Cost of living crisis.

[HighPeakFox]

3 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

The "death of faith in expertise" will have very long, very far-reaching consequences.

It's basically an extension of the hatred of intellectualism that has been rife for some time. 

[jgtuk]

4 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

 

Oh, but it is worth a debate, because it's being played out every day.

 

Of course, the very idea of social Darwinism whereby inequality is simply accepted as a "fact of life" is...well, horrible, but that doesn't mean that people aren't believing in and applying that idea every day and so the debate needs to be had.

Of course. I was referring to me specifically 👍. 

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

It's basically an extension of the hatred of intellectualism that has been rife for some time. 

I think that's existed for a very long time, but yeah.

[January48]

2 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

Well 

OK I'll put my head above the parapet.

I don't believe in absolute equality as people have different skills, work ethics, risk taking etc and this should be incentivised and rewarded.

However I do accept the notion of reducing inequality and maximising equality of opportunity.

[jgtuk]

1 hour ago, January48 said:

OK I'll put my head above the parapet.

I don't believe in absolute equality as people have different skills, work ethics, risk taking etc and this should be incentivised and rewarded.

However I do accept the notion of reducing inequality and maximising equality of opportunity.

I don’t think anyone is advocating ‘absolute’ equality. 

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

Thinking you have to live in a socialist society on the one hand and thinking billionaires and food banks and choosing between heating and eating are the only 2 opinions available is a bit… hmmm. Corbyn or trump or be damned.

[Ian Nacho]

My Victorian house (around 1900) is absolutely dreadful to heat at this time of year. I work from home and don't put the heating on until about 5/6 by this point the thermostat is reading around 6 degrees in some rooms. The heating will be on for a solid 3 hours and the temperature would've only gone up to around 9/10 degrees. The thermostat is set at 14 and it won't even get there tonight. I've got loft insulation and a modern boiler which has recently been serviced but it is just absolutely useless at retaining heat. Mad to think I'm spending hundreds of pounds a month this time of year to keep my house slightly less freezing than it would be without the heating. 

[Daggers]

On 27/11/2023 at 15:24, Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot said:

Thinking you have to live in a socialist society on the one hand and thinking billionaires and food banks and choosing between heating and eating are the only 2 opinions available is a bit… hmmm. Corbyn or trump or be damned.

Corbyn was a shit leader but he is not the polar opposite to Trump - that’s a lie that has been played out across the media and simply doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. He was just a twat, he isn’t the square root of a fascist. 

[Daggers]

Our food bank says demand is 65% up on last year.

 

I find myself living from day to day with ever growing levels of rage at those responsible.

[HighPeakFox]

7 minutes ago, Daggers said:

Our food bank says demand is 65% up on last year.

 

I find myself living from day to day with ever growing levels of rage at those responsible.

That's because they're utterly irresponsible.

[fox_up_north]

11 hours ago, Ian Nacho said:

My Victorian house (around 1900) is absolutely dreadful to heat at this time of year. I work from home and don't put the heating on until about 5/6 by this point the thermostat is reading around 6 degrees in some rooms. The heating will be on for a solid 3 hours and the temperature would've only gone up to around 9/10 degrees. The thermostat is set at 14 and it won't even get there tonight. I've got loft insulation and a modern boiler which has recently been serviced but it is just absolutely useless at retaining heat. Mad to think I'm spending hundreds of pounds a month this time of year to keep my house slightly less freezing than it would be without the heating. 

I'm in an 1890s end terrace. I do the same as you - put it on a bit to take the edge off but mostly just put under blankets..

 

I got solar last year and it meant that, after finally moving to Octopus SEG this summer, my energy "bill" for the months up to October averaged about £35 a month. 

 

I think insulation is the next on the list. The problem is that getting internal solid wall isn't cheap and finding companies who are reputable to do it, is even harder. I looked previously and managed to get ONE quote of £2400 per room.

[DennisNedry]

It's not surprising that the CMA has found certain manufacturers to be profiteering by raising prices above and beyond what was needed to cover rising costs. 

 

Our son is 2, I was buying Nappies for him the other day and was disgusted to see the baby formula we used to buy for him until he transitioned to cow milk, has gone from £8 to £12, and reduced in weight, just since 18 months ago.

 

How do the manufacturers sleep at night?

[SemperEadem]

12 hours ago, Ian Nacho said:

My Victorian house (around 1900) is absolutely dreadful to heat at this time of year. I work from home and don't put the heating on until about 5/6 by this point the thermostat is reading around 6 degrees in some rooms. The heating will be on for a solid 3 hours and the temperature would've only gone up to around 9/10 degrees. The thermostat is set at 14 and it won't even get there tonight. I've got loft insulation and a modern boiler which has recently been serviced but it is just absolutely useless at retaining heat. Mad to think I'm spending hundreds of pounds a month this time of year to keep my house slightly less freezing than it would be without the heating. 

Same boat at you, find it really tough the cold.

[grobyfox1990]

12 hours ago, Ian Nacho said:

My Victorian house (around 1900) is absolutely dreadful to heat at this time of year. I work from home and don't put the heating on until about 5/6 by this point the thermostat is reading around 6 degrees in some rooms. The heating will be on for a solid 3 hours and the temperature would've only gone up to around 9/10 degrees. The thermostat is set at 14 and it won't even get there tonight. I've got loft insulation and a modern boiler which has recently been serviced but it is just absolutely useless at retaining heat. Mad to think I'm spending hundreds of pounds a month this time of year to keep my house slightly less freezing than it would be without the heating. 

What!!!!!!!!!! You are living in single figures?! How the hell are you coping, I'd be dying. I'd live at work if it was that bad

[Ian Nacho]

2 hours ago, fox_up_north said:

I'm in an 1890s end terrace. I do the same as you - put it on a bit to take the edge off but mostly just put under blankets..

 

I got solar last year and it meant that, after finally moving to Octopus SEG this summer, my energy "bill" for the months up to October averaged about £35 a month. 

 

I think insulation is the next on the list. The problem is that getting internal solid wall isn't cheap and finding companies who are reputable to do it, is even harder. I looked previously and managed to get ONE quote of £2400 per room.

Also in an end terrace. I have thought about getting solar + internal/external insulation but it doesn't make financial sense given how long I'm planning on living here. 

[Ian Nacho]

1 hour ago, grobyfox1990 said:

What!!!!!!!!!! You are living in single figures?! How the hell are you coping, I'd be dying. I'd live at work if it was that bad

You soon get used to it. Your perception of what is cold and what is warm soon changes. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

12 minutes ago, Ian Nacho said:

You soon get used to it. Your perception of what is cold and what is warm soon changes. 

That's true - my brother lived for a couple of years in the basement flat of a Victorian house that had literally no heating at all, and he was fine with that.

 

Not much fun though. My 1929 is still bloody freezing, being that bit too old not to have cavity walls.

 

We put a layer of polystyrene behind a layer of plasterboard in the boy's bedroom when we had it re-skimmed and that makes a pretty significant difference if you can afford to lose about 2" of floor space 

 

 

[fox_up_north]

1 hour ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

That's true - my brother lived for a couple of years in the basement flat of a Victorian house that had literally no heating at all, and he was fine with that.

 

Not much fun though. My 1929 is still bloody freezing, being that bit too old not to have cavity walls.

 

We put a layer of polystyrene behind a layer of plasterboard in the boy's bedroom when we had it re-skimmed and that makes a pretty significant difference if you can afford to lose about 2" of floor space 

 

 

How big a difference did it make to the warmth? My house is almost directly north/ south facing. The rear of the house is like being in another season to the front, so I'm considering having the front 2 rooms given a layer of insulation. 

 

Is the cost of a few grand likely to be worth it in terms of warmth? I'm not bothered so much about the bills, more the fact it's bloody freezing no matter what!

[Bellend Sebastian]

Our house

11 minutes ago, fox_up_north said:

How big a difference did it make to the warmth? My house is almost directly north/ south facing. The rear of the house is like being in another season to the front, so I'm considering having the front 2 rooms given a layer of insulation. 

 

Is the cost of a few grand likely to be worth it in terms of warmth? I'm not bothered so much about the bills, more the fact it's bloody freezing no matter what!

Our house is east/west facing.

 

I'd say that room definitely retains the heat better than it did, but it probably helped in that it was the only exterior wall in that room. You can warm up any house if you're prepared to have the central heating blasting out for hours at a time (what my in-laws do, despite living in a well insulated gaff where you just don't need to) but that would be terrifyingly expensive in ours.

 

I should add that the outlay for what we did wasn't much - we were getting the room re-plastered anyway, so just got my carpenter to baton out the wall a bit, cut the polystyrene to fit the gaps and then screw plasterboard over the top, so it probably only added less then 200 quid to the re-plastering job cost anyway. If you got a professional insulation guy in I expect that would be loads more expensive, but possibly a lot more effective too. A good cheap fix though

[Footballwipe]

This is more an observation more than anything, but it's interesting to read comments about these older houses being poor heat-retention wise. The crew of people on the internet who would rather be homeless than live in a modern house don't put this in their narrative when they're cowing off about new-builds.

[kenny]

10 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Our house

Our house is east/west facing.

 

I'd say that room definitely retains the heat better than it did, but it probably helped in that it was the only exterior wall in that room. You can warm up any house if you're prepared to have the central heating blasting out for hours at a time (what my in-laws do, despite living in a well insulated gaff where you just don't need to) but that would be terrifyingly expensive in ours.

 

I should add that the outlay for what we did wasn't much - we were getting the room re-plastered anyway, so just got my carpenter to baton out the wall a bit, cut the polystyrene to fit the gaps and then screw plasterboard over the top, so it probably only added less then 200 quid to the re-plastering job cost anyway. If you got a professional insulation guy in I expect that would be loads more expensive, but possibly a lot more effective too. A good cheap fix though

It would have been worth spending a bit more on PUR rather than polystyrene if you decide to do any other rooms in the future. Its approximately twice as resistive to heatloss, so 50mm PUR is worth 100mm of polystyrene. Even better if its foil backed.

 

We bought our stuff from here https://www.secondsandco.co.uk/

[jgtuk]

50 minutes ago, kenny said:

It would have been worth spending a bit more on PUR rather than polystyrene if you decide to do any other rooms in the future. Its approximately twice as resistive to heatloss, so 50mm PUR is worth 100mm of polystyrene. Even better if its foil backed.

 

We bought our stuff from here https://www.secondsandco.co.uk/

I presume you mean PIR. It definitely has a far better U value than polystyrene. I’m in the middle of a refurb and have insulated the interior of every external wall in the house. I’ve used 100mm studding, plasterboard and skim, with 100mm insulation where possible, using insulated plasterboard (37.5mm) when not possible to use the 100mm stud. 
It’s certainly not cheap but has made a massive difference in retaining heat. 
Decent double/triple glazed doors and windows are equally effective. 
Doesn’t stop the kids leaving the outside doors open though 😡

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

I live in a Victorian house, is an end one. We have the heating on a lot, youngun has just turned 2 and have it on 14 through the night which is annoying but necessary imo when it’s getting to - degrees during the night. Have it at 18 during the day. We are paying 250 a month for gas and electric currently. 
 

my sister has a new build and it’s like it’s made from cardboard, is constantly absolutely freezing even with the heating on just seems to be drafts from

everywhere. The only thing more impressive than how much the price is going up with new builds is how is by how much poorer the build quality is.

[The Year Of The Fox]

8 minutes ago, Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot said:

I live in a Victorian house, is an end one. We have the heating on a lot, youngun has just turned 2 and have it on 14 through the night which is annoying but necessary imo when it’s getting to - degrees during the night. Have it at 18 during the day. We are paying 250 a month for gas and electric currently. 
 

my sister has a new build and it’s like it’s made from cardboard, is constantly absolutely freezing even with the heating on just seems to be drafts from

everywhere. The only thing more impressive than how much the price is going up with new builds is how is by how much poorer the build quality is.

Theoretically that shouldn’t be correct given the air test new builds have to pass

[dsr-burnley]

1 hour ago, Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot said:

I live in a Victorian house, is an end one. We have the heating on a lot, youngun has just turned 2 and have it on 14 through the night which is annoying but necessary imo when it’s getting to - degrees during the night. Have it at 18 during the day. We are paying 250 a month for gas and electric currently. 
 

my sister has a new build and it’s like it’s made from cardboard, is constantly absolutely freezing even with the heating on just seems to be drafts from

everywhere. The only thing more impressive than how much the price is going up with new builds is how is by how much poorer the build quality is.

Shows how times change.  My brother was born prematurely in December 1960 (before central heating for most people) and not only was the bedroom cold enough for frost pictures on the window, but also my parents were told to put him outside for an hour or so each day to strengthen him.  

 

14 degrees at night?  I'm surprised he or she can sleep at all.  Very warm.