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Things that used to be common place in people’s homes

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swt_passenger

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The sea froze at Margate that winter, and my part of London, which was hilly, didn't get a proper bus service back for weeks, so no school!
I can see a three (four?) Yorkshiremen type sketch starting soon…
“We built an igloo in the front garden in 1963…”
 

MotCO

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I remember going into a mates parents farm house in the 90s & being very confused as to why they had curtains on the back of the lounge doors. Turned out they where to keep the heat in. I’d never seen anything like that. On cold days all rooms but the lounge in his house where absolutely freezing.

To what extent is it better to heat both sides of the door? Instead of heating a room with a cold hallway (or whatever) on the other side of the wall, which would cool the room down, you would have a wall which was warm on both sides, thereby keeping the lounge warmer.

In a similar vein, I've always thought that it was better to heat a house in winter on a lower temperature if you went away for a few days, rather than have no heating on. It takes forever to warm an unheated house in winter, and I'm sure the difference in heating costs would be marginal. (I've ignored the aspect of keeping heating on to avoid frozen pipes.)
 

dk1

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To what extent is it better to heat both sides of the door? Instead of heating a room with a cold hallway (or whatever) on the other side of the wall, which would cool the room down, you would have a wall which was warm on both sides, thereby keeping the lounge warmer.

In a similar vein, I've always thought that it was better to heat a house in winter on a lower temperature if you went away for a few days, rather than have no heating on. It takes forever to warm an unheated house in winter, and I'm sure the difference in heating costs would be marginal. (I've ignored the aspect of keeping heating on to avoid frozen pipes.)
I’m not sure apart from stopping draughts. Thankfully I’ve never had to suffer living like that. The rest of the house had a temperature akin to what my garage is, brrrr!!

Ice on the inside of windows was commonplace in the house I grew up in, as recently as the 1990s. Even with central heating.
You had to turn the heating on though lol
 

trebor79

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In a similar vein, I've always thought that it was better to heat a house in winter on a lower temperature if you went away for a few days, rather than have no heating on. It takes forever to warm an unheated house in winter, and I'm sure the difference in heating costs would be marginal. (I've ignored the aspect of keeping heating on to avoid frozen pipes.)
The increase is cost would be enormous. With the heating off while you are away the cost is zero. With the heating on, your just losing energy to the outside for absolutely zero benefit.
For years my wife was convinced leaving the heating on whilst away costs less than turning it off "because you don't have to heat the house up again". o_O
 

najaB

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The increase is cost would be enormous. With the heating off while you are away the cost is zero. With the heating on, your just losing energy to the outside for absolutely zero benefit.
That equation, naturally, changes significantly if the house is well insulated. Though on the flip side, a well-insulated house shouldn't get that cold over the course of a few days.
 

Busaholic

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I can see a three (four?) Yorkshiremen type sketch starting soon…
“We built an igloo in the front garden in 1963…”
I married someone from Lancashire in 1969, and she couldn't remember ever seeing snow lying on the ground for more than a few hours in Preston. Just don't like the myth that the Northern English are all necessarily incredibly hardy while Southern English are all effete. In my house, in Cornwall, it's always me that's turning the heating down, or off, and it's not for money reasons. Don't get me on the subject of Yorkshiremen.... :)
 

najaB

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I married someone from Lancashire in 1969, and she couldn't remember ever seeing snow lying on the ground for more than a few hours in Preston. Just don't like the myth that the Northern English are all necessarily incredibly hardy while Southern English are all effete.
Well, there's actually sound science behind that - the Pennines largely block warmer wet air from the Atlantic getting to Yorkshire and block cold dry air from the continent getting to Lancashire.
 

507020

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To what extent is it better to heat both sides of the door? Instead of heating a room with a cold hallway (or whatever) on the other side of the wall, which would cool the room down, you would have a wall which was warm on both sides, thereby keeping the lounge warmer.

In a similar vein, I've always thought that it was better to heat a house in winter on a lower temperature if you went away for a few days, rather than have no heating on. It takes forever to warm an unheated house in winter, and I'm sure the difference in heating costs would be marginal. (I've ignored the aspect of keeping heating on to avoid frozen pipes.)
In my house there is a very large radiator (which can no longer be turned off because the thermostat has been removed) on the other side of the lounge wall, while there are only very small radiators in there on either side of a bay window. The large radiator is however next to the front door, meaning hot air is lost when it is opened, but I suspect the wall itself remains warm and that heat radiates through into the lounge on the other side.

It is supposed to be cheaper to retain low level heating in an empty house in winter than repair damage caused by the average failure rate of frozen pipes.
 

trebor79

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That equation, naturally, changes significantly if the house is well insulated. Though on the flip side, a well-insulated house shouldn't get that cold over the course of a few days.
Doesn't matter how well insulated the property is, heating an empty property is a complete waste of fuel and money.
It is supposed to be cheaper to retain low level heating in an empty house in winter than repair damage caused by the average failure rate of frozen pipes.
Modern boilers and heating systems have an automatic frost protection function that will kick in should the temperature in the house drop below a threshold (usually 5 degrees).
There's no need to leave it set to come on at specific times.
 

najaB

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Doesn't matter how well insulated the property is, heating an empty property is a complete waste of fuel and money.
I didn't say it flips, just that it changes. If the house is very well insulated then the waste might be perceived as worth it.
 

GusB

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My parents did that (not anymore) though they still have a curtain behind the front door. Never really seemed to make much difference to be honest.
That reminds me of when we first moved to the village where I live. Many people had curtains behind their front doors, and actually left their doors open during the warmer months, presumably to allow a cooling breeze to flow. It's certainly something I haven't seen for years, probably because people are more security conscious these days. People didn't bother to lock their cars, either!

I also seem to remember that a lot of people had either bead curtains, or those with multicoloured, one-inch plastic ribbons, in internal doorways.
 

Gloster

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I have a bead curtain between the main kitchen and the utility corridor to the back door in the house that I have just moved into. No matter how carefully I adjust the tied-back curtain, every couple of days the end bead chain has managed to form a large loop that gets in the way, and I have to find it in the mass of chains and pull it tighter. At the back door there are strips of a plastic-type fabric about 4” wide hanging down, presumably to keep out insects. However, they have weights (plastic and only light) across the bottom to keep them hanging down and not waving in the slightest of breezes. Of course, every time you go through the door, the bottom of the strips wrap themselves around your ankles: I am going to flying one day.
 

najaB

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I have a bead curtain between the main kitchen and the utility corridor to the back door in the house that I have just moved into. No matter how carefully I adjust the tied-back curtain, every couple of days the end bead chain has managed to form a large loop that gets in the way, and I have to find it in the mass of chains and pull it tighter. At the back door there are strips of a plastic-type fabric about 4” wide hanging down, presumably to keep out insects. However, they have weights (plastic and only light) across the bottom to keep them hanging down and not waving in the slightest of breezes. Of course, every time you go through the door, the bottom of the strips wrap themselves around your ankles: I am going to flying one day.
There's a pretty simple solution to both of those problems...

Image of a screwdriver
 

MotCO

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Tin openers attached to the wall - operated by turning a handle.

In a similar vein, tea caddys screwed to the wall. They were like a mini-hopper - put tea in the top (a red clear plastic cylinder shape) and push a plunger to release one teaspoon's worth of tea into the teapot. Probably died out with the arrival of teabags.
 

najaB

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In a similar vein, tea caddys screwed to the wall. They were like a mini-hopper - put tea in the top (a red clear plastic cylinder shape) and push a plunger to release one teaspoon's worth of tea into the teapot. Probably died out with the arrival of teabags.
I've seen most of the things so far in the thread but that's a new one to me. When would you last have seen one?
 

MotCO

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I've seen most of the things so far in the thread but that's a new one to me. When would you last have seen one?

Probably 30 - 40 years ago. My parents had one before they redesigned their kitchen. Apparently it's called a Caddymatic. It looks like this:
1635162080579.png

Image of red and white Caddymatic tea leaf dispenser.
 

najaB

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Probably 30 - 40 years ago. My parents had one before they redesigned their kitchen. Apparently it's called a Caddymatic. It looks like this...
Interesting. I wonder if anyone makes a modern version, my mother's a fan of loose leaf tea.
 

MotCO

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Interesting. I wonder if anyone makes a modern version, my mother's a fan of loose leaf tea.

They sell used ones on eBay or Etsy for around £50 - £60! You could buy an awful lot of teabags for that.
 

GatwickDepress

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Probably 30 - 40 years ago. My parents had one before they redesigned their kitchen. Apparently it's called a Caddymatic. It looks like this:
View attachment 104586

Image of red and white Caddymatic tea leaf dispenser.
I vaguely remember seeing one of these boxed up in my grandma's attic, except it was in blue. I think little me just assumed it was an emergency light.
 

Ediswan

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Interesting. I wonder if anyone makes a modern version, my mother's a fan of loose leaf tea.
We had one. I can't find a modern version. There may be a good reason for that ! It was yet another kitchen gadget that seemed like a good idea at the time. Much easier to use a tea caddy and a measuring spoon.
 

takno

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[/QUOTE]
Sounds like a genius plan. I only saw a few years of real tea though before the rise of the ba
We had one. I can't find a modern version. There may be a good reason for that ! It was yet another kitchen gadget that seemed like a good idea at the time. Much easier to use a tea caddy and a measuring spoon.
I'd quite like one for instant coffee. Got to be greener than those fancy pouches Nespresso comes in.
 
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