My goodness, it's cold

T told us, when he picked us up in Enniscorthy, that there was a cold weather warning for the area.  We had turned our thermostats throughout the house to a "frost" setting, but W had looked at our power consumption app whilst we were away, and thought that we seemed to be using quite a lot of electricity, and wondered if the house would actually be warm.

It wasn't!  The frost setting had done what we asked.  Unfortunately, there is no way, as we have things set at the moment, to set a time limit so that we could switch on the heating before getting home.  So when we walked in the house, it was cold, very cold!  And of course, we are not habituated, having spent the last three weeks in tropical rain forest!

We have geothermal powered, underfloor heating.   It is the most efficient way of using electricity to heat the house, but it is certainly not "instant".  We normally do most of our heating at night, when electricity is cheapest.

Behind the temporary radiant heater and the fire screen in our lounge is an open fireplace.  Our vendors claimed it was pretty effective, our surveyor commented that it is set too far back, and probably loses a lot of heat up the chimney.  In any case, we haven't any wood, and haven't tried it.  We considered a woodburner as a replacement, but in view of concerns about particulate pollution from these, decided against one.  We will probably, when we get back into organising mood, try to arrange for the chimney to be swept and sealed, and fit an efficient modern electric fire in the fireplace.

So we dressed warmly, and cowered in the lounge with the heater on.  And when I retired to bed (at about 8.30) I put on a cosy nightshirt, a pair of thick slipper socks, and an extra blanket.

It was warmer by this morning, but still not quite warm enough for comfort.  It'll be fine by tomorrow.