@Silversitters Thank you so much for your reply Silver. She wasn’t aware, and I should have said, but I met the PO one week before the sit and I mentioned that I feel a lot of cold. I am sitting in the UK, yes. I had 3 past sits in the UK, and all of the owners allowed me to use the heating whenever I wanted. I have also stayed in a house where it was 15 degrees outside and the POs turned the heating for a bit. I have the situation sorted here. Many thanks!
As an aside, I always understood that the Pet-Parent had to own the home they were advertising as available for housesitting - not renting it. Maybe I’ve got this stipulation mixed up with one on another site. The landlady here appears to be fine with it, in any case.
I disagree with you. Honesty should come both ways. I had no idea about the heating system and I trusted the description. How should I know it’s not good for me if I dunno the real situation?
I believe there could be a misunderstanding here.
I believe when a HO lists their property, they have to state if it has heating etc.
Our house also has Central Heating but it is NEVER on during the Summer months.
With the current costs of energy, I would think there are a lot of sitters and HO with the same mindset.
No, renting is fine as well.
@ICRag From what you’ve said, it sounds as though there is a heating system as advertised, albeit one that you have no control over. There will most likely be an internal thermostat somewhere which recognises when the temperature inside the house drops to 16 degrees, and at this point kicks in and switches the heating on automatically until the internal temperature reaches 16 degrees again. It has nothing to do with the external temperature. If you’re in the UK, 16 degrees inside a home would be pretty normal for this time of year.
If you have health issues which are affected by temperature, this is really something that you need to make home owners aware of and discuss in advance so that both of you can make an informed decision.
But my top tip for UK winter sits would be to look for those with an AGA! This is like a cooker that stays on permanently during the colder months and can be used for everything from boiling a kettle of water to warming up a newborn lamb, along with drying out soggy socks, wet dogs, and chilly house-sitters.
That would be how central heating in an apartment building in Finland would most often work. There is a central heating, but even the owner could not control when it will be on.
On the southern UK sit that I had last New Year, there was underfloor heating, but (possibly as the rooms had very high ceilings and it wasn’t possible to close the curtains on the huge single glazed windows), the place was seriously cold. I tried to learn how to use the log burner, and I sat around wrapped in a duvet. I won’t be going back there.
I wholeheartedly agree on the definition and this explanation about the inner working of central heating. Central heating simply means that the house is heated by an all-house system, not by individual heaters that one needs to plug in.
There are old multi-family units — condos, co-ops and apartments — like that in parts of the U.S. as well. It dates from when the buildings were built and not retrofitted / updated since. It’s a cheaper way to build.
It costs money to separate out utilities — the piping or wiring would need separating and individual thermostats and meters would need to be installed.
I think the sit does match the description or listing of utilities. There is central heating.
We all go through that stage. Reading this forum helps a lot to prevent some of those mistakes as we can also learn through others’ experiences.
Here’s a short tip to save you searching time:
When something is listed as utility it doesn’t always mean that you can use it or that you can freely use it. I know it should be like that but it’s worth checking on the most important requirements. Very often there are pictures showing rooms and appliances that are off limits for sitters or that are condos facilities not accessible to visitors, etc. Sometimes the owners ask for a contribution for utility bills or to pay for a significant increase in the bills. So it’s always worth asking a few questions before committing to a sit.
It’s also important to notice that there are huge cultural differences in assumptions about what we consider “normal” in a home.
In most apartments I have lived in or owned in Spain (including my present home) I can only turn on/ off up and down the radiators but I don’t get to choose the dates the system is turned on and off in the building or the times. It usually varies according to weather conditions and it’s off in the morning. In the apartment I rented in Paris and some I have stayed at in London, the building heating is on 24 hours a day during the colder season. In Paris, it was so hot inside that I got enough heating from neighboring apartments and had my radiators off all the time!
I hope you can find a way to feel comfortable. Charity shops are great in the UK and you can probably get extra blankets, clothes or even heaters really cheap.
I live in the Uk, and north and it’s not that cold here. Just checked the temp in my living room and it’s 15.5. My heatings not kicked in yet because it’s set at 15 but we use blankets in the evening. Currently, I’m sitting in the conservatory (unheated) and although not ‘hot’ not freezing either. It might be colder outside but I don’t intend to find out.
Is it set at 15° in the Winter too?
Thats really quite cold, Im in NE England and ours cuts in any lower than 18°
I did a sit in Glasgow in the winter and my host said she usually kept it at 17 or 18, which I found comfortable as well. I’d turn it down if I felt warm, as well as when I’d leave the home or go to bed. Sometimes I’d put on my coat to warm up briefly without needing to touch the heat.
To me, the more hosts who restrict heating in cold places, the more likely sitters might reconsider whether to do sits in places with cold falls or winters. Those hosts can end up hurting themselves and other hosts, because there’d end up being fewer sitters available.
Personally, I already avoid places that typically get snow in the winter. At home, we keep the heating on for our comfort and, if we had guests while we were gone, we’d expect them to be comfortable as well. And we don’t even leave our dog for them to take care of.
I’m in NE too and 3 miles from the North Sea. It’s not on in summer at all and won’t come on until the living room gets to 15* because that’s what we’ve set it to. Obviously, if we chose to go away and have a house sitter, we’d have to ensure it came on sooner which is why we aren’t going away during colder months.
@Elsa1
Brrrr, thats too cold for us
I’m amazed to read all the comments of thermostats set at 16° or even 15°! That’s freezing for me!!! And I am a Brit! But obviously not a very hardy one as I’m generally attracted to warm climates! Having lived overseas for decades I don’t remember England ever being so cold in September! We’re on a sit right now in a huge house (in southern England) which is under renovation. The large kitchen/diner has underfloor heating and gets up to about 21° and if sun is pouring in it might rise to 23/4- perfect for a tropical babe! The rest of the house has CH (radiators)which are not switched on and we are finding the house too cold and uncosy. The thermostat upstairs is showing around 18 most of the time but in such large spaces that feels cold (to me) Fortunately we have use of a small electric heater in our bedroom and lovely thick feather duvets. And I use a hot water bottle. So we spend our time either in the kitchen or under the duvet! Everywhere else is too cold. I could not live like this permanently…
@Lokstar I won’t ever take a winter sit in the UK based on the things I’ve read in these forums about extremely cold homes. I’m from a much colder climate than the UK, but we plan and budget for comfortable temperatures indoors despite having lots of snow outside. As much as I love the UK, if I’m to be there in the winter it will be in a hotel or Airbnb.
Obviously ‘cold’ is subjective. I’m from Scotland and find summers in England intolerably hot! Whereas, if you are used a much warmer climate (as the OP is), the temperature in England just now will likely seem comparatively freezing, even if it’s pretty standard for us Brits. Add in the fact they have a medical condition that responds unfavourably to cold, it could make for a very uncomfortable sit.
I hope you are benefiting from the heated blankets @ICRag.
I’m not sure I’m hardy, or that I really enjoy winter in England. It’s more a case of battening down the hatches and embracing it with a stiff upper lip. Around this time of year, some of the single-glazed sash windows get sealed with tape to prevent the draughts, my DIY secondary glazing gets set in place, and the layers of wool steadily increase until the chilliest part of the season, when I can regularly be found wearing three woolly jumpers, and sitting in a sleeping bag if working from home. Nights are spent clutching a hot water bottle, beneath a pile of blankets and a reindeer skin. It’s not exactly fun, more something that I’m resigned to. Casseroles and curries cooked in the slow cooker, muddy walks, log fires and general sogginess will be the theme for the next few months, until Spring rears its long-awaited head and we can all breath a sigh of relief and unstitch ourselves from the thermals that we’ve sewn ourselves into. Rule, Britannia!