central heating
"oooh but don't you want to be warm?" ... er, put on a jumper ...

"ooh but don't you want your bathroom towels to be all hot and snuggly from the radiator when you get out of the shower?" ... er, what are we now - five years old?

"but we live in britain, we *need* central heating!!!" ... yeah, like everyone who lived in a dwelling of whatever description prior to the latter half of the 20th century failed to survive beyond the age of two because of freezing to the cot in midwinter, QED we're not here because our ancestors died

"but i'd just freeze if all i did was sit on the settee watching the box all night in an unheated house!" ... i think i rest my case...
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Mon 19 Oct 2009, 11:29, 4 replies)

general agreement
I like to use the open fire instead, but towels that are warm and dry from the radiator on a chilly morning are one of the most civilised things available to us.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 19 Oct 2009, 11:35, closed)

An old housemate of mine
used to like the central heating on full power 20 hours a day from September until May. She insisted she needed the house hot enough to grow tomatoes in because she was "freezing", this is despite the fact that she was walking around in a vest top, shorts and barefoot.

As revenge I waited until she went into the shower one cold January night, turned the heating off and opened every window in the house. Half an hour of winter air left the house nice and frosty for her when she finally emerged from the bathroom.

I heard a scream and then footsteps running down the stairs and into the living room where she was greeted with the sight of two of us dressed up like Arctic explorers, hugging hot water bottles and drinking big mugs of tea.

"Why are all the fucking windows open?"

"We're hot..."

She didn't get it.
(Dai Napoleon, Mon 19 Oct 2009, 15:53, closed)

Well that's all fine
but don't imagine that houses didn't have *heating* before Central Heating. They just had lots and lots of coal fires. One in each room, often.

Try living in a house in Scotland with draughty single bloody glazing through the winter without either. Done that in 2 houses where the CH went 'bang' without much recourse, and one where the nearest coal purveyor was a *long* way away, and we didn't have a coal bunker.

They also had much smaller rooms, so heating a room was a lot quicker and easier than today's houses.
(MartinB9999, Mon 19 Oct 2009, 18:00, closed)

i'd guess that ...
... every house in scotland prior to the 1970s had draughty single glazing, surely?
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Tue 20 Oct 2009, 8:08, closed)