My boiler broke back in November 2021 so I haven’t had any heating at all for a few months now.
Outside has been-2c to 5c (24f-41f) and inside as been 3c to 7c (26f to 46f) every day.
No heating and I am housebound due to my chronic illness and disability, so I am stuck in the cold every single day, plus the cold aggravates my pain and makes my withdrawals much worse.
I need a new boiler as the boiler we have was fitted in 2003 so it definitely needs to go.
It leaks plus no heat at all.
So old that it is apparently not worth the repair costs as the parts and work would cost a fortune as the parts are expensive as it is a very old model.
I am absolutely freezing every second of every day. I dread getting out of bed or moving as it is horrible. It is also apparently dangerous to live in such cold temperatures. My doctor was incredibly concerned, but there is nothing I can do as it costs money.
My hands and feet are white with red toes and fingers. The cold is painful and constant. Showering is like torture in the cold. It is just unbearable to be honest!
I have to still wash due to hidradenitis suppurativa which is a rare skin condition that I have to wash with special wash and apply topical treatments to twice a day so it is even harder to wash now.
This is a stone house with 2 foot thick stone walls, and stone is dreadful for keeping a house warm. It just looses heat through the walls.
Plus there is mould and damp from the gutter being broken and needing replacing which costs over £700 due to the building and has been broken for a few years now! It just costs too much to replace it.
Now with the boiler being broken too, I am stuck in the freezing cold every second of the day.
I have blankets, hot water bottles and a heated blanket but it is still freezing cold.
When you move to another room such as when I go to lay in bed as my pain is really bad or if I go to the toilet, you really feel the freezing temperatures! I am constantly freezing. Every second.
I have asked around every energy supplier, citizens advice, the council and there are no free boilers this year on the ECO scheme. There might be from April I think it is when the new ECO scheme comes into play, but for now there are no free boilers. Also when there are “free boilers” they aren’t actually free. There are some fees such as flushing the pipes for sludge which I will 100% need
.Instead this year, there are grants for heating pumps that cost around £15,000 and you can get a £5,000 grant so that is totally out of the question. Plus it is a listed building anyway.
Some examples from the energy providers saying no free boilers this year:
So I am stuck. No free boilers.
You can check yourself. I contacted so many and they all said the same. No free boilers this year. One actually worded it as though they ran out by saying there are no boilers left. So not sure if there is an allowance of a certain amount, but either way, there is none!
I found one scheme that is doing them with a 12 week wait if you are eligible, but they cost just under £400 in fees. Even they list it as a free boiler when it isn’t really. You have to had a broken boiler and have certain benefits, which I have. But that £400 is impossible to get!
I get just over £300 a month which isn’t enough to live on as it is so £400 it just impossible!
All the other issues that I have had are still there too. Broken gutter leaking water and causing mould and damp, water leaks through the windows when it runs down the walls every time it rains, I need a damp proof course on the ground level so mould on the ground floor and even upper walls too. But that job costs tens of thousands to get it damp proofed and the old plaster removed and re-plastered. And more. There is so much that needs doing.
But the heating is so important and I just can’t get it done anytime soon.
I have no relatives alive, can’t work & the £300 a month I get isn’t enough for living let alone anything else.
My life just has bad luck after bad luck. I can’t catch a break at all!
I can’t even get out of the house at all as I don’t have an electric wheelchair, although I am crowdfunding one on JustGiving but I am a long way from the goal!
So I am literally a prisoner of the house stuck in freezing cold on a benefit income that is below what you can live on, I can’t get anymore money and no one cares or will help me.
I have no idea how long I can cope in this cold every day. This plus all my other issues such as the mould and damp, is just too much.
Energy prices have risen 60% for me and are going up another 54%!! Today Rishi Sunak announced a repayable discount on energy bills that we have to pay back! How on earth is that helping us?
We are already choosing between heating or food and now that?!
This country is making it hard for me to carry on surviving! How much longer can I go on like this??
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Any help is greatly appreciated. I put lots of hours into the blog & don’t earn from it.
