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Life without mod. cons.

Which of the following have you ever lived without (in your home; not holiday house or temp. cabin etc). What was it like, as you remember it?

Piped water & plumbing
Mains/grid electricity
Central heat
Radio or TV signal
Telephone service

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

My first home (as I recall as we moved from it when I was only about five, in 1957) had no central heating.

Nor did the next although brand-new, and which we had to leave after only a year or so due to Dad's work move.

This brought us, in 1959, to a Council house also with no central-heating but about three years later still, our parents bought an Edwardian house that needed fully re-wiring and all sorts; and Dad installed central-heating in this. First with a back-boiler in an open, coal-burning fireplace; later, replacing the back-boiler with a separate gas-fired boiler augmented by immersion-heater for both heating and hot tap water.

All homes had mains electricity (via local distribution systems from the "Grid", not directly from the National Grid itself), water and sewerage, and gas.

They also had radio and TV coverage and could have had a telephone, but our parents did not have a television until some time in the 1970s, and a telephone not until a few years later still! (That was all before the development of portable radio-'phones.)

My first own house had no central-heating or telephone, but my parents paid for installing a telephone.

There was no technical reason there for my not having a TV, but I chose not to own one, and still have no TV. I use both land-line and portable 'phones: this comes to you courtesy of the former.

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What was it like? We always had the important facilities (water, electricity and gas), and could always listen to the wireless; but the homes without central-heating could be chilly in Winter!

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

@Really What was the fuel?

Really · 80-89, M

@ArishMell I'm not an expert in the subject - just giving my layman's occasional DIY home-handyman observations :).

Up to the 50s - 60's residential forced air was commonly heated by an oil-burning furnace in the basement or crawl space, and distributed by underfloor ductwork. Combustion was controlled on-off by a thermostat in the main room of the house. The fan must have been controlled by a thermostat within the furnace unit. Later, I think, wherever a natural gas distribution system was built, that became the fuel of choice. I lived for a while in a house with oil heating but where natural gas was now available from the street. When I needed a new water heater I 'went hybrid' and installed a gas one.

Thinking back I now recall that by the early 60s in B.C. there was a switch towards electric heating, often using baseboard units in each room. The provincial electric utility encouraged this with a special discounted price for that power. I suppose there must have been a separate meter for that.

Most newer homes now have heat pumps with or without ducted distribution.

It rained last night! First time in I think 80 days.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@Really Thankyou. It is interesting to see how may different ways to achieve the same ends there are and how they worked.

It's been very dry here in Southern England for several weeks now. There were warnings of possible thunderstorms, and still are for more Northerly regions; but all we had here were a few token spots of rain that came to nothing.

dancingtongue · 80-89, M

All of the above, except radio. My Dad had rigged a radio up to a car battery so we did have radio. No indoor plumbing, electricity until I was 6 when Mom and my brother and I moved into town so she could teach as part of the war effort. No telephone or TV until I was 14, 15.

What was it like? Thought little about it. It was the way all the neighboring ranchers lived as well. In retrospect, I miss the solitude. The lack of background noise and other intrusions, other that the bleating of cattle, the calls of wildlife. That and some funny stories, like Pop going into the front room every Christmas to light the fire and warm things up before the rest of us went in to open presents and always building too big a fire so the candles on the tree drooped and couldn't be lit. Later I put two and two together as that was when Santa came.

Really · 80-89, M

@dancingtongue The radio: in my case it was powered by an "accumulator" (glass battery) and it was my job to take that to the village post office every so often, where they had a generator and could charge it. Yes we had a 'parlour' that was normally unheated & seldom used. I had a little oil lamp to light my way upstairs to bed. I though that was magic. For some reason I associate that stairway with the the smell of aircraft 'dope'. Maybe my dad was making a model at the time. He made me a very detailed DH Mosquito and I wish i still had it.

Patientlywaiting · 46-50, F

Our central heating failed at Christmas and it was horrible, we had a gas fire but it wasn't pleasant. I like my creature comforts 😊

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

@Patientlywaiting They do but there is more to it than that. There is a lot of electrical and electronic equipment inside a modern central heating boiler.

Electric fan starts first: an air-pressure sensor switch verifies that is running, then turns on the gas (electrically-operated valve) and ignition (electric).

Another electrical sensor shuts off the gas if the ignition fails or the flame goes out unexpectedly.

Electronic / electrical timers and thermostats.

Electric circulating-pump.

Patientlywaiting · 46-50, F

@ArishMell see this is why I always play the clueless female card on this kind of thing 😂

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@Patientlywaiting LOL! I realised you are not clueless at all.

helenS · 36-40, F

I still don't have central heating, and I have no plans to install it in my house.
But I have an open fire! 🔥

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helenS · 36-40, F

@Really

whoever buys the place will wreck it and build new on the property

My house (and the lake) are not for sale. There was this foreign business man who wanted to buy it, and establish a big tourist complex here, hotel and everything, but we didn't sell, no matter how much money he offered. We are the guardians of the lake, and we do not sell. He was totally confused. First time in his life that he realized that money can't buy him everything. I said he can take a swim in the lake with me instead, but he declined, and that was a first for me too. Never before had a man refused to swim with me in the lake. Never before had I met a man who was just the personification of the money he owned.

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helenS · 36-40, F

@Strictmichael75 It was very strange to realize there's a man and he's not really a man, he's just his own money's robot. 😕

notyouraveragedummy

I've experienced all of those. It's not uncommon in this part of the country. Our apartment is all electric, you need electricity for all of those things, except water. The last time was in 2022, we spent a couple of days at my daughter's in a neighboring town.

Before that (before my daughter moved nearby), we spent the night at a hotel. At that time, I had an answering machine for a land line. After checking out of the hotel, we drove around the area, periodically dialing the home phone. We wanted to know if we'd need a hotel for another night. When the answering machine picked up, we knew we had power and we headed home.

In the northeast of the US, power outages are common.

Really · 80-89, M

@notyouraveragedummy Good idea about calling home to your answering machine. We have one of those but I never remember I can call it 'from away' & retrieve messages. And I'd have to remember the code!

With water supply, I was thinking if the local grid went down completely we'd be screwed; but on second thoughts, of course there will be emergency generators to run the pumps.

eventtemple123 · 22-25, M

Currently all of the above except phone service. I currently live in a cabin in the woods as a part of my job, but we have a central building with all of that. I love the lack of electricity because it's dark for sleeping and forces me to get off the internet. I do not like the lack of plumbing because if I really need to go to the bathroom, I need to run a lot further.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

My grandparents' farm had no running water and their electricity came from a wind turbine powered generator. I stayed there for holidays in the 1980s and 1990s. We drew water for drinking and cooking from a deep well. I can remember being bathed outdoors in a horse trough 😊

originnone · 61-69, M

none really...I've lost heat, tv, electric, but never plumbing....I don't have a land line for phone.

Really · 80-89, M

@originnone I've lived without those all at once but I was a kid and I didn't know it wasn't great. (I wasn't the one pumping the water, heating the washtub, scrubbing the clothes, hand-wringing etc. etc.)

Nowadays I have them all but my emergency fall-backs are the woodstove, the land line and hand-cranked radio. Not to mention the veggie garden. BUT water would be a problem if the power stayed out.

originnone · 61-69, M

@Really I live in an area that's bustling enough that there would be enough people wining that something would be fixed as soon as they could....or things would otherwise be so bad I'd probably die anyway....I do worry about not having a portable generator....

Fluffybull · F

Central heating, telephone.

SW-User

lived without electricity, telephone, radio signal for a week after a major hurricane

I don't recall if the water was flowing but I'm guessing we were not supposed to drink it if it was

central heat was not a problem, it was miserably hot and humid outside

a curfew was put in place as well

a crane company lifted a tree off of the roof

it sucked ... after a week we drove to a city two hours south to spend a night in a hotel and get showers, and when we got back home the power was back on finally 🤣

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