‘I live under rugs’: people try to keep central heating off as UK bills soar
Following the energy price cap rise on 1 October, many consumers are holding off putting the central heating on in an attempt to cut back on costs.
Five people in the UK discuss how rising bills are affecting them and the measures they are taking to try to keep warm.
It would not be unusual for Jo Love to have the heating on by now. The 64-year-old cleaner lives in a 200-year-old cottage in Pembrokeshire that gets damp easily, but this year she plans to hold out until the end of November. “I can cope without heating until the ambient temperature gets to 13C [55.4F],” she says. “There’s always moistness here and so when the house is not warm it gets damp.”
As a cleaner of holiday lets, Love’s work is highly seasonal; her income dramatically decreases over winter. To withstand the cold in her home she is wearing a dressing gown, puffer jacket and hat indoors. “I’m going to try my absolute damnedest to not have it on,” she says, adding that she is “taking it day by day”. “What I’m trying to do is use as little energy now so when it’s unbearable in January I can actually splash out – I will hopefully be able to build up credit. I’ve decided to only watch one hour of TV in the evening and go to bed at 8.30pm. I’ve never done anything like this before – it’s insane.”
Carol Ann Crawford, a 67-year-old dialect coach in Edinburgh, finds herself constantly watching the smart meter when she turns on an appliance. “Some behaviour is probably sensible, like only filling the kettle with enough water for one cup,” she says. “The TV uses up quite a lot which I hadn’t appreciated before.”
While Crawford would usually have the heating on by mid-September, this year she is planning to keep it off for as long as possible. “It really depends on
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