Currently on a rural sit in U.K. . Temperatures outside have been below zero at night with frost lasting for several hours after daybreak.
The Aga is lit , throwing out heat in the kitchen and throughout this very old house built in 1400s . We and the cats are warm and cosy . There are additional sources of heat should we want it , we could light one or both of the wood burners ( in the snug & living room ) with plenty of seasoned and split logs supplied . However this hasn’t been necessary as the Aga is providing heat, hot water , cooking our meals and drying our clothes . We even had to turn off the radiator in the bedroom at night because it’s too hot !!
Sadly there are not many sits there, but you can always go to Iceland. Most houses in Reykjavik have a window open in January for fresh air - letting the geothermal heat flow outside.
Do you guys ask HOs by message/video call about how warm their house is? Is there a subtle way of asking that you could suggest without making it sound like I’m some reckless heat-lover who will throw the thermostat up to 30 and swan around in my shorts?
Be direct then there can be no miscommunication.
If there is something that is very important to you a direct question is always the best way to ask. That goes for sitters and hosts.
I need good stable wifi. It’s always brought up in my initial video call. Then I know exactly what the situation is.
I have neighbours on 4 sides, that keep my apartment always at 15-16 C. I put on a fleece and extra socks and I’m good.
I haven’t run any heating yet this winter and although it’s really not very warm outside, I’m definitely not feeling cold. Although as others have said: dress for the weather. I’m feeling warm and toasty with my fleece on & warm socks at 15.5 C this evening
15 is way way to cold for most people. How do you layer your face up? You cant walk around the house in gloves and a wooly hat all day. Were pensioners but we won’t sit in the cold,at home or anywhere else after our experiences. My husband said it meant we wouldnt “go off” as quickly. Its a good job we could still have a laugh. Hey ho
Yes ! We have had 2 sits with the heating on for 1 hr twice a day,leaving one house temperature at 14 deg. We were very cold and very miserable. We will never do a winter sit again unless its somewhere very warm.
At 15-16 C (it doesn’t drop down to 15 C very often) there’s really no need for a hat, gloves, etc. It’s still a long way from freezing - the first signs of spring are often when the temperature reaches 15-16C and over!
I wear a fleece, extra socks and of course house slippers. I work from home and sit behind a desk a lot. It’s fine with me, but obviously you have to dress up for winter. It’s not the temperature to sit around in a shirt, but winter to me means putting on a sweater, pullover, or fleece inside.
When I grew up as a child, we had single pane glazing on the upper floor of my parents house and they would seldom run the heating in the bedrooms in winter. My childhood bedroom when going to bed was much colder than my apartment ever is these days at 15C.
@bluehorse some people would need to wear a hat etc at these temperatures. I rather hope that HOs who keep their home at these lower temperatures would reflect this in their listing in recognition that, for some sitters more accustomed to 21st century comforts, this is a sit they couldn’t apply for. I know from experience how uncomfortable a cold sit can be, and I’m someone who keeps their house on the cool side, wrapping up (I’m writing this wearing a woolly hat and winter slippers) instead of putting the heating on just yet.
How you live independently is up to you, whether as a host or sitter. Asking someone else to live as you do is what’s in question with sitting.
For hosts, there’s the option to charge for utilities, if mentioned at the outset. That allows sitters to opt in or out.
If everyone is aboveboard and communicates clearly, most problems are easily avoided when it comes to heating and cooling. People who aren’t transparent or direct end up creating many easily avoidable problems.
With utilities, some hosts might be in a jam financially. If things are that tight, asking a sitter to freeze or swelter isn’t reasonable. You can always figure out an alternative or not travel. That’s part of the trade-offs with having pets — you end up with responsibilities that are yours to solve. No one else is obligated to help you solve them. And it’s unethical to trick someone into sitting. That also risks the sitter leaving early, which becomes your problem, and you risk your pets suffering.
Absolutely! We didn’t expect to have any more pets and spent a couple of m8 THS in hotter climes. However, we unexpectedly have 2 cats so we’ve changed our life and stay home till spring. We can’t expect a sitter to cat sit if it’s not as warm as they’d like.
There are many different factors that will determine the perfect room temperature for your pet, such as breed, size, weight, age, coat type and their health. Generally speaking though, most domestic animals are comfortable with a room temperature of somewhere between 20 and 22 degrees. Generally, if you’re comfortable with the temperature at home, they will be too.
As a child I can remember scraping the frost off the insides of the bedroom windows in the morning. We only had a coal fire in the lounge as the sole heating for the house. It must have "hurt,"because i remember it so well. Thankfully now our place is newish,insulated to within an inch of its life and its quite reasonable to keep it warm as the heat stays in. Our last home,an old cottage,would have bankrupted us by now at todays fuel prices.
Logs! The burners are cosy but again,HO seemed to think 20 small logs will last 2 weeks in a cold,single glazed house. A few times ive had to buy bags of logs to tide me over to the end of the sit. Worrying the HO will be shocked I’ve used the few logs they left.
