:00:00. > :00:13.Tonight, we are on the trail of the fuel thieves who're costing us all
:00:14. > :00:19.an extra ?30 a year. There we have another gas metre. All
:00:20. > :00:24.the power, be it gas or electricity used through the two metres, is not
:00:25. > :00:29.being billed, it appears. So they are getting it for free. For now.
:00:30. > :00:33.Also on the show, Johnny meets a man with no fuel bills and finds out how
:00:34. > :00:37.you can make your home more energy efficient.
:00:38. > :00:41.We can make some extra money by selling surplus electricity that we
:00:42. > :00:47.generate to the generating company. Wow. That's incredible. It's the if
:00:48. > :00:54.you chair clam now, that has got to be worth sticking around for. I'm
:00:55. > :00:59.Mary Rhodes and this is Inside Out. `` it's future! Pensioners'
:01:00. > :01:02.charities call it a national scandal, the thousands of older
:01:03. > :01:06.people who die every winter, not because they are ill, but because
:01:07. > :01:10.they can't keep warm. Anthony Bartram is in Stoke`on`Trent next,
:01:11. > :01:18.investigating the health risks of a cold home.
:01:19. > :01:22.Sara is at the Weather Centre... The temperatures plummeted. The cold
:01:23. > :01:26.is a killer that preys on the old. This time last year, almost 40
:01:27. > :01:31.people a day were perishing in our region, often because they couldn't
:01:32. > :01:35.keep warm. One or two neighbours died too
:01:36. > :01:40.early, if you know what I mean, through not being able to have their
:01:41. > :01:46.heating on an extra hour or two at night. Of course, we have to think
:01:47. > :01:50.about the pennies all the time. And what it's going to cost us to have
:01:51. > :01:54.the heating on. Everything's going up.
:01:55. > :01:59.31,000 people were ambushed and killed by the cold in Britain last
:02:00. > :02:04.year. 3,400 of them here in the West Midlands.
:02:05. > :02:06.That was a big jump, up by a third and pensioners' charities say it's
:02:07. > :02:11.about time something was done about it.
:02:12. > :02:14.Health professionals say the difference between life`and`death
:02:15. > :02:21.among the most vulnerable can be measured by a few degrees.
:02:22. > :02:26.Think about it. An evening, a very cold spell, an elderly person may
:02:27. > :02:30.have a minor stroke due to a spike in blood pressure, they'll call 999,
:02:31. > :02:37.get into the stroke unit, that's cost thousands of pounds, thousands
:02:38. > :02:46.of pounds. Less than probably the few, ?10 or ?20 or ?30 per night to
:02:47. > :02:53.be kept warmer. The high`rises in Stoke`on`Trent are draftee and hard
:02:54. > :02:57.to heat. I'm here to meet Reg and his wife Beryl who've lived here for
:02:58. > :03:01.years. A secretary of the Residents' Association, Reg knows the flats
:03:02. > :03:05.better than anyone. He puts on extra layers because the heating is off in
:03:06. > :03:09.half the rooms to save money. At 80 and 76, the Shaws are in the most
:03:10. > :03:14.vulnerable age group when it comes to coping with the cold. You worry
:03:15. > :03:22.for the future. The energy companies are just putting the heating up
:03:23. > :03:26.every year and it is a big worry. Could you afford to have the heating
:03:27. > :03:30.on much more than you are? No, no we can't. It could, but other things
:03:31. > :03:35.would suffer. We could spend money that we have to spend on food or
:03:36. > :03:39.clothes or whatever. We found another couple keeping a
:03:40. > :03:43.close eye on the thermostat. On the money Lawrence and Sheila Cooper
:03:44. > :03:47.have coming in, turning it up is a big decision.
:03:48. > :03:51.We've been on a low wage for, well, for as long as we can remember.
:03:52. > :04:01.There's loads of people that can't cope with it. I mean, we've got...
:04:02. > :04:08.We've cut down, sat with coats on in the chairs and everything else.
:04:09. > :04:11.Paying the bills is clearly a worry, but both couples think they're
:04:12. > :04:20.coping. I want to put that to the test. Or rather Professor Franco
:04:21. > :04:28.will do it for me. The internal body temperature naturally fall falls at
:04:29. > :04:33.night. You have to make sure that the external temperature's such to
:04:34. > :04:39.compensate for that and keep you at a stable temperature in the home.
:04:40. > :04:42.With help from the University Hospital in Coventry and the
:04:43. > :04:47.University of Warwick, we are keeping tabs on Reg and Sheila's
:04:48. > :04:50.blood pressure for the next 24 hours so see how it's affected by the
:04:51. > :04:55.temperature. The colder your temperature, the higher the blood
:04:56. > :05:03.pressure goes. We want to create more awareness amongst people that
:05:04. > :05:07.if you live in a cold environment in the winter, we might put ourselves
:05:08. > :05:11.at a greater risk of suddenly getting a heart attack or a stroke.
:05:12. > :05:17.In other words, temperatures can be a Trigger for these events.
:05:18. > :05:20.Yes. Both couples read the headlines, but what about the facts
:05:21. > :05:24.behind them. Allowing the temperature of your home to yo`yo
:05:25. > :05:30.could have the same effect on your blood pressure and that's dangerous.
:05:31. > :05:35.But for our experiment, we don't want Reg and Sheila to change their
:05:36. > :05:37.habits yet. There are recommended temperatures that you should be
:05:38. > :05:43.keeping your rooms at. Do you know what they are? No idea.
:05:44. > :05:47.Well, for your general living areas, it's 21 degrees Celsius, and for
:05:48. > :05:51.your bedroom, it's 18 degrees. Right.
:05:52. > :05:56.So Reg now knows what he should be aiming for, but back at Sheila and
:05:57. > :06:00.Lawrence's place, the ex`Grenadier Guardsman seems regimental about
:06:01. > :06:07.keeping that dial set to 14, four below the recommended minimum.
:06:08. > :06:12.I'm sitting here and I don't mean to sound rude. You're obviously used to
:06:13. > :06:15.it, but I'm a bit chilly. Yes, yes. We need to find a balance whereby we
:06:16. > :06:19.are comfortable. We have thermals. At the moment we are sitting here,
:06:20. > 9:59:24our fingers are slightly tepid. They soldier on, but wait until you