Yet they are telling people to invest in air source heat pumps … another con for house owners who do not have sufficiently insulated properties. It has now been shown that the heat pumps are no cheaper to run than a decent serviced gas boiler system.
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That’s nonsense.
Thousands of people died through hypothermia and its effects. Housing conditions in the UK were, for most people, very bleak and very unhealthy until the mid 1970s.
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And the UK have become a net exporter to mainland Europe …
Probably about right as electricity is about 3x per kWh the price of gas and most heat pumps have a COP around 3 in practice.
Though if your electricity is coming from solar they are a very effective, zero COs way of heating your home.
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I grew up in the mid sixties to seventies in a house with no central heating - i remember the ice on the inside of the windows in the morning and the air brick in the wall where i could see the outside ! I am not convinced it was the cause of thousands of deaths
I was speaking in terms of immediate family, neighbours and friends. Yes I imagine lots of people do die in very cold properties but back then,no one thought to insulate, double-glaze or even do much about the cold, they just put up with it but now there is a lot you can do even without much money. I lived in an affluent country area so never knew what went on outside in the poorer city dwellings etc.
Argument from the position of personal incredulity is one of the weakest forms of argument in debate.
It is estimated that ~ 9000 deaths a year are attributable to cold homes
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Its not argument, its my opinion from my life experience - is that not allowed now ? Am i being cancelled 
When I was much younger, I watched a marvellous programme on TV about life as an eskimo… and how they kept warm in winter… I was very impressed.
OH is prepared for me to sew him into his winter warmers… 
Yes it is, the only debate on that facet being whether it is the five minute taster or the full 30 minute session.
We are having a discussion, you are stating your opinion, others are disagreeing with it.
Politely, of course 
Your life experience, indeed childhood from what you have said, involved extensive surveys of British families checking who died over the cold months and why did it?
How many people, outside your immediate family, do you know who have died?
Despite there being 6-700k deaths a year in the UK most people go for years without being aware of any of them, or dimly. Much less the cause, or how causes have changed over the years (not nearly enough by the look of it BTW).
Fortunately the statistics are collected so we do not have to rely on the “wisdom” of people who see one death every 30 years pontificating on the causes or thousands of people’s demise.
Sorry to be a bit sarcastic but this is not something that you can form reliable opinions on “from life experience” unless you are a statistician specialising in cause of mortality.
Of course it is, it’s just that your “opinion” is demonstrably wrong.
Not that I’d noticed
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Not sure if you’re talking UK or France… but I do know that in my Commune, we’ve had unscrupulous folk bombarding the elderly and trying to get them to sign-up for unsuitable heating products. 
There’s a scheme in the UK - £5k off an air source heat pump or £6k off a ground source pump. Can’t say I’ve noticed it being pushed much either by the government or installers (with or without a full set of scruples). Given that a decently sized installation can be upwards of £15k I doubt it is enough to make anybody change their mind that had not already decided to install a heat pump - and most minds will be focussed on their immediate energy bills anyway.
But apropos my previous point it’s difficult to know what is happening across the whole of the UK.
We spent a small fortune insulating every room (doing the kitchen now)in our house, re lined the walls insulated the floors insulated the new roof and even insulated the ceilings between all rooms, thermal shutters, double glazing, we obviously lost some space but don’t notice it now, the difference in the amount of wood we burn plus how cosy it is in all the seasons was certainly worth the time effort and of course the expense.
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I don’t appreciate your passive aggressive comments - my opinions are valid and mine I am not a person of high intellect or highly educated (a BTEC at a college) it doesn’t discount my opinion, except in your opinion. Have fun putting people down 
You opinions are yours, yes. No worries there.
However they are not “valid” in the sense of not being correct.
The simple truth, whether or not you accept it, is that extremes of temperature, especially the cold, cause deaths to go up and there are 10’s of thousands of “extra” deaths over the winter compared with the summer.
Cold weather kills, and it killed more in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s when houses did not have central heating.
Your direct experience of death cannot inform you of the cause of death across thousands of people and tens of years.
Add to that not just death but respiratory ailments exacerbated by damp - they have also reduced with improved housing standards.
You *could* pause, do a bit of reading, and see whether I am right, you don’t have to be of high intellect (as the 92 year old who passed his GCSE maths this year shows) - just to have an open and enquiring mind and be willing to check things out.
I do this for most of my posts in fact - the ones I am wrong about I generally reconsider and don’t stick my oar in.
I even supplied a link that you could start with.
But it seems it’s easier to complain that you are being “cancelled” - which you are not. I’m simply suggesting that you are wrong.
And not passively
I’m not putting you down either - you made a very valid point regarding gas vs heat pump in terms of cost. 100% with you there.
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For those who intend to heat/cook with wood…
Might I throw in a reminder for folk to get their chimneys swept before the onset of Winter…
There’ve been more than enough fires this Summer… in places where there shouldn’t have been… 
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One thing we do is to use the delayed start facility on our dishwasher, washing machine, and tumble dryer so that they operate between 3am and 5am when demand on the electricity supply grid is low. We also have a timer on the immersion heater so that it is only active between 3am and 7am which we find is perfectly adequate for our needs all through the day. By doing this we use around 56% of our total electricity consumption during the cheaper ‘Heures Creuse’ period which helps to keep our bill under control.
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When we moved to France, I honestly thought Heures Creuse was something particular to the department we were living in
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Since Covid times, it’s only been the 2 of us in the house, so we’ve already seen some changes to our lifestyle.
dishwasher: broken beyond repair before last Christmas… and we’ve survived so we’re not replacing. 2 kettles and manpower do the job once a day.
washing machine: used once/twice a week on economy cycle
tumble dryer: None. What doesn’t blow-dry outdoors finishes/drips in the bathroom.
there’s a lot more to sort out… but it’s a start.
EDIT: Of course large household will do things very differently… but for a couple, it’s amazing how frugal one can become…
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Ours is only on for about 1 hour a day and is piping hot. I do intend to adjust the thermostat on the immersion slightly lower as it is slightly too hot - if adjusted correctly it shouldn’t matter how long we have it switched on for as will automatically switch off when selected temperature is reached.