooked the ready made to the unused openings on the header tape. Of course wouldn’t work with eyelet style curtains.

Eyelet curtains are easier because you're just sewing a rectangle blackout onto a rectangle of curtain

long thermal underwear, thick socks, a silk scarf wrapped round the neck. Bald men should wear a warm hat .

I live in mid terrace house and since my son and his girlfriend moved that is just me in a three bedroom house
I have a Gas fire in my lounge and also my bedroom is downstairs next to my lounge
I will only put the central heating on for maybe an hour in the morning an hour at night and that is really just to keep the house from getting damp and only when it’s really cold..

Thermal underwear, a fine wool sweater plus a thicker cardigan. Socks, my feet are feeling chilly tonight and it's not October yet.

If the electricity goes off then gas central heating doesn't work anyway, although you can light a gas hob with a match or gas lighter. An old-fashioned kettle which goes on the gas hob is a good idea to keep handy to make hot drinks.

I have central heating but only put it on when it's really cold. I have my halogen heater on and it's like having a coal fire....cosy cosy. Cost £20.Only heats room you are in obviously but massive reduction in gas bill last winter.

I like a wheaty bag, two minutes and 15 seconds in the microwave. That might be cheaper than heating enough water for a hot water bottle?

I wear what I call my tent but it's an enormous T shaped fleece that goes over my clothes and down to my knees. Actually I've got two and both came from Tu at Sainsbury's. I wear hiking or boot socks inside my slippers. I absolutely don't care what I look like in my own home. I'd rather be warm.

I have central heating and a log burner in a super insulated house - so rarely use the log burner and central heating never has to be on for long. I think the heated blanket is a great idea - bought one for a friend who was so impressed with it I bought one for myself. Super cosy and cheap to run. Perfect when sitting on the sofa watching tv if you don’t want all the heating on. Beyond that - fleeces are warm and easy to wash and quick to dry.

I've no central heating. Don't want it.

I'm usually busy all morning, housework/shopping etc., always something to do/go out for. Bungalow still holds heat from the log burner used the evening before. I always wear wool jumpers and/or lined hoodie or fleece indoors, good socks.

Electric radiator used in the room I'm in in the afternoon, no problem. Then light the log burner 6pm-ish until 10. The heat it gives off means if I open the door to that room [kitchen/diner/living room] the heat circulates into the other rooms and takes the chill off. Means there's no condensation or mould anywhere either.

I like a cool bedroom at bedtime, and I like to hug a hot water bottle on a really cold night.

The place is very well insulated. When I moved here there was no gas to the property and so I thought I'd see how I got on - and haven't looked back. And my electricity bill isn't too bad either.

BlueBelle

Hands up 🙋‍♀️ I have no central heating it’s an old Victorian town house (1874) 5 bedrooms, three floors, and old original windows 🤣so I layer up and have lovely thick throws, hot water bottles and big old thick fur hoodies
I don’t often get colds and I m used to it so it’s fine by me

That sounds like a pretty large house, BlueBelle, to keep heated.
We’re fortunate enough to have CH and a log fire, but do try to be economical. Our home is a modest three bedroomed semi, but can get quite chilly at times. I like cosy boot type slippers, a scarf around my neck, which is so effective, and warm layers. A hot water bottle in bed is a must. Plus, we have our lovely dog, who sleeps with us! He’s thoroughly spoilt, but adorable.

icanhandthemback

That's great if you can keep moving M0nica and Casdon. Not all of us can do that.

Appreciated, some people are chair or bed bound, so unable to move much. The thing is though, for most people, that when you’re cold the temptation is to stay still, under a blanket, or in bed, even when you are capable of moving around, but you actually generate more heat to keep warm when you’re doing something physical.

One small tip open curtains when it is daylight especially if there’s any sun, but close them as soon as daylight fades. I read this but not sure how effective it is. If the ch is on surely you want to close curtains/blinds to stop heat getting out?

I'm afraid I believe in my central heating. I get really cold and quite confused without it. I had hypothermia once on a Ramblers walk in the Lake District and it feels like the beginnings of that if I let the house get too cold.
I have asked Octopus to let me know if I am in danger of being in trouble with them as I like a toasty warm bungalow. Even if it's only part of it.

Depending how big your house is. I find a wood burner brings out so much heat.
In the 1960s my father used to take us to a pub that belonged to a mother and daughter. They had no central heating just used oil lamps.

Layer up, keep feet and neck warm. Slippers that cover the ankles - like boots are wonderful.

That's great if you can keep moving M0nica and Casdon. Not all of us can do that.

Due to a long, outrageous story featuring bad luck, an ageing system, poor workmanship and cowboy traders (which I won't go into), we lost our central heating entirely 3 years ago. Spent a whole year with no heating except for a couple of electric convector heaters and a mobile Calor gas fire. We gave in and installed independent electric heaters in every room (they look like slim, elegant storage heaters but don't rely on heat bricks inside). That was disruptive and colossally expensive (and also brought its own share of rogues out of the woodwork) but, now it's done and over with, we're glad we did it. Each heater is easily removable from the wall (unlike plumbed-in water- or oil-filled radiators) so we can take them with us if we move. Each one is separately programmable, so we can have however much heat we want where we want and when we want (different for each room). I can't say how much it affected us financially because energy costs went mad at the time we were changing over - the house is now all-electric (which has own drawbacks, but we're pretty well-prepared with emergency measures in place to cope with power cuts).
We both grew up in old houses with just a fireplace in each room (in my childhood home, the bedroom fireplaces were boarded up!) so we learned early on how to keep warm without mollycoddling!
1. Thermal underwear.
2. Lots of clothing layers (one thick jumper doesn't work anywhere near as well as three thinner ones).
3. Fleece beanies, gloves and socks.
4. Blankets (again, fleece ones are pretty good).
5. Hot drinks.
6. Common sense.
7. Using other buildings which were heated. Shove a trolley around a supermarket for an hour. Visit the library (heat, armchairs and something to read - how bad can that be?).
Use coffee shops that don't hassle you to leave after one cup (having a book, tablet and notepad makes a good image - they thought we were writers!).
During the fuel crisis, some people created a heat-sharing group, visiting each other's houses in turn for chat and dinner. Humans can be ingenious when the chips are down.

My house is always cold, its single brick, detached, Edwardian with big rooms, windows and high ceilings. Put like that sounds a bit grand, but isn’t.
Anyway I don’t know if it’s been mentioned already but I find wearing a scarf always helps. I also have blankets draped over sofas to use as necessary, am electric under blanket and thick socks and slippers. Best of all our wood burner is marvellous. I open the living room door and it drifts round the house, and it’s only a small 5 kg , well it was 5 something.

No Monica I don’t sit around ! I just wear warm layers and
I m not always in the house I volunteer three days a week go to the allotment, walk and generally do stuff