[Louise Gaunt]

Another way to keep warm- sit with a cat on your knee! Apparently a cat generates, on average, 11 watts of energy. I regularly harness this energy to help stave off the cold, but they do get in the way a bit when I am knitting. Latest project is a fun fur Christmas tree for my daughter? I will post pictures when completed .

[happygolucky]

    sounds brilliant........I want a cat but not  until we have settled into a new home that's suitable.....I am off for a hot bath now!

[Spinningfishwife]

Our cats sleep on the bed with us when it gets cold. We used to have a lovely big fluffy cat that slept on my OH's pillow which kept OH's bald spot nice and warm. The latest kitten is a short hair and very lanky atm, he wants to sleep wrapped round my neck. This is not comfortable AT ALL, especially as he has a purr like a pneumatic drill. We have "discussions" about this at 4am. The other two cats are not daft, they sleep between OH and me under the top throw. It can get a bit crowded and they have the odd spat about the comfortable spot but they're great all-night hot water bottles.

[happygolucky]

We used to have our Patterdale dog in bed with us, mainly due to him howling so he kept us both warm and we kept him quiet....he was a cutie pie but he got run over sadly

[nicandem]

we don't have central heating, but have two woodburners. the things that made the most difference last winter was
1) fitted an Everhot stove into Kitchen (no door between kitchen and central room with stairs in)
2) Tempur mattres


The stove kept the kitchen at 14 degrees even at the coldest part of last winter ... its an uninsulated extension and the rest of the house was noticeably warmer


the mattress warms up so much faster than a standard one....1 5 seconds after getting in its toasty.... I put a quilt under the sheet in the summer as it gets too warm then 

[happygolucky]

Our stone house retains the heat (when we put the heating on) and every night we have a big fire and honestly, it gets roasting in our lounge very quickly. Ideally, I want a house where you can heat most rooms with some form of natural open fire or log  burner, we have seen a few in our price range but need to sell up first. I am not a fan of central heating but I know it keeps the chill from the rooms, I much prefer a cold bedroom than a warm one, unless you are ill, I have always got too hot in bed and when working or walking, its sitting down that makes me cold like others......Funny as yesterday was  horrid out yet the house was warm thankfully!!!

[Backinwellies]

Sat here with laptop on my lap ...... cooking!